Trees—biggest and longest-lived of all plants—provide innumerable benefits to humankind and the rest of the biosphere. For one thing, they function as great carbon sinks: They absorb carbon dioxide, one of the Earth’s premier greenhouse gases, in order to conduct photosynthesis, the process by which trees generate their carbohydrate fuel. Recent evidence suggests areas of significant timbered extent, such as the eastern United States, may notably buffer against the large-scale emission of carbon dioxide from human industries.
Trees also provide significant habitat for a host of species, from bark-burrowing insects to denning martens. A forest stringer shouldering a stream and surrounded by open agricultural or developed land may function as an utterly crucial corridor for large mammals negotiating such inhospitable terrain. A tree shelters the nests of songbirds in the spring, provides resting roosts for migrants in the autumn, and services as scouting vantages for raptors year-round.
These magnificent plants also affect the microclimate of a given area—the localized characteristics of precipitation, wind, and other weather factors. By condensing water vapor on their leaves and twigs, and simply by shading from drying sunlight, trees can increase moisture under their canopies. This benefits a plethora of other plants growing at the base of the trunk. As every Great Plains farmer knows, a woodlot can provide a substantial wind break, too; during a big windstorm, the air in the understory interior of a large forest may be quite calm, protecting shrubs and herbs.
Just as significantly, trees are beautiful—and this aesthetic value should not be understated. There’s a reason community activists in inner-city labyrinths often initiate tree-planting events: It brings together neighbors for a productive activity while greening an otherwise concrete- and asphalt-heavy landscape (not to mention imparting some of the ecological benefits mentioned above).
All things considered, trees are one of the planet’s most valuable natural resources, and we’d do well to approach them sustainably. We’ll always use wood products, but a few simple choices can minimize the amount you personally use—and waste. Switching over to paperless billing is one easy idea: Do your banking online, for example, and cut down on all those updates, queries, and notices from your financial institution. Certain companies even reward you for going paperless.
Even in this age of email and smartphones, the sheer weight of junk mail you receive in your mailbox (the physical one) can still be staggering. Take the time to specially request that the offending companies remove you from their mailing list.
Using double-sided pages for printing can substantially cut down on wasted paper. So can requesting, at the ATM, that a bank send your transaction receipt via email or to an online message center, rather than printing out a paper copy you may scarcely glance at.
Our ever more versatile and powerful smartphones can play a role in tree preservation, too, in terms of cutting back on paper. These days you don’t need to print out directions; you can reference the map on your portable screen. The same goes, increasingly, for things like coupons; many smartphones and businesses allow you to pull up the discount offer on your handheld device to be processed.
These are all little steps, but, conducted routinely and by more and more people, they can have a big impact. The deepest message is not that our 21st-century, computer-technology society has no more use for paper, or that all paper products are inherently unsustainable. Rather, it suggests that paying more attention to where our products come from and how we use them is the right way to move through the world—for the sake of forests and all other resources we depend on. If printing that next report on double-sided paper gives you a moment’s reflection on the myriad benefits trees render for us, it’s been worth it on more than one level.
