The Greenest Tree
Posted on January 10, 2008 - Filed Under Mother Nature |
Slate online has a great reoccurring section called The Green Lantern where people can write in and ask environmental questions. I was reading an interesting article today on The Green Lantern where a reader asked what tree should be planted in their back yard for maximum carbon-absorbing power. The idea that certain trees can clean the air better had never occurred to me, with the exception that the bigger the tree the more carbon the tree can process. But actually factoring in trunk size and the classification of a tree is a great idea. Factors that are taken into consideration can be how much fertilizer, if any, would this tree need? Or is the tree I want to plant native to the area and will ultimately live long enough to absorb a fair amount of carbon?
Any carbon offset is fantastic, but this article really shows how thoughtful consideration can take a good action and make it even more sustainable. For any tree-related questions you can go to The Arbor Day Foundation website where there is lots of great info about what the benefit of trees, how to plant and prune them, and a list of hardiness zones helping you find what trees work best in your area. I would also recommend their Trees in Celebration and Trees in Memory program. Instead of giving out wedding trinkets a few years ago, we donated money to foundation and they planted trees in honor of my deceased father since he couldn’t be at our wedding.
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