By Kassidy Robinson, Environmental Communicator / UF Thompson Earth Systems Institute
Published June 20, 2022
Imagine you're strolling down a dense, canopy-covered road in Florida. Overhead, long live oak branches drenched in Spanish moss extend across the sky, creating a flickering of sunspots on the ground. Beneath your feet, deep roots shoot down from the trees, stabilizing the soil and slowly filtering water as it travels deeper into the Earth. As you breathe out, these massive trees breathe in.
Ever since the first photosynthesizing cyanobacteria evolved around 3.4 to 2.9 billion years ago, these microscopic bacteria began setting the stage for aerobic – or oxygen-breathing – life by removing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and replacing it with oxygen. The later evolution of trees and the rise of Earth's first forests around 360 million years ago continued to shape Earth as we know it. By sequestering large amounts of atmospheric carbon in their trunks, branches, foliage, and roots, trees provide us with clean air and essential wood products.
Forests also play a fundamental role in the water cycle by intercepting rainwater, regulating streamflow, and protecting water quality. Additionally, they provide a home for “60,000 different tree species, 80 percent of amphibian species, 75 percent of bird species, and 68 percent of the world's mammal species,” according to the United Nations Environmental Programme.
Even if you don't know much about trees, you've likely noticed how they keep our surroundings cooler. Think back to a hot summer day in Florida: where would you rather hang out to keep cool – a sunny sidewalk or an area shaded by tree canopy? Perhaps without realizing it, we all gravitate toward trees.
Yet deforestation and forest degradation are leading to a loss in tree cover in Florida and across the globe. In the midst of climate change, restoration efforts are aiming to restore the ability of these forests to store our carbon dioxide emissions and slow the rate of global warming.
But the trees can’t do it alone.
According to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, the world has lost around a billion acres of forest since 1990. While approximately 31% of the Earth remains forested and the rate of deforestation has slowed over the last three decades, between 2015 and 2020, we lost nearly 25 million acres of forest globally.
One Tree Planted, a nonprofit organization focused on global reforestation, states that the typical tree absorbs an average of 10 kilograms of carbon dioxide per year for the first 20 years of its life. To put this into perspective, in 2020, each person in the U.S. emitted an average of 13,680 kilograms over the course of the year.
"The truth is that we can’t plant our way out of climate change – we have to reduce or eliminate our use of fossil fuels,” said Timothy Martin, a professor of tree physiology at the University of Florida.
“But in the short term, forests can help act as a ‘bridge’ for reducing atmospheric CO2 until we can implement changes in our energy systems."
FLORIDA’S FORESTS: PROVIDING A COOL REPRIEVE IN A SWELTERING STATE
Florida's Indigenous Peoples have relied on the state’s trees for thousands of years. The Archaic Period in Florida, around 5,000 years ago, saw the development of the state’s cypress tree swamps and hardwood forests. Using the wood of these trees, Indigenous Peoples began creating new technology including canoes from hollowed out logs and more effective spears with the use of atlatls – sticks fitted into the shaft of a spear. This ancient connection with trees continues today as many of us live in homes built from wood, write on paper, and eat the nuts and fruits from a multitude of tree species.
However, since 1900, development, tourism, agriculture, and mining in Florida have been drastically altering the landscape. The state’s wild spaces have been fragmented, degraded, and cleared; invasive species have been introduced, and the state’s natural resources have been polluted and overused.
Throughout the 20th century, lumber was one of Florida’s largest industries – taking advantage of the state’s old growth longleaf pine and cypress forests. Oftentimes, the land was abandoned after tree removal, leading to the depletion of most of the state’s old-growth forests by 1930. Efforts by the Florida Forest Service to replant former old-growth forests with faster-growing loblolly and slash pine aimed to combat this loss.
"The forestry practiced in Florida for wood production right now is sustainable,” Martin said. “What that means is that using current approaches, plantation forests can deliver wood and other products in perpetuity, without depleting the ability of the ecosystem to deliver ecosystem services in the future."
Today 50% of the state is covered by forests, 38 of which are state forests, meaning they are protected from being developed. But in one of the world’s top tourist destinations, the threat of urbanization and development continues to loom over Florida’s trees. According to Global Forest Watch, Florida lost 27% of its tree cover since 2000.
To combat this, restoration efforts – both in urban and natural forests – are increasing. Across Florida, 176 communities currently qualify as a Tree City USA community. This designation means they maintain a tree board or department, have a community tree ordinance, spend at least $2 per capita on urban forestry, and celebrate Arbor Day. As of 2020, around $98 million has been spent on urban forestry management and more than 67,000 trees have been planted across these Florida communities.
By providing shade and evapotranspiration, or the movement of water through plants and into the atmosphere, this urban reforestation helps reduce what is known as the heat island effect. The heat island effect is a phenomenon in which urban areas are usually warmer than their rural surroundings due to less vegetation and more manmade surfaces. In summer, trees and other plants can help reduce peak temperatures by 2–9°F.
With more trees providing shade and wind protection, less heating and cooling is needed for buildings, therefore lowering energy consumption from fossil-fuel based power plants.
In 2021, Florida Agriculture Commissioner Nikki Fried announced the Sequestering Carbon and Protecting Florida Land Program, which will provide $10 million for landowners to plant trees on their property. According to Fried, in the next five years the program has the potential to sequester 69,000 tons of carbon, which is the equivalent of taking 3,000 cars off the road each year.
“Florida is one of the states most vulnerable to climate change, fueled in part by Florida producing the nation’s third-most carbon dioxide emissions. We have a powerful tool to sequester this carbon right in our backyard with 17 million acres of forests across Florida,” Fried said in a press release.
However, the complete restoration of forests is more than just planting more trees. Proper restoration requires the maintenance of tree diversity, removal of underbrush competition, controlling of invasive species, and the return of the forest to a more natural composition and structure. In Florida, prescribed fires play a large role in restoration by recycling nutrients back into the soil, controlling invasive species, and carefully reducing vegetative fuels that increase the risk of uncontrollable wildfires.
Martin emphasizes that the benefits of forests "are provided by a wide range of forests, from longleaf pine-wiregrass savannahs, to wetland forests, to junky urban forests in vacant lots, to intensively managed pine plantations."
The Future of Our Forests and Climate
Using forest restoration as a "bridge” for reducing atmospheric carbon will require action to be taken on a global scale. The Bonn Challenge, launched by the Government of Germany and International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) in 2011, has set out to restore 350 million hectares of degraded and deforested lands by 2030. To get a sense of how much forest must be restored, one hectare is roughly equal to the size of 2.5 football fields.
Currently, 70 pledges from 67 countries have been made to restore 210 million hectares of degraded and deforested lands. According to the World Resources Institute, 23 million hectares of this land must be restored annually to reach that goal.
In 2021, 11.1 million hectares of tree cover were lost in the tropics alone. This loss included 3.75 million hectares of tropical primary rainforests – releasing an amount of carbon equivalent to India's annual fossil fuel emissions.
If the Bonn Challenge’s goal is met, up to 1.7 gigatons, or roughly 3.7 trillion pounds, of carbon dioxide could be stored each year, putting us on track to meet the objectives in the Paris Agreement, according to the IUCN. Restoring tree cover and stopping deforestation could provide around 30% of the climate solution, but it is up to us to devise the rest.
Increasing tree cover where appropriate and eliminating illegal logging, while simultaneously decreasing our dependence on fossil fuels is essential for limiting our impact on our climate, forested ecosystems, and all life that depends on them.
“So, in general, society benefits by keeping land in forest of whatever kind whenever it's feasible,” Martin said.
This story is part of the UF Thompson Earth Systems Institute's student-produced Earth to Florida newsletter that curates the state’s environmental news and explains what’s going on, why it matters and what we can do about it.
The University of Florida Thompson Earth Systems Institute is advancing communication and education of Earth systems science in a way that inspires Floridians to be effective stewards of our planet.
Credits:
Created with images by Brandon Schultz - "Florida Forests" • Martina - "A stunning, long path lined with ancient live oak trees draped in spanish moss " • Harry Collins - "Pileated Woodpecker in Florida " • Melinda Nagy - "climate change or global warming banner - double exposure of polluting factory smoke and pine forest" • pellephoto - "bold-cypress tree in nature" • Jaimie Tuchman - "tree canopy in the marsh" • Richard - "Southern Pine Trees, Fort Pierce, Florida" • Danita Delimont - "Using prescribed fire to control fuel loading and spur new tender growth for wildlife." • Pixel-Shot - "Volunteers planting tree in park"