National Geographic tells us that trees, including the trees in parks and nature preserves, remove about 45 million tons of climate-warming carbon dioxide from the atmosphere annually. Another way to put it: they offset the pollution from about 10 million fossil-fuel-burning cars each year.
On a more local level, planting trees can drastically influence the climate of a single neighborhood.
That’s why it means so much that President Biden has shown a real commitment to trees — right from the beginning of his presidency. As Vox explained a couple of years ago,
2021 was a game-changing year for trees!
The year started out bleak for some of the nation’s most important forest ecosystems. The outgoing Trump administration slashed federal protection for Alaska’s Tongass National Forest — the world’s largest intact temperate rainforest — and finalized a rule to stop protecting more than 3 million acres of the Pacific Northwest that’s home to the northern spotted owl, a threatened bird.
Biden reversed these policies, and others, after taking office.
“We’ve now had 12 months to get us back to where we were in 2016,” said Aaron Weiss, deputy director at the Center for Western Priorities, a research and advocacy group. “I don’t know if you can call that progress as much as it is stopping the bleeding.”
But in January 2021, Biden also announced that the US would aim for “30 by 30” — a goal of conserving at least 30 percent of the nation’s land and water by 2030, which dozens of other countries have committed to.
“We’ve never seen a president make that kind of big conservation promise right off the top,” Weiss said.
This year also ushered in major pledges and financing for trees. At the UN’s big November climate conference in Glasgow, more than 100 global leaders vowed to end deforestation by 2030 — a commitment that governments and private companies backed with $19 billion. In April, a number of countries, including the US and Norway, also launched a coalition that will pay countries that can show they’re preventing deforestation.
And the Biden administration has kept it up. For instance, in December 2023, Biden took steps to keep America’s ancient forests safe.
Biden-Harris Administration Advances Commitment to Protect Old-Growth Forests on National Forest System Lands
The Biden-Harris Administration took new and historic steps this week to implement President Biden’s Executive Order to conserve and restore America’s mature and old-growth forests. America’s forests are a key climate solution, absorbing carbon dioxide equivalent to more than 10% of U.S. annual greenhouse gas emissions. This week’s actions include a first-of-its kind proposal from the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) to amend all 128 forest land management plans across the country to conserve and restore old-growth forests across the National Forest System.
As the Wilderness Society explains, old-growth forests are important for a whole variety of reasons. Global warming is one:
Forests full of big, old trees are highly effective at trapping climate-warming greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and storing it away. Indeed, a disproportionate amount of carbon is stored in the biggest and oldest of those trees, with the largest 1 percent of trees accounting for 50 percent of the aboveground carbon among all trees. [emphasis added]
But it doesn’t stop there. These forests also clean our water and air; support important habitat for wildlife; are cultural and economic bases for Indigenous people; and are worth billions to the outdoor recreation economy.
Closer to home, trees need our support too. In fact, there are major health and social reasons why we need trees and green spaces where our homes and jobs are. Joe Biden is responding to the challenge of making trees available to all.
Biden-Harris Administration Announces Historic Funding to Expand Access to Trees and Green Spaces in Disadvantaged Urban Communities
Newark, N.J., April 12, 2023 – Today the Biden-Harris Administration is announcing the availability of $1 billion in grants to increase equitable access to trees and green spaces in urban and community forests where more than 84% of Americans live, work and play. The announcement is part of President Biden’s Investing in America agenda and the Administration’s work to build a clean energy economy, advance environmental justice and create economic opportunity in communities across the country.
The funding announced today is part of a $1.5 billion investment in the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Forest Service Urban and Community Forestry Program from President Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act. The grant funding is available to community-based organizations, tribes, municipal and state governments, nonprofit partners, universities, and other eligible entities as they work to increase tree cover in urban spaces and boost equitable access to nature while bolstering resilience to extreme heat, storm-induced flooding, and other climate impacts.
National Geographic shows us in concrete terms why this action is important:
The surprising way that millions of new trees could transform America
The U.S. is making a billion-dollar investment in planting and maintaining trees across the country to combat extreme heat and expand access to nature. But the benefits go way beyond that.
When community groups planted 125 trees in two low-income neighborhoods in north central Detroit this past spring, changes were seen almost immediately. Residents began using the newly greened streets as a pedestrian corridor that allowed them to interact more with their neighbors. Trash collectors who routinely picked up garbage reported that littering had almost stopped completely.
“To me, it was validation that what we are hoping to accomplish with trees can and will work,” says Eric Candela, director of local government relations for American Forests, whose mission for more than 100 years has been to restore and protect the nation’s forest ecosystems.
In the next few months, Detroit will receive almost $10 million to plant more trees, along with many other cities and nonprofit groups in the U.S. that will get varying amounts to affect similar change. As part of the Inflation Reduction Act, the Biden Administration is awarding a billion dollars in grant money to, as NPR reported, "communities across the country to plant trees to combat extreme heat and increase access to nature" in cities and towns, where more than 84 percent of Americans live.
Is there still more work to be done? 100%! Lots more work. But Biden has done so much more than many people guessed could be done. He deserves a lot of credit. AND he deserves to be re-elected.
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These posts are written by Goodnewsroundup (Goodie),
edited by Matilda Briggs, supported by 2thanks and WolverineForTJatAW,
and reinforced by several other notable Kossacks!
As with all good things, it takes a village.