The Value of Trees
Trees have long been valued as an asset and humans have benefited from their co-existence with trees for as long as they have been on this planet.
For thousands of years timber has been second to none as a building material and has provided shelter to people from ancient times right up to the present day.
Needless to say, the edible fruit of countless trees has been of immense value in providing nutrients and sustenance to people since the dawn of time.
But these are just the obvious benefits provided by our leafy wooded partners on this fragile planet of ours.
Ecologists are telling us with increasing urgency that we need to preserve what is left of our forests for the sake of our planet.
In fact many people consider that global warming is the greatest threat to our planet in history.
Mankind is responsible for the emission of vast quantities of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere which has resulted in the so called greenhouse effect, but people need to realise that one of the best ways of storing carbon and preventing it from going up into the atmosphere is to maintain our forests.
Tree expert, Dr.
Greg Moore, from the University of Melbourne, in Australia, explains that a large tree may weigh about a hundred tonnes, half of which is above ground and half of which is below ground.
About 80% of the tree is water, and the remaining 20% is made up of various chemicals, including 10 tonnes of carbon.
If this tree dies, then that carbon in released into the atmosphere, where it combines with oxygen and forms carbon dioxide.
A tree can store carbon for four or five hundred years.
There are other, perhaps not so well known benefits of trees, both in an urban and rural landscape.
In times of flood, vegetation growing on a river will slow the rate at which the water flows, meaning that less damage will occur downstream.
If the trees are lost to the riverbank then the flow of water increases and more destruction will occur downstream.
Trees also perform valuable functions in an urban environment.
Dr.
Moore explains that mature trees reduce wind speed which results in a reduction in the amount of stress on buildings.
They also help to control pollution by acting as filters, but perhaps the most surprising finding is that trees can actually help to prolong the life of roads and other asphalt surfaces in urban areas.
It is recognized that root systems of large trees can damage asphalt and concrete, but it is not so well known that the shade from large trees actually prolongs by three or four times the life of materials such as asphalt.
This shade also helps to prolong the life of paintwork on our homes.
Dr.
Moore believes that it is essential to ascribe a monetary value to trees.
He explains that people believe that we can simply replace them if they die, but maintenance is much better value because we have invested huge amounts of money in the trees over hundreds of years.
It seems that no matter from what perspective you are looking, trees are an increasingly valuable asset not only to us as individuals, but to the human race.
For thousands of years timber has been second to none as a building material and has provided shelter to people from ancient times right up to the present day.
Needless to say, the edible fruit of countless trees has been of immense value in providing nutrients and sustenance to people since the dawn of time.
But these are just the obvious benefits provided by our leafy wooded partners on this fragile planet of ours.
Ecologists are telling us with increasing urgency that we need to preserve what is left of our forests for the sake of our planet.
In fact many people consider that global warming is the greatest threat to our planet in history.
Mankind is responsible for the emission of vast quantities of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere which has resulted in the so called greenhouse effect, but people need to realise that one of the best ways of storing carbon and preventing it from going up into the atmosphere is to maintain our forests.
Tree expert, Dr.
Greg Moore, from the University of Melbourne, in Australia, explains that a large tree may weigh about a hundred tonnes, half of which is above ground and half of which is below ground.
About 80% of the tree is water, and the remaining 20% is made up of various chemicals, including 10 tonnes of carbon.
If this tree dies, then that carbon in released into the atmosphere, where it combines with oxygen and forms carbon dioxide.
A tree can store carbon for four or five hundred years.
There are other, perhaps not so well known benefits of trees, both in an urban and rural landscape.
In times of flood, vegetation growing on a river will slow the rate at which the water flows, meaning that less damage will occur downstream.
If the trees are lost to the riverbank then the flow of water increases and more destruction will occur downstream.
Trees also perform valuable functions in an urban environment.
Dr.
Moore explains that mature trees reduce wind speed which results in a reduction in the amount of stress on buildings.
They also help to control pollution by acting as filters, but perhaps the most surprising finding is that trees can actually help to prolong the life of roads and other asphalt surfaces in urban areas.
It is recognized that root systems of large trees can damage asphalt and concrete, but it is not so well known that the shade from large trees actually prolongs by three or four times the life of materials such as asphalt.
This shade also helps to prolong the life of paintwork on our homes.
Dr.
Moore believes that it is essential to ascribe a monetary value to trees.
He explains that people believe that we can simply replace them if they die, but maintenance is much better value because we have invested huge amounts of money in the trees over hundreds of years.
It seems that no matter from what perspective you are looking, trees are an increasingly valuable asset not only to us as individuals, but to the human race.