Reforestation Plans Require More than Saying “Plant More Trees”

Reforestation plans play a central role in global strategies to solve the climate crisis. Find out why simply getting millions of saplings into the ground doesn’t deliver long-term success.

Growing up, I remember noticing some very strange forests out the window of our family car. Every tree was the same, they were all lined up in exact rows at precisely the same distance from one another.

My dad explained that those were new forests that county workers had planted there by hand. When settlers like my ancestors came to this area, they thought every tree they saw was standing in the way of progress.

Pioneers spent most of their time on “the chopping,” along with burning the logs in massive, smoky bonfires people could see for miles. They let an unimaginable amount of what we would consider valuable timber go to waste.

Lack of Forests Caused Flooding and Erosion

After a century or so, local governments realized the lack of forests caused flooding and erosion. At the same time, timber had become scarce and valuable.