Taking steps to protect heritage trees
Want a single best answer to the question, “What can we do about climate change?” Answer: plant trees.
This past July, a study was published in Science magazine, with new scientific information suggesting that if there was “one solution” to climate change, it would be to plant one trillion trees. See: https:// science.sciencemag.org/content/365/6448/76.
The geographic area for a trillion trees covers an area roughly the size of continental USA and Russia combined. Obviously, this “one-solution” idea only underscores the importance of trees among a long list of necessary measures.
It is remarkable how much we have learned about the functions of trees in recent years. We now know that they talk to one another, communicating bad news when an insect or disease infestation arrives in a tree community. They support one another in ways that were previously unimagined, through interconnected roots and mycorrhizal fungi.
Environmentally, we know this for sure: our oldest and largest trees are performing yeoman’s service when it comes to producing oxygen, capturing carbon and filtering toxins out of rainwater. The big trees in your neighbourhood are working for you, today. The young ones are growing into the environmental workhorses of the next generation.
So why aren’t we doing more to protect heritage trees?
THE GOOD NEWS
The good news is that there is a heritage tree program in Ontario, managed by Forests Ontario in partnership with the Urban Forests Council. All you must do is log on to the Forests Ontario website and sign up a tree for consideration. https://www.forestsontario.ca/community/in-the-spotlight/ heritage-trees/
We think it is time for Canada, to create a designation for old, useful trees that are both culturally and ecologically significant.
This designation would slow down or halt the cutting down and disposing of a designated tree until it had finished its useful life. It would draw attention to the culture, maintenance and significance of old trees. Through education, the designation would help all of us understand how to nurture and protect heritage trees.
In the U.K., the Ancient Tree Forum designates that are not only valued and cherished, they have gone further. There is a designation there for (in order from youngest to oldest) champion, notable, heritage, veteran and ancient trees.
If you find the whole notion of heritage trees a bit daunting, have a look at the Ancient Tree Forum in UK, where they are leaps and pole-vaults ahead of us in this regard. When you understand their approach to the subject, it is easier for you to digest what can be done in our own backyards. British Heritage trees http://www.ancienttreeforum.co.uk/
Mark Cullen is an expert gardener, author, broadcaster, tree advocate and Member of the Order of Canada. His son Ben is a fourth-generation urban gardener and graduate of University of Guelph and Dalhousie University in Halifax. Follow them at markcullen. com, @markcullengardening, and on Facebook.