At first glance, forests and oceans look like contrasting ecosystems. One is a tree-filled biome on land, while the other is a saltwater-filled expanse covering most of our planet. But despite their differences, forests and oceans are strongly connected. They depend on each other to be healthy, especially with climate change looming large.
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As the impacts of climate change and other human activities become more and more severe, we must learn how best to protect forests so that they continue to sequester carbon. Understanding forests is the most important part of learning how to protect and maintain them, which is why scientists and researchers have arrived at an essential question: Why do old growth forests sequester more carbon than newer forests?
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As climate change continues to intensify and we approach the point of no return, it’s imperative to face the problem head-on, to truly look at it for what it is. Despite all the efforts made by activists, many countries show no signs of showing meaningful progress to alleviate the problem that is climate change as more and more forests are being cut down to be transformed into land for human development. It has gotten to the point where every second, a soccer field’s worth of forest—-1.76 acres—-is cut down (Carrington et al., 2018). Many of these trees can’t simply be replaced by planting new ones.
Have you ever wondered what connects trees and fish? On November 3rd, 2022, students from Tamalpais High School and Archie Williams High’s SEADISC program (Students of the Environmental Academy Doing Integrated Science Curricula) explored the fascinating connections between oceans and forests. Students met with representatives from three exciting organizations: WellKind, the Salmon Protection and Watershed Network (SPAWN), and the Archangel Ancient Tree Archive.
The Archangel Ancient Tree Archive taught them about seed banks and cloning old-growth trees, and SPAWN taught them how salmon reproduce through spawning. Then, those topics were combined. The students learned about how salmon bring nutrients up from the ocean, and how once they die after spawning, those nutrients are absorbed by the soil and tree roots, eventually aiding in tree growth.
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As Anton Chekhov once wrote, “Life on earth is inconceivable without trees.” His words ring just as true for oceans as it does for the land. It may not be obvious, but trees play a critical role in maintaining waterways and oceans.
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Ancient trees are classified as being far more matured than other trees in their same species. They help the environment in many ways: holding large amounts of carbon, purifying water, giving animals habitat, providing shade for soil, and offering food for many species (Brenna, 2016). Here are more reasons why we need to save ancient trees.
Want to get your students out of doors and learning science, ecology, nutrition, and more? On September 16th, WellKind will be accepting applications for mini-grant proposals from Sonoma County public schools that are creating or sustaining a garden or are taking on garden-related projects.
Our Garden Program partners with 23 schools, serving over 8,000 youth. Eighty-seven percent of our partner schools are supported by the federal Title 1 program, which provides funding assistance to schools serving large numbers of students from low-income families. Through the September 2022 mini-grant application process launch, we hope to reach even more schools and students as well as continue to assist schools that have received garden grants in the past.
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As flames from a 2018 wildfire encroach on Mendocino, local system personnel dwell over what to write in emergency messages. So much so that by the time the message is sent, the city’s cell phone towers are down, resulting in 56% of the 4,272 emergency alert calls failing, according to the Bay Area News Group (2019). During similar fires in Napa County, fire warnings were only received by residents who had opted-in to an emergency notification system, leaving many residents in the dark.
Longer and more severe fire seasons on the West Coast due to climate change have exposed a greater issue in many communities: a lack of a reliable, inclusive emergency communication system.
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Have you ever gone through the entire day inside, sitting, feeling depleted, yet when you stroll in a forest, you immediately feel improved? There's a science behind this!
In fact, forests do much more for human health than just improve our mood. The Muir Woods National Monument is just a 15-minute drive from Mill Valley, California and attracts over 300,000 visitors per year. Analyzing this forest in particular, you can tell it has impacted humans in many ways. Here are some ways that the Muir Woods can benefit human health:
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In the past decade, around 1 million oak and tan oak trees have been killed by Phytophthora ramorum – a pathogen just as scary as it sounds. Phytophthora ramorumm is responsible for sudden oak death, which is causing trees to break out in cankers that quite literally bleed sap. The pathogen infects trees through their oaks and causes them to rot from the inside out. This horrible disease is killing tanoak, coast live oak, shreve oak, and California Black oak from Humboldt county to Monterey county and some areas in Oregon.
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Over the years, our national and state parks have been regulated by committees with little to no citizen input on their regulations. Even more jarring to someone who cares about these parks is that the public is not easily able to access the information about these new policies.
In the Point Reyes National Seashore, about about an hour northwest of San Francisco, a new policy was passed (and to the little knowledge of the park goers and Point Reyes locals) that will change the course of the park and its main attraction, the tule elk population.
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Eliminating excessive fuels is typically done through the controversial method of tree thinning, but another problematic example of removing “fuels” is salvage logging.
Salvage logging is the process of harvesting freshly burnt trees after a forest fire for sale. It is a practice that has been highly scrutinised by many scientists and environmentalists. Disturbing decaying material, especially from a recently burnt forest, is a recipe for ecological disaster (Thorn, et. al, 2020). Despite the scientific consensus, since the aforementioned Executive Order 13855 was signed by President Trump, the Bureau of Land Management’s regulations around salvage logging have relaxed (U.S. Bureau of Land Management, 2020). This destructive practice has been continued by the Biden-Harris administration.
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Forest harvest and fuel reduction activities need to be reconsidered in favor of less intensive forest management and the conservation of forests, in order to reduce overall landscape carbon emissions. Even intensive land management methods which have positive short-term effects could drastically change with the increasing percentage of carbon dioxide being emitted as a result of those same practices, leading to irreversible consequences in later decades.
As a state, California will continue to face harsh wildfires in seasons to come. The way to slow down the density and size of these fires is to take on preventive measures prior to each fire season. This is includes limiting the amount of forest acres that are thinned and creating stricter rules and regulation on human-caused burns in regions where wildfires are prone to happen. We all want to live in a safe California for generations to come, which is why better regulations need to be set in motion that allow our state’s ecosystems to flourish.
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On September 28, 2019, the Los Angeles Times reported that due to wildfires, 16 California counties were without power that Monday morning. Later that fall, the counties faced another power outage, lasting three days. One year later, on September 25, 2020, residents opened their eyes to bright red-orange skies and pounds of ash that fell from the sky, creating a thick layer on cars and sidewalks.
In 2019, there were 7,860 wildfires in California. In 2020, there were 9,900 wildfires which burned about 4.3 million acres, twice more than the previous record of acres burned in California. In just a span of one year, wildfire rates skyrocketed, but why?
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