Climate change is driven by vast amounts of carbon being released into Earth’s atmosphere which then raises the temperature of our plant past what is deemed habitable. This is one of the greatest crisis we face. One simple and easy action everybody can take to help stave off this calamity is to plant a tree native to your ecological region. Trees (plants in general) capture carbon and thus remove it from the atmosphere. The more trees planted, the more carbon we will remove. There are added benefits as well. Native trees are hosts plants, sources of food and shelter for a vast multitude creatures that inhabit a given ecosystem thereby enriching the system and its biodiversity. Lastly, trees are beautiful.

Understand the ecology of the area and plant only what is appropriate. There are situations where trees are invasive and can be detrimental to the native eco-system. For example, the tall grass prairies are critically endangered and one of the problems is woody tree encroachment. In this habitat a great amount of carbon is stored underground in the vast root networks of these forbs. While fire does occur in prairie lands the majority of carbon is safely stored underground and thus not released, but prairies invaded by trees release a ton of carbon when burned.

Trees can live for hundreds of years. Maybe we should understand their wisdom and the importance of their role on the planet. Maybe that is better than treating trees as simple commodities.