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The Benefits of Planting Trees for our Planet

Why are trees important to the environment.

Trees help clean the air we breathe , filter the water we drink, and provide habitat to over 80% of the world's terrestrial biodiversity.

Forests provide jobs to over 1.6 billion people, absorb harmful carbon from the atmosphere, and are key ingredients in 25% of all medicines. Have you ever taken an Aspirin? It comes from the bark of a tree!

Here are the six pillars that explain why trees are vital:

Trees help to clean the air we breathe. Through their leaves and bark, they absorb harmful pollutants and release clean oxygen for us to breathe. In urban environments, trees absorb pollutant gases like nitrogen oxides, ozone, and carbon monoxide, and sweep up particles like dust and smoke. Increasing levels of carbon dioxide caused by deforestation and fossil fuel combustion trap heat in the atmosphere. Healthy, strong trees act as carbon sinks, offset carbon and reducing the effects of climate change .

A single tree can be home to hundreds of species of insect, fungi, moss, mammals, and plants. Depending on the kind of food and shelter they need, different forest animals require different types of habitat. Without trees, forest creatures would have nowhere to call home.

• Young, Open Forests: These forests occur as a result of fires or logging. Shrubs, grasses, and young trees attract animals like black bears, the American goldfinch, and bluebirds in North America.
• Middle-Aged Forests: In middle-aged forests, taller trees begin to outgrow weaker trees and vegetation. An open canopy allows for the growth of ground vegetation prefered by animals like salamanders, elk, and tree frogs.
• Older Forests: With large trees, a complex canopy, and a highly developed understory of vegetation, old forests provide habitat for an array of animals, including bats, squirrels, and many birds.

Trees help cool the planet by sucking in and storing harmful greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide into their trunks, branches, and leaves — and releasing oxygen back into the atmosphere. In cities, trees can reduce ambient temperatures by up to 8° Celsius. With more than 50% of the world’s population living in cities — a number expected to increase to 66% by the year 2050 — pollution and overheating are becoming a real threat. Fortunately, a mature tree can absorb an average of 22lbs of carbon dioxide per year , making cities a healthier, safer place to live.

Did you know that hospital patients with rooms overlooking trees recover faster than those without the same view? It’s impossible to ignore that feeling of elation you get while walking through a calm, quiet forest. Trees help reduce stress and anxiety, and allow us to reconnect with nature. In addition, shade provided by tree coverage helps protect our skin from the ever-increasing harshness of the sun.

Social Impact

From arborists to loggers and researchers, the job opportunities provided by the forestry industry are endless. We don’t just rely on trees for work, though. Sustainable tree farming provides timber to build homes and shelters, and wood to burn for cooking and heating. Food-producing trees provide fruit, nuts, berries, and leaves for consumption by both humans and animals, and pack a powerful nutritional punch.

Trees play a key role in capturing rainwater and reducing the risk of natural disasters like floods and landslides. Their intricate root systems act like filters, removing pollutants and slowing down the water’s absorption into the soil. This process prevents harmful waterslide erosion and reduces the risk of over-saturation and flooding. According to the UN Food and Agriculture Association, a mature evergreen tree can intercept more than 15,000 litres of water every year.

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Science News Explores

Let’s learn about trees.

These long-lived woody plants have benefits for people, animals — and the entire planet

There are some 3 trillion  trees on Earth, according to scientists’ estimates.

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By Sarah Zielinski

April 22, 2020 at 8:02 am

Trees have been around for some 370 million years. These long-lived woody plants can be found on every continent except Antarctica. Scientists have identified more than 60,000 tree species . And they’ve estimated that there are 3.04 trillion  individual trees  growing across the globe.

Trees provide homes for animals and shade for people on hot days. One of their big benefits is that they soak up and store the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide. Some people have suggested that planting trees could help to negate the impact of global warming. Researchers last year, though, warned that the easy and simple idea wasn’t so easy and simple after all . It would be difficult to plant enough trees. However, planting trees could help — if done thoughtfully, and in the right places.

Want to know more? We’ve got some stories to get you started:

As trees come down, some hidden homes are disappearing : A wildlife housing shortage is developing around the world among animals that depend on tree hollows (9/7/2017) Readability: 6.5

City living makes trees grow fast but die young : Urban trees may not remove as much carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas, as rural trees (6/18/2019) Readability: 6.8

Made in the shade : Agroforestry — combining woody plants with agriculture — yields many benefits (9/18/2015) Readability: 7.7

Explore more

Scientists Say: Chlorophyll

Scientists Say: Stomata

Explainer: Earth’s water is all connected in one vast cycle

5 things to know about the climate-saving benefits of tree planting

Practice your observation skills and identify trees in your neighborhood using this activity from the National Wildlife Federation . If you don’t have a handy tree ID guide, check out this online guide from the Arbor Day Foundation .

And if you can’t go outside to identify trees, learn about trees around the world , take the Leaf ID  quiz and read more about trees with this suite of activities  from the Arbor Day Foundation.

More Stories from Science News Explores on Plants

Experiment: Can plants stop soil erosion?

On hot summer days, this thistle stays cool to the touch

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• NEWS FEATURE
• 26 March 2024

The ‘Mother Tree’ idea is everywhere — but how much of it is real?

• Aisling Irwin 0

Aisling Irwin is a freelance journalist based in Oxfordshire, UK.

You can also search for this author in PubMed   Google Scholar

Forests in Canada were the backdrop for early experiments on whether trees can communicate through an underground fungal network. Credit: Andrew Lichtenstein/Corbis via Getty

You have full access to this article via your institution.

It was a call from a reporter that first made ecologist Jason Hoeksema think things had gone too far. The journalist was asking questions about the wood wide web — the idea that trees communicate with each other through an underground fungal network — that seemed to go well beyond what Hoeksema considered to be the facts.

Hoeksema discovered that his colleague, Melanie Jones, was becoming restive as well: her peers, she says, “had been squirming for a while and feeling uncomfortable with how the message had morphed in the public literature”. Then, a third academic, mycorrhizal ecologist Justine Karst, took the lead. She thought speaking out about the lack of evidence for the wood wide web had become an ethical obligation: “Our job as scientists is to present the truth, as close as we can get to it”.

Their concerns lay predominantly with a depiction of the forest put forward by Suzanne Simard, a forest ecologist at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, in her popular work. Her book Finding the Mother Tree , for example, was published in 2021 and swiftly became a bestseller. In it she drew on decades of her own and others’ research to portray forests as cooperating communities. She said that trees help each other out by dispatching resources and warning signals through fungal networks in the soil — and that more mature individuals, which she calls mother trees, sometimes prioritize related trees over others.

The idea has enchanted the public, appearing in bestselling books, films and television series. It has inspired environmental campaigners, ecology students and researchers in fields including philosophy, urban planning and electronic music. Simard’s ideas have also led to recommendations on forest management in North America.

It takes a wood to raise a tree: a memoir

But in the ecology community there is a groundswell of unease with the way in which the ideas are being presented in popular forums. Last year, Karst, at the University of Alberta in Edmonton, Canada; Hoeksema, at the University of Mississippi in Oxford; and Jones, at the University of British Columbia in Kelowna, Canada, challenged Simard’s ideas in a review 1 , digesting the evidence and suggesting that some of Simard’s descriptions of the wood wide web in popular communications had “overlooked uncertainty” and were “disconnected from evidence”. They were later joined by other researchers, including around 30 forest and fungal scientists, who published a separate paper that questioned the scientific credibility 2 of two popular books about forests — one of them Simard’s — saying that some of the claims in her book “do not correctly reflect, and even contradict, the data”. The article warns of “the perils of plant personification”, saying that the desire to humanize plant life “may eventually harm rather than help the commendable cause of preserving forests”. Another review of the evidence appeared in May last year 3 .

Simard, however, disagrees with these characterizations of her work and is steadfast about the scientific support for her idea that trees cooperate through underground fungal networks. “They’re reductionist scientists,” she says when asked about criticism of her work. “They’ve missed the forest for the trees.” She is concerned that the debate over the details of the theory diminishes her larger goal of forest protection and renewal. “The criticisms are a distraction, to be honest, from what’s happening in our ecosystems.”

Robert Kosak, dean of the faculty of forestry at the University of British Columbia, supports Simard and calls her “a world-renowned scientist, a strong advocate for science-based environmental solutions, an amazing communicator, mentor, and teacher, and a wonderful colleague”.

The dispute offers a window into how scientific ideas take shape and spread in popular culture — and raises questions about what the responsibilities of scientists are as they communicate their ideas more widely.

Conversation starter

In her book, Simard tells of an idyllic childhood, with summers spent in the ancient forests of British Columbia. While an undergraduate, she worked at a forestry company, witnessing clear-cut logging at first hand. The experience set the course of her career. On graduating, she took a government forest-service post, and joined the University of British Columbia in 2002. She still works there, running a research programme called the Mother Tree Project, which develops sustainable forest-renewal practices.

One of Simard’s earliest papers appeared in Nature 4 in 1997, describing evidence that carbon could travel underground between trees of different species, and suggesting that this could be through an underground fungal network. Nature put the paper on its cover and dubbed the idea the wood wide web — a term that quickly caught on and is now widely used to describe the idea ( Nature ’s news team is editorially independent of its journal team).

Tree leaves turn sunshine and carbon dioxide into sugars, and some of this flows to their roots and into mycorrhizal fungi , which grow into the root tip and donate water and nutrients in return. There was already evidence, from a laboratory study 5 , that carbon can move through the tendrils of the fungi that link seedling roots together. But Simard’s approach, a controlled experiment in clear-cut forest, was “groundbreaking”, says David Johnson, who studies the ecology of soil microbes at the University of Manchester, UK.

Forest ecologist Suzanne Simard’s 1997 study looked at carbon transfer between Douglas fir ( Pseudotsuga menziesii ) and paper birch trees ( Betula papyrifera , pictured). Credit: Steve Gettle/Nature Picture Library

She planted pairs of seedlings — one paper birch ( Betula papyrifera ) and one Douglas fir ( Pseudotsuga menziesii ) — close to one another. She shaded the Douglas fir to prevent it from manufacturing sugars. Then she bathed the air surrounding each seedling with traceable, labelled carbon dioxide. She found carbon in sugars made by the birch in the needles of the shaded Douglas fir. Smaller quantities of sugars from the fir were found in the birch.

A third seedling in each group — western red cedar ( Thuja plicata ) — which is not colonized by the same types of mycorrhizal fungi, absorbed less carbon than did the other seedlings. The results, the authors concluded 4 , suggest that carbon transfer between birch and Douglas fir “is primarily through the direct hyphal pathway”. That is, there could be an active fungal pipeline connecting the roots of both trees.

Over the years, Simard and other researchers developed in published work the idea that there could be a common mycorrhizal network in the forest soil, connecting many trees of the same and different species.

About a decade ago, Simard began to take the idea further, and into the media. In a short film called Mother Trees Connect the Forest , she said of forest trees: “These plants are really not individuals in the sense that Darwin thought they were individuals competing for survival of the fittest. In fact, they’re interacting with each other, trying to help each other survive.”

In 2016, in a TED talk that has had more than 5.6 million views , she portrayed forest trees as “not just competitors” — competition being foundational to the understanding of how ecosystems work — “but as cooperators”. Her 1997 experiment, she said, had revealed evidence for a “massive underground communications network”. Her later work, she added in the TED talk, found that some bigger, older “mother trees”, as she called them, are particularly well connected. They nurture their young — preferentially sending them carbon and making space for them in their root systems. What’s more, “when mother trees are injured or dying, they also send messages of wisdom on to the next generation of seedlings.”

Then came her book — a memoir and detailed account of her work. It has been praised for its vivid and personal depiction of the scientific life.

The book concludes that to escape environmental devastation, humans should adopt attitudes to nature that are similar to those of Indigenous people. “This begins by recognizing that trees and plants have agency,” she writes.

Simard has worked to change forestry practices in North America in line with her ideas, for example by sparing the oldest trees during clear-cutting so that they can provide an infrastructure for the next generation of planted trees.

Challenging ideas

But academics were increasingly concerned that the ideas and the publicity that they were attracting had moved beyond what was warranted by the scientific evidence.

The disquiet came to a head when the 2023 scientific review 1 was published. The authors, Hoeksema, Jones and Karst, have all collaborated scientifically with Simard in the past; Jones was an author of the 1997 paper. The review considers the evidence for popular claims made about the wood wide web.

‘We are killing this ecosystem’: the scientists tracking the Amazon’s fading health

Their review has drawn praise for its scholarship. It is “the gold standard of how one should tackle a contentious and important field”, says James Cahill, who studies plant behaviour at the University of Alberta.

Simard takes the opposite view: the paper, she says, fails to see the bigger picture, and its prominence is “an injustice to the whole world”.

The review laid out what the authors regard as the three key claims underlying the popular idea of the ‘mother tree’: that networks of different fungi linking the roots of different trees — known as common mycorrhizal networks (CMNs) — are widespread in forests; that resources pass through such networks, benefiting seedlings; and that mature trees preferentially send resources along the networks to their kin. The scientists concluded that the first two are insufficiently supported by the scientific evidence, and that the last “has no peer-reviewed, published evidence”.

Some elements of the wood-wide-web idea are not in dispute, they say. For instance, mycorrhizal fungi can latch onto multiple roots of the same plant; one species of fungus can connect with the roots of different species of plant; and mycelia — a cobweb of fungal tendrils — can spread over large distances.

But evidence for a CMN in trees — one in which an individual fungus links the roots of the same or different tree species — is patchy, the review authors say. There are well-documented CMNs that link certain plants together: some orchids use CMNs to connect with trees, for instance, so that the orchids can feed on tree sugars when they can’t make their own.

And lab studies have shown that a single fungus can link seedlings of different tree species. But, the authors say, the lab studies compare with the forest in the same way that human cells grown in a dish compare with human bodies.

The review authors found that the strongest evidence for a CMN among trees in the field comes from five studies published between 2006 and 2020 — some led by ecologist Kevin Beiler, when he was a PhD student in Simard’s group. Beiler, who is now at the University for Sustainable Development in Eberswalde, Germany, used DNA techniques to map the networks of genetically distinct fungi in patches of old-growth forest, and found that they linked many trees of different ages, all Douglas fir — and the larger the tree, the greater the extent of its connections.

Suzanne Simard is the scientist most closely associated with the idea of the ‘wood wide web’. Credit: PA Images/Alamy

But Karst says that this doesn’t prove that the fungus was simultaneously connecting different trees, because mycelia decay easily and the technique would have picked up strands that are defunct, as well as alive. And that arduous mapping exercise has been repeated for just two tree species — hardly grounds for generalization, she says.

So, do these common networks exist? “The consensus seems to be they are probably there but we do need more people to go out and map them at a fine scale to show that,” says Jones.

The second claim explored by the review is that resources travel through the CMN and benefit seedlings. It has three parts. The first — that resources do, by some means, travel through the soil between plants, commands some support, say the review authors. For example, they highlight research in a Swiss forest in which the canopies of certain trees had been bathed in labelled carbon dioxide. The experiment showed that carbon ended up in the roots of nearby trees.

But the authors say that proving the second two parts of the claim — that a CMN is the major conduit, and that seedlings typically benefit — is tricky. Lab and field studies often cannot rule out that resources moved through the soil for at least part of the way. The review highlighted three lab studies that directly observed carbon moving from one tree seedling to another through a mycorrhizal link, and these “are still the best evidence for the movement of resources within a CMN formed by woody plant species”, say the authors.

In the forest, the authors found 26 experiments reporting carbon transfer, but for each transfer, there was an alternative explanation for how the carbon travelled.

Some studies don’t look for a CMN but simply assess whether growing a seedling next to an adult tree improves its performance. For every instance in which a seedling benefited, the review states, there was another study in which its growth was inhibited. The results are “a huge smear from positive effects to negative effects and mostly neutral”, says Hoeksema.

The third claim is that mature trees communicate preferentially with offspring through CMNs, for example sending warning signals after an attack.

“When I heard that out in public I thought ‘Holy cow, that’s extraordinary’,” says Karst.

The team did find one lab experiment, published in 2017 and led by Brian Pickles, who did the work as a postdoc in Simard’s department, that found that if seedlings were related then more carbon was transferred between them. But it happened in only two of the four lineages of seedlings, and it happened even when fungi were prevented from making links with each other — suggesting that one fungus exuded it into the soil and the other picked it up, the researchers say. In the review, the authors write that, for the third claim, “there is no current evidence from peer-reviewed, published field studies”.

We must get a grip on forest science — before it’s too late

Karst says that one reason why ideas about mother trees and their kin have traction in the public domain is that Simard, in media interviews and her book, has implied that findings made in the greenhouse were actually made in the forest, making the evidence seem stronger than it is. Simard disagrees. “I do not, and would never, imply anything misleading when presenting research.”

Karst gives the example of a passage from Simard’s book that describes a visit to a field site made by Simard and her master’s student, Amanda Asay. In October 2012, Asay was exploring a question that is important for forestry — do seedlings stand a better chance of survival if they grow near their mother tree, and, if so, is this because they receive preferential help through a common mycorrhizal network? Asay had blocked such connections in control seedlings by planting them in mesh bags with pores too small for fungi to fit through. What she found in that forest experiment, Simard says in her book, matched the theory that trees help their kin through networks. “Seedlings that were [the mother tree’s] kin survived better and were noticeably bigger than those that were strangers linked into the network, a strong hint that Douglas-fir mother trees could recognize their own.” Yet, when the review authors accessed Asay’s master’s thesis 6 , they found that her field work had discovered the opposite: that more non-kin seedlings survived than did kin (although the trend was not significant). As for the role of networks, the thesis states: “Our hypothesis that kin recognition is facilitated by mycorrhizal networks, however, was not supported”.

When asked about the discrepancy, Simard says that Asay also did greenhouse experiments for her master’s thesis, which used pairs of older and younger tree seedlings, and showed that older seedlings recognized younger kin and sent them more resources than they did to non-kin. After that, Asay and others in the team did find evidence that “there are responses that clearly show kin selection in those trees”.

Simard says that, when describing Asay’s findings in the forest in 2012, she made a writer’s choice to situate other findings as if they were discovered in the forest on that day. “I situated the story in the field, because that’s where the question came from.” That description, she says, encompasses “the whole body of work”.

A spruce tree root with ectomycorrhizal fungi. Credit: Eye of Science/Science Photo Library

Asay’s subsequent work has not yet been published, for a tragic reason: she died in an accident in 2022. Her death was devastating for the group and publication stalled, Simard says. “We’re about to publish those papers,” she says.

Karst, Jones and Hoeksema’s overall conclusion is that CMNs do exist in the plant kingdom, and that resources can travel along them, benefiting at least one party, and sometimes both. In the forest, myriad mycelia extend through the soil that are capable of linking with trees, including those of different species. Whether they form a live thoroughfare, and whether resources travel through it between trees, has yet to be demonstrated in the field. Whether there are, in general, kin effects between plants was beyond the scope of their review, but the authors found nothing to support the idea that forest trees target kin through common mycorrhizal networks.

Their review also looked at the literature and found that some scientists have selectively cited and quoted from studies, boosting the credibility of the idea. The main problem, the review concludes, is not the quality of the science. “The most concerning issue is the rigour with which the results of these studies have been transmitted and interpreted.”

Rigour and reaction

Most of the response to the review has been positive, says Jones. “We got a lot of letters saying ‘thank you for doing that, it’s such a relief’. But I was really surprised how many of our colleagues said ‘you are brave’. That shouldn’t be, that you would have to be brave.”

But some researchers have taken issue with aspects of the review. Johnson disagrees with the team’s decision to exclude evidence for similar networks elsewhere in the plant kingdom, including between orchids and trees, and in grasslands and heathlands. It means, he says, they were “ignoring 90% of the work … our default position should be that we should expect mycorrhizal fungi to connect many plants”. It’s important, he says, to take a collective view of the evidence.

He agrees with the conclusion, however, that Simard’s idea of the cooperating forest is incompatible with evolutionary theory. “It’s all about the plants supporting each other for these altruistic reasons. I think that’s completely rubbish.”

Johnson’s view is that it “makes complete sense” that there are CMNs linking multiple forest trees and that substances might travel from one to another through them. Crucially, he says, this is not due to the trees supporting one another. A simple explanation, compatible with evolutionary theory, is that the fungi are acting to protect the trees that are their source of energy. It is beneficial for fungi to activate a tree’s defence signals, or to top up food for temporarily ailing trees. Pickles, who spent six years working with Simard before moving to the University of Reading, UK, says Simard’s ideas are not incompatible with competition, but give more weight to well-known phenomena in ecology, such as mutualism, in which organisms cooperate for mutual benefit. “It’s not altruism. It’s not some outrageous idea,” he says. “She certainly focuses more on facilitation and mutualism than is traditional in these fields, and that’s probably why there’s a lot of pushback.”

Other ecologists agree that there is some “polarization” in ecology between cooperative and competitive ideas. “The idea that perhaps not everything is trying to kill everything else is helpful,” says Katie Field, who studies plant-soil processes at the University of Sheffield, UK.

Regardless of the differences of opinion, Pickles says, “It’s good to have this rigorous analysis.”

Frustrating debate

Simard is exasperated by the debate.

Her work, she says, has “changed our whole world view of how the forest works”. There are now “dozens and dozens” of people “who have found that stuff moves through networks and through the soil”.

She says that the quality of her science has been unfairly challenged. To say that her 200 published papers are “not valid science, which I think is what they’re saying … that it was wrong … is not right,” she says. She is in the process of submitting responses to the critical papers to two journals, she says.

She says that she is unfairly accused of claiming CMNs are the only pathway for resources to travel between trees, and that she acknowledges other pathways in her papers and her book.

In media appearances, it’s hard to make that clear, she says: “It’s a very short period of time, and I don’t get into all those other evolutionary reasons for these things.”

Simard maintains that her critics attack her in the academic literature for imagery she has used only in public communication: “I talked about the mother tree as a way of communicating the science and then these other people say it’s a scientific hypothesis. They misuse my words.”

She argues that changing our understanding of how forests work from ‘winner takes all’ to ‘collaborative, integrated network system’ is essential for fixing the rampant destruction of old-growth forest, especially in British Columbia, where her research has focused. Indigenous cultures that have a more sustainable relationship with forests have mother and father trees, she says — “but the European male society hates the mother tree … somebody needs to write a paper on that”.

“I’m putting forward a paradigm shift. And the critics are saying ‘we don’t want a paradigm shift, we’re fine, just the way we are’. We’re not fine.”

Simard also says that Karst held a position partially funded by members of Canada’s Oil Sands Innovation Alliance that constitutes a conflict of interest. Extraction of oil deposits is associated with forest loss and environmental damage, and Karst was studying land reclamation after extraction. Karst says that she held this position until 2021, terminating it before starting work on the review, and that the work it funded did not overlap with the focus of the review on mycorrhizal networks.

Taking the research forwards will be challenging, says Johnson. Karst and her colleagues have produced an agenda for future field research — from mapping the genotypes of trees and fungi in a range of forests to using controls in experiments more stringently. But the agenda doesn’t impress Johnson. “It’s almost impossible to fulfil,” he says, partly because fieldwork is so fiendishly difficult.

Some scientists say that Simard’s popular work has had a positive influence on the field, even if elements of it remain controversial. Her work propelled the mycorrhizal research community from an obscure and underfunded field to one that excites the public, says Field. That has unleashed funding, stimulated researchers’ imaginations and influenced research agendas.

The backlash has further energized the community, she says. There are plans for a special edition of a journal she edits, and sessions have been added to the upcoming meeting of the International Mycorrhizal Society. All of this is helpful, says Field. “Anything that makes people think again and look again at the evidence is good.”

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doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-024-00893-0

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Reasons Living Trees Are Valuable

Trees help purify the air, water, and soil

Steve Nix is a member of the Society of American Foresters and a former forest resources analyst for the state of Alabama. 

• University of Georgia

Treehugger / Alexandra Cristina Nakamura

• Conservation

At the very beginning of our human experience, trees were considered sacred and honorable: Oaks were worshiped by the European druids, redwoods were a part of American Indian ritual, and baobabs were a part of African tribal life. Ancient Greeks, Romans, and scholars during the Middle Ages venerated trees in their literature. Dryads and tree nymphs (tree spirits) were important characters in many ancient Greek myths.

In more modern times, naturalist John Muir and President Theodore Roosevelt valued the wilderness, including trees, for its own sake, as they established the modern conservation movement and the National Park System and National Park Service. The modern human community values forests for their calming influence, as evidenced by the Japanese-influenced practice of "forest bathing" or "forest therapy." And people today have other, very practical reasons to admire and honor trees. 

Trees Produce Oxygen

Human life could not exist if there were no trees. A mature leafy tree produces as much oxygen in a season as 10 people inhale in a year. What many people don't realize is that the forest also acts as a giant filter that cleans the air we breathe.

Trees help cleanse the air by intercepting airborne particles, reducing heat, and absorbing such pollutants as carbon monoxide, sulfur dioxide, and nitrogen dioxide. Trees remove this air pollution by lowering air temperature, through respiration, and by retaining particulates.

Trees Clean the Soil

The term phytoremediation is the scientific word for the absorption of dangerous chemicals and other pollutants that have entered the soil. Trees can either store harmful pollutants or actually change the pollutant into less harmful forms. Trees filter sewage and farm chemicals, reduce the effects of animal wastes, clean roadside spills, and clean water runoff into streams.

Trees Control Noise Pollution

Trees muffle urban noise almost as effectively as stone walls. Trees, planted at strategic points in a neighborhood or around your house, can abate major noises from freeways and airports.

Trees Slow Storm Water Runoff

Flash flooding is already reduced by forests and can be dramatically reduced by planting more trees. One Colorado blue spruce, either planted or growing wild, can intercept more than 1,000 gallons of water annually when fully grown. Underground water-holding aquifers are recharged with this slowing down of water runoff. Recharged aquifers counter drought.

Trees Are Carbon Sinks

To produce its food, a tree absorbs and locks away carbon dioxide in the wood, roots, and leaves. Carbon dioxide is a "greenhouse gas" that is understood by a consensus of world scientists to be a major cause of global warming and climate change. A forest is a carbon storage area or a "sink" that can lock up as much carbon as it produces. This locking-up process "stores" carbon as wood so it is not available in the atmosphere as a greenhouse gas.

Trees Provide Shade and Cooling

Shade resulting in cooling is what a tree is best known for. Shade from trees reduces the need for air conditioning in summer. Studies have shown that parts of cities without cooling shade from trees can become "heat islands" with temperatures as much as 12 degrees higher than surrounding areas.

Trees Act as Windbreaks

During windy and cold seasons, trees located on the windward side act as windbreaks. A windbreak can lower home heating bills up to 30 percent and have a significant effect on reducing snow drifts. A reduction in wind can also reduce the drying effect on soil and vegetation behind the windbreak and help keep precious topsoil in place.

Trees Fight Soil Erosion

Erosion control has always started with tree and grass planting projects. Tree roots bind the soil and their leaves break the force of wind and rain on soil. Trees fight soil erosion, conserve rainwater, and reduce water runoff and sediment deposit after storms.

• 15 Astounding Facts About Trees
• 20 Reasons Why Forests Are Important
• What Are Carbon Sinks? How Do They Impact Climate Change?
• Drought Threatens Future Christmas Tree Supply
• The Surprising Beauty and Benefits of Driftwood
• How Does Mercury Get in Fish?
• What Is Silvopasture? Key Principles
• A Beginner’s Guide to Rainwater Harvesting
• 20 Reasons to Really Love Trees
• 15 Things You Can Do at Home to Help Solve Climate Change
• The Advantages and Disadvantages of Hybrid Poplar
• What Is Afforestation? Definition, Examples, Pros, and Cons
• How Does Groundwater Pollution Occur?
• Carbon Dioxide: The No. 1 Greenhouse Gas
• What Is Water Pollution? Sources, Environmental Impacts, Mitigation
• How Do Trees Reduce Noise Pollution?

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Essay: History of Urban Forests

Colonial woodlots.

Figure 1: Plymouth in 1622. Drawing by A.S. Burbank, from American Conservation, 1935

Although the United States government did not recognize urban forestry by name until 1978, the practice of cultivating and maintaining a communal forest for the benefit of all is as old as the nation itself. The practice began on a cold November day in 1620 when a band of wet, ill-nourished Mayflower passengers staggered up on the shores of an abandoned Indian settlement and renamed it Plymouth. By the end of the first year, the Pilgrim elders had designated land for house lots, the meetinghouse, parsonage, and cemetery, a central grazing commons, and the first "urban forest." The woodlot, as it was called then, was to be held in common-owned and maintained by all-to provide the raw material for heating, cooking, shingling, clapboarding, furnishing, fence-laying and road building, and the habitat for game.

Records of the early New England town meetings show they hired tree wardens who enforced the rules. "Every man that is an inhabitant of the Towne shall have Liberty to take any timber off the Common for any use in the Towne [provided] so they make not sale of it out". (Braintree, MA) "If any man shall find a Bee tree in any of our commons and shall sett the two first letters of his name on it faire in vew it shall be accounted his pries." (Farmington, CT) Every parsonage was assigned a ministerial lot, every school had meadow and forest. Even the almshouses had woodlots, enabling the poor to support themselves selling peg timber, shingles, posts, rails, bark and ship timber.

City Street Trees

By 1850, there were 20 million Americans, 80% of whom were living much the way the pilgrims did, entirely off the land. Over the next 70 years, rural towns would become cities, and cities would become metropolises and 70% of Americans would be making a living in city shops and factories. Reaction to urban conditions generated new ways of thinking about trees. From Henry David Thoreau, writer and philosopher came another sentiment: "We hear of cow-commons and ministerial lots, but we want men-commons and lay lots, inalienable forever. Let us keep the New World new, preserve all the advantages of living in the country. There is meadow and pasture and wood-lot for the town's poor. Why not a forest and huckleberry-field for the town's rich?" (Journal of Henry David Thoreau, Oct. 15, 1859.)

Figure 2: The Sheep Meadow in Central Park, with the Solow Building. Photo courtesy of www.wirednewyork.com

Post War America

Frederick Law Olmsted, landscape architect of New York City's Central Park, believed that trees and vegetation enhanced the morale and counteracted the anxieties of city life. A city park, he said, was to "provide a natural verdant and sylvan scenery for the refreshment of town-strained, men, women, and children." J. Sterling Morton, founder of Arbor Day, said on the 30th anniversary of the day in 1902 "Arbor Day is now one of the recognized institutions of the country. Every spring it directs attention to the interest that attaches to trees and gives instruction respecting the kinds and their cultivation." It was in this climate that many states passed bills allowing communities to use public funds for the planting trees. The cost of maintaining them however, wasn't provided for. In 1915, someone speaking for the "Trees of Newark" published a plea to change the policies (or lack of policies) that "...allow horses to bite us, linemen to cut us, builders to maul us, vandals to hack us and borers to tunnel us." At the time American troops were shipped oversees for WWI, urban trees suffered from horse bite. When the GI's returned after WWII, automobiles were the major threat to urban trees. With President Eisenhower's expansion of the interstate highway system through cities and towns, the easiest place to lay new road bed was through the preserved urban woodlands and parks. The increase in roads made it easier to abandon the city for the shady suburbs. This urban flight left the core of the city to languish along with its street trees.

In the mid 60's, urban centers contained bankrupted municipal governments, abandoned neighborhoods, crime, noise, pollution, and decreasing population. Ladybird Johnson voiced concern about urban blight and initiated a beautification campaign . "Getting on the subject of beautification is like picking up a tangled skein of wool," she wrote in her diary, "all the threads are interwoven, recreation and pollution and mental health, and the crime rate and rapid transit, and highway beautification, and the war on poverty, and parks-national, state and local." Following President Johnson's White House Conference on Natural Beauty, the U.S. Forest Service began championing a new kind of forestry specializing in the needs of Urban and Community Forests. The 1978 Cooperative Forestry Assistance Act officially recognized that urban and community forests "improve the quality of life for residents; enhance the economic value of residential and commercial property; improve air quality; reduce the buildup of carbon dioxide; mitigate the heat island effect in urban areas; and contribute to the social well-being and sense of community." For the first time, the U.S. government allocated federal funds to cultivate and maintain city trees. Ten years later, President Reagan again articulated the benefits that trees yield the nation "..in concrete deserts we lose touch with the real world of trees, birds, small animals, and plant life. We each need outdoor recreation opportunities close to home where they can be a part of our daily lives."

Urban Forestry

Since the passage of the Cooperative Forestry Assistance Act, research has proved statistically what many people feel instinctively-that cultivating and maintaining urban forests yields measurable aesthetic, economic and environmental benefits to Americans. Economic Value The city of Tallahassee, Florida, urban planners found that in one year, the existing tree cover saved the city $760,000 in energy savings, $2.6 million in storm water runoff reduction, $1.06 million in air pollution removal, and kept 784 tons of carbon dioxide out of the global atmosphere.

• Social Value Inner city neighborhoods in North Philadelphia  and Baltimore found that forestry helped soothe social problems. Clearing vacant lots of rubbish and creating mini-parks of flowers and trees united neighborhoods, eliminated eyesores and ran off drug dealers. They found that the psychic wounds of urban decay were cheaper to prevent than to repair.
• Ecological Value With the delineation of greenways preserving streams in new neighborhoods came an increase in the biological diversity of plants and animals. Increased biodiversity leads to increased ecosystem function. Increasing the number of functioning ecosystems is the only way to increase the manufacture of clean air, clean water, and clean soil.
• Aesthetic Value Hearing wood thrushes, watching chipmunks and observing rat snakes strengthens the imagination of children and diverts the attention of work-worn adults. The visual beauty of nature is key to the quality of life for all people.

As a result of research on the value of trees, the practice of urban forestry is no longer reserved for state and federal foresters. Urban forestry is now being considered by zoning, planning, parking, transportation, and city hall. In the future, we can expect to see Geographic Information Systems synthesizing data from aerial photographs, satellite images, and ecological surveys to generate efficient and precise strategies for planting and maintenance of urban and community forests. We can also expect to see an increased role for the citizen in the care of the nation's trees. By learning the history of forest policy, we become better able to draft and support forest policy that treasures urban and community forests.

We find ourselves again, like the Plymouth pilgrims, practicing stewardship over a woodlot that is co-owned and co-maintained by the entire community. In Plymouth "(a)ny inhabitant of the Towne has the liberty to take of the timber." But in our urban forests, instead of limbs and branches, we take the pleasures and benefits bestowed upon us by the trees.

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Importance of Trees Essay for Students and Children

500+ words essay  on importance of trees.

Trees are very important, valuable and necessary to our existence as they have furnished us with two important life essentials; food and oxygen. Apart from basically keeping us alive, there are many other little and big benefits we get from trees. So, trees are vital resources for the survival of all living beings. Therefore, Governments world over and many Organizations are taking steps to prevent deforestation and to tell the benefits of planting trees . Let us go through some important points about the Importance of trees for the existence of human life.

Oxygen and Global Warming

Trees intakes Carbon dioxide from air and breathe out fresh oxygen for our life support. This cycle is made by nature to sustain other living beings. Further, the Carbon dioxide breathed in by the trees is one of the greenhouse gases. This and other greenhouse gases, when released into the atmosphere form a layer and trap the heat from the sun. They result in an increase in the atmospheric temperature. This causes global warming . So planting more trees will clean the air will reduce the global warming effect.

Trees contribute to a rich healthy ecosystem. Animals, insects, birds, and fungi make their home in the trees and make a diverse ecosystem. This balanced environment, in turn, contributes to the betterment of human beings. Trees produce their own food and are found at the bottom of the food chain. They produce their own food through a process called photosynthesis and contribute significantly to the whole ecosystem. Further, trees are a rich source of medicines that are used to heal our diseases in a natural way as done Ayurveda.

Water Balance

Trees receive the rainwater and hold them in the land. This prevents clean water from flowing and getting wasted in drains. Along with it they also act as watersheds and hold the floodwaters for some time before slowly releasing them into the earth and atmosphere. So, they maintain the water base of an area and provides us with a water bed. The root system of the trees is so well made by nature that it holds the soil underground from getting washed away during rain and floods thus prevents landslides and soil erosion .

Get the huge list of more than 500 Essay Topics and Ideas

Healthy Life

Trees provide clean air, water, and food to us. Its greenery and freshness also act as a stress reliever for us. It gives a positive vibration in the atmoshphere. Trees also provide cool sheds during summers and during rains. Children also develop good memory when surrounded by green trees.Patients recover easily when comes in contact with greenery. There are a lot more things that tree provides us for ou better life.

Economy and Environment

Trees produce fruits, medicine which are exported in many countries thus helping in economic growth . Cultivating trees and selling their product helps people earn their living. Trees provide wood and paper. It also acts as a natural cooler in summer thus reducing Ac bills and keeping the environment natural.

Trees have a lot of importance in our lives, and it provides seamless service for the environment. we have somehow not protected them and perhaps that is why as on today we are being affected by global warming, severe pollution and other ill effects of deforestation . Trees should be treated and nurtured nicely so that human beings can survive on this planet. We should encourage others to plant more and more trees. It is for our own betterment and the sooner we understand this the better it is for us.

FAQs on Importance Of Trees Essay

Q. 1. Which is the largest tree in the world?

Ans: General Sherman, a giant sequoia, is the largest tree (by volume) in the world, standing 275 feet (83.8m) tall with 52,000 cubic feet of wood (1,486.6m).

Q.2. How much water can a large tree intake in a single day?

Ans: In one day, one large tree can lift up to 100 gallons of water out of the ground and discharge it into the air as oxygen and water vapor.

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• Importance of Tree Plantation Essay

Essay on Tree Plantation

Tree planting is recognised as one of the most engaging, environmentally-friendly activities that people can participate in to help the planet when done properly. Trees provide numerous long-term and short-term benefits. They not only look nice, but they also remove and store carbon from the atmosphere, slow heavy rain and thus reduce the risk of flooding, improve air quality, and reduce the urban heat island effect by reflecting sunlight and providing shade. Let us take a look at the long and short essay on tree plantation.

Long Tree Plantation Essay in English

When you plant a tree, you are not only planting a sapling but also hoping for the best. We have learned the hard way that trees are critical to our survival. We began by deforesting the earth to make room for more buildings. Later, when we saw the environment deteriorating, we were introduced to “afforestation,” a simple process of planting more trees for a better future.

Trees are essentially human and other living organisms' livestock. They have unconditionally provided us with food, oxygen, and a variety of other necessities for human survival, such as shelter, medicines, tools, and so on.

Despite their rich values and importance, trees are still not properly cared for. They are cut down, eradicating all forms of life in the surrounding area.

However, the relevance and importance of planting trees have only grown with each passing day. More trees must be planted as a collective effort by all of humanity to save our ailing planet.

As a result, we have our global Tree Plantation Day, which is observed on March 21st all over the world. The purpose of observing the said day is to make people aware of the importance of planting trees and to assist them in doing so. Planting saplings to invest in the future is a common practice on tree plantation days.

Deforestation has resulted in devastating floods and landslides. The significance of "tree plantation" can also be emphasised for forest conservation and wildlife protection. Wild animals are facing a scarcity of inhabitable forest areas as lands are cleared for farming and industrial purposes.

Because urban areas lack trees, they suffer from severe problems such as smog and polluted air. The “Tree Plantation” becomes a long-term solution to such problems. Vehicle exhaust, wood and coal combustion, factories and industries all emit hazardous pollutants and greenhouse gases into the atmosphere.

The Indian government is allocating funds through the Compensatory afforestation fund management and planning account (CAMPA) to carry out such massive “tree plantation” campaigns in both urban and rural areas. State governments are also taking extensive measures to improve forest and tree coverage. The Maharashtra government entered the coveted Limca Book of Records by conducting a massive "tree plantation" with the help of citizens and various Non-Governmental Organizations, planting 2.82 crore trees in a single day.

Non-governmental Organizations (NGOs) in India are taking proactive steps to encourage ordinary people to participate in “tree plantation” programmes and to raise awareness about the importance of tree plantation in combating climate change. Green Yatra, a Maharashtra-based organisation founded by Mr Pradeep Tripathi, has launched a programme called ‘Go Green Kids,' which provides free saplings to schools in both rural and urban areas of the state.

The Sankalp Taru organisation established a programme in a school in Barmer, Thar Desert, in 2013 to educate students and surrounding communities about the importance of "tree plantation." The organisation makes routine visits to ensure the health of the trees and provides irrigation and water to underserved areas. SayTrees is a Bengaluru-based organisation founded by individuals dedicated to preserving nature's ecological balance.

Our planet's ecological system is a shared responsibility of all citizens. The “importance of tree plantation” is becoming more apparent as we observe the deterioration of the forests and the ecosystem. The Indian government and various non-governmental organisations are working to raise awareness about climate change and other environmental issues. Massive “tree plantation” programmes must be implemented to address the current ecological issues.

Short Importance of Plantation Essay

Tree plantation is significant because it is linked to our basic need for good food to eat and clean air to breathe. Aside from these necessities, they preserve biodiversity, conserve water, preserve soil, and control climate, among other things.

Tree plantation is important because it provides fresh fruits, vegetables, nuts, and other foods for the survival of life on Earth. They are the producers and the source of food energy for all living things to survive, as they are at the bottom of the food chain. Aside from this basic need, tree plantation is important for humans to meet their medicinal needs, fodder for domestic animals, household tools, fuel, and so on.

Trees provide clean air for living beings to breathe and generate energy. The importance of plantations for a healthy life free of suffocation and pollution cannot be overstated, particularly in urban areas.

The importance of tree plantation in preserving biodiversity and balancing the ecosystem cannot be overstated. Trees provide a natural habitat for many different species. A diverse and healthy ecosystem revitalises the land and life on Earth.

Trees are also known for their ability to hold soil and prevent erosion. 

The topsoil of the earth is washed away by water during rain and floods. The roots of the trees play an important role in preventing erosion of the topsoil.

Because trees absorb carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, tree plantation is the most effective organic method for reversing global warming and preventing climate change. In recent years, particularly since the 2015 Paris Agreement on Climate Change, the importance of tree plantation has grown significantly in many countries.

Benefits of Tree Plantation

They are so valuable and significant that their applications have only grown to meet the demands of our modern lifestyles. Initially, the tree’s wood was used as fuel, and the fruits were devoured by people. The shade was utilized to keep cool in the summer and the fire was used to keep warm in the winter.

Here are some of the benefits that a tree plantation can provide: 

1. Importance in terms of ecology and environment

Trees provide a significant contribution to their surroundings by giving oxygen, sustaining species, improving air quality, saving water, maintaining soil and reducing climate change. It provides more than it gets by concentrating on its principal job of photosynthesis. Trees absorb carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and create oxygen for the surrounding living, breathing species. According to one research, one acre of forest may create up to 4 tons of oxygen while absorbing up to 6 tons of carbon dioxide, enough to feed about 20 people for a year.

This procedure involves not just trees, but also bushes and grass. Pollutants such as carbon monoxide, nitrogen dioxide, and sulphur dioxide are absorbed by them, purifying the air. The contaminants are washed away by the rain once they come into touch with the trees. The air in the atmosphere is managed and preserved as a result of this process, owing to the trees. One of the most important tasks of trees is to manage and modify the climate. To keep the climate under control, they mitigate the impacts of the sun, rain, and wind. The sun's rays are absorbed and filtered by the leaves, which assist to maintain a cool temperature surrounding it.

The most significant role of trees is to keep greenhouse gases at bay by lowering air temperature, maintaining low carbon dioxide levels, and thereby minimizing the greenhouse effect in the atmosphere. Aside from that, they keep the heat in by acting as a screen against strong winds, heavy rain, sleet, and hail. As a result, trees may control and affect wind speed and direction to maintain a balanced environment.

Trees serve an important part in the ecosystems in which they reside, whether above or below ground. The trees' extensive roots assist in keeping the soil in place and preventing erosion. The reason for this is that soil erosion is not a regular occurrence. They absorb and retain rainwater, reducing runoff and sediment deposits during big storms.

The herbivorous creatures can only survive on the leaves and fruits that the trees give. Elephants, koalas, and giraffes are just a few of the creatures that eat leaves. The blooms attract monkeys, while the delicious nectar attracts birds, bats, and other insects. Animals, like ourselves, ingest the fruits, which results in another process in which seeds are distributed across large distances.

Many creatures, birds, and squirrels live in them and prefer to keep hidden among the leaves to avoid predators. Trees are a crucial aspect of our environment and every living organism on the planet has a place in them. Many animals call trees home, and they live peacefully in them.

2. Contribution to the Community

Trees are an important component of every community and it takes a lot of effort to keep them that way. You may have noticed that trees border your streets, parks, playgrounds, and backyards because of their medicinal and life-giving powers. Trees provide a serene and tranquil environment, therefore human settlements are incomplete without them. The number of trees surrounding you can impact the quality of your life.

Trees provide natural aspects and wildlife habitats into urban areas, making them more desirable places to live. We all take advantage of the shade given by trees during the day for family picnics and afternoon outdoor activities. The relevance of planting trees and the quality of life in a community may both be enhanced by the presence of trees. Many ancient trees serve as historic markers and act as a source of pride for the community. Commercial buildings and pavements produce heat island effects in the atmosphere, while trees may deflect sunlight and significantly diminish the heat island impact.

3. Personal Well Being

Planting trees may also help people become better versions of themselves since it gives them a sense of accomplishment while also helping to safeguard the environment.

As they grow and develop with you and your family, trees play an important part in the development of one's youth and chronicle the family's history. People have an emotional connection with the trees they plant and form an immediate link with them. Because of our close relationships with trees, there are numerous organizations all over the globe dedicated to safeguarding and saving huge and historic trees from the dangers of contemporary development.

Trees have spiritual and religious significance in certain nations since they are regarded as equal to gods and are worshipped on special occasions. As a result, trees play an important role in forming our environment.

We recognise that one of the most serious issues in the current state is the devaluation of trees. To make our world greener and better, we must pay more attention to tree planting in the future. Individual contributions should be made first. We should also put a stop to tree cutting and remember that without trees, there will be no life.

The tree is very important in our lives. Everyone should be aware of the importance of tree planting and should motivate and encourage others to do the same.

FAQs on Importance of Tree Plantation Essay

1. What Do You Mean By Tree Plantations?

Plantation forests are a type of managed forest in which trees are planted (rather than naturally regenerated), of the same age, and generally of the same species, in order to maximise wood fibre production.

2. What is the Best Time For a Tree Plantation?

The best time to plant is in early spring, just as the ground thaws. Fall may be too late because trees will not be able to withstand freezing temperatures, which can damage roots and prevent moisture from reaching the tree.

3. How do trees nurture different animals?

Food, shelter, and reproductive sites are all found in trees. Trees are also used by many animals for resting, nesting, and hunting or capturing prey. A variety of birds and tiny animals, such as squirrels and beavers, find refuge and food in trees. Trees increase growth variety by creating an environment that permits the development of plants that would not otherwise flourish. Many diverse species use flowers, fruits, leaves, buds, and woody sections of trees.

4. What do plants teach children?

Watering plants, making sure they get enough sunshine, and even trimming may be done with their assistance. This also aids kids in developing a healthy relationship with the Earth and all of its inhabitants. Plants can even be used to teach the concept of respecting limits. I tell my friends that while we can gently touch the plants, they would also like some privacy. In addition, the tree-planting process teaches youngsters faith, confidence, patience, commitment, independence, and contentment.

5. How can trees help to keep our atmosphere clean?

By trapping particles on their leaves and bark, trees absorb smells and pollution gases (nitrogen oxides, ammonia, sulphur dioxide, and ozone) and filter them out of the air. By lessening the power of rain as it falls to the ground and storing water, trees assist to prevent runoff and ground erosion. They also absorb carbon dioxide (CO 2 ) and purify the environment by absorbing and storing the carbon while releasing oxygen back into the air.