Green things support life as we know it, but only recently has their ancient photosynthetic process been recognized as so essential in protecting our planet's climate future. Photo by Becky Nystrom

Last month, my column entitled “Warming Worries” addressed climate change and its disruptive threats to the seasonal symphonies now playing out in the wetlands, woodlands, fields, and forests of our Chautauqua watershed and elsewhere. And yes, there is cause for worry. Warming temperatures and extreme weather events are having insidious effects on a host of plant and animal behaviors and interactions, posing dire threats and disruptions to habitats, biodiversity, and the ecosystem services on which countless life forms – including people – depend. The 2018 Fourth National Climate Assessment () and the United Nation’s International Panel on Climate Change () reports warn that critical changes in human choice and action are urgently needed within the next decade to avoid catastrophic environmental harm, devastating losses to the natural world, food and water insecurities, and poverty and suffering for hundreds of millions of the world’s most vulnerable people.

While current behaviors, complacency, and climate science denial have set the world on course for a disastrous 3 degree C (about 5.4 degrees F) increase in warming, scientists warn it’s now or never to change our ways and restrict this global trajectory to no more than 1.5 degrees C (not quite 3 degrees F) if the worst of the warming consequences are to be averted. So what can we do??

What MUST we do?? Clearly, fossil fuel-related emissions must be steeply reduced, through both policy and carbon-capture technology, and renewable energy systems such as solar, wind, hydro, and geothermal must be more widely embraced. But nature also has answers and wisdom we humans desperately need. Nature gives hope. Healthy forests and other natural systems provide the most powerful and cost-effective carbon-capture systems on earth, through the photosynthetic uptake of carbon in CO2 from the air and water and its conversion to sugars and the release of the oxygen we breathe. hold the earth in place and reduce storm water runoff and erosion. They provide nesting and resting sites, shelter, and food for wildlife, and host countless life forms among their roots, trunk, branches, and leaves. Green things support life as we know it, but only recently has their ancient photosynthetic process been recognized as so essential in protecting our planet’s climate future.

According to the most comprehensive national assessment to date by The Nature Conservancy and institutional partners, 21% of U.S. greenhouse gases could be removed yearly by more sustainable management of forests, farmlands, grasslands, and wetlands, equivalent to the pollution from every single U.S. car and truck currently on the road! Of the 21 natural solutions analyzed, increased reforestation, conservation, and the planting of trees emerged as the largest means to achieve greater carbon storage, equivalent to eliminating 65 million passenger cars, and saving up to 337 million tons of carbon each year. Better management of existing forests, including longer periods between timber harvests and reduced-impact logging practices to protect the forest soil, could save another 294 million tons of carbon. A related study found that the average amount of carbon stored in mature streamside forests rivals the highest estimates for any other forest the around the world, including tropical forests. Prioritizing the restoration and conservation of streamside forest ecosystems thus not only provides substantial carbon storage but also enhances and protects water quality, fish and wildlife habitat, and recreational opportunities.

According to Han de Groot, CEO of the Rainforest Alliance, forests’ power to store carbon through the simple process of tree growth is staggering. On average, one tree can sequester about 48 pounds of CO2 in one year, while intact forests can sequester and store the equivalent of CO2 emissions of entire countries such as Peru and Columbia. the National Arbor Day Foundation notes that, in just one year, an acre of mature trees absorbs the amount of CO2 produced by a car driven 26,000 miles!

Ambitious new policies and incentives are therefore needed to conserve forests, foster reforestation of degraded land, reduce deforestation, and support sustainable forestry. The International Union for Conservation of Nature ( ) notes that the 37% of the mitigation needed between now and 2030 can be provided by nature-based solutions, and landscape restoration of 350 million hectares (~865 million acres) of degraded and deforested lands around the world could sequester up to 1.7 gigatons of CO2 yearly and yield approximately $170 billion in net benefits from watershed protection, improved crop yields, and income opportunities for rural communities.

If we care about the future of this planet, and the world our children and grandchildren will inherit, we must care about forests and other natural systems. Forests deserve our admiration, appreciation, restoration, conservation, and protection, not only for all the gifts they give, but also because they are intrinsically amazing ecosystems in their own right. Be sure to plant, care for, and nurture trees! Help CWC conserve and protect our local forests and other natural systems, and celebrate the many priceless gifts given freely by the green guardians of our water, land, air, health, and climate future.

Becky Nystrom is a Professor of Biology at Jamestown Community College, a founding trustee and former board director of the CWC, and a longtime CWC supporter and volunteer.

The Chautauqua Watershed Conservancy is a local not-for-profit organization dedicated to preserving and enhancing the water quality, scenic beauty and ecological health of the lakes, streams, wetlands and watersheds of the Chautauqua region. For more information, call 716-664-2166 or visit www.chautauquawatershed.org or www.facebook.com/chautauquawatershed.