I received a fundraising mailer from Arbor Day Foundation this week which included the 2021 Michigan Tree Survey. I received it last year too. I didn’t return the survey last year. I did the use the pretty “personalized correspondence labels.” This year, knowing I was going to be writing this blog post, I did a little more investigation and fact checked some of the DID YOU KNOW items on one of the included handouts, as well as the organization.
Here is what the rabbit hole yielded.
“More than 20% of the world’s oxygen is produced by the Amazon Rain Forest” is not a fact. It has been repeated many, many times in the past year, but it is not correct. There are multiple sources where you can read more about the math that disproves this science, but FactCheck.org has a good summary of the science and the math, and cites their sources. While it is very important to protect the Amazon rain forest, it’s for a lot of other reasons besides oxygen.
Releaf Michigan is a tree advocating non-profit a little closer to home. They recently sponsored tree planting at the Blue Water River Walk, and work closely with the DTE Foundation. The Releaf website had facts as to why we need trees but they also included a link to a Learn More list with citations. Anyone looking for reasons to plant trees, or to make a case for planting trees, should reference this list.
Look up @GlobalEcoGuy on Twitter and give Dr. Jonathan Foley a follow. Good essays and reposts regarding climate change and other environmental issues. Also at GlobalEcoGuy.org.
I found David Nowak, who is a Senior Scientist and i-Tree Team Leader for the USDA/Forest Service, Northern Research Station. David’s name started jumping out as a leader in urban forest research. You can see the full list of his research HERE, but especially interesting to me is how many of his studies incorporate monetization, which I think is important to showing the cost of climate change and ignoring the environment, and the savings that can come by adaptation and restoration.
i-Tree is not a new Apple product, but “i-Tree is a state-of-the-art, peer-reviewed software suite from the USDA Forest Service that provides urban and rural forestry analysis and benefits assessment tools. The i-Tree tools can help strengthen forest management and advocacy efforts by quantifying forest structure and the environmental benefits that trees provide.” This free tool looks to be highly beneficial to any organization or individual working on mapping, and it builds in monetization to help you make your case for your tree project.
And, i-Tree is sponsored by the Arbor Day Foundation. Sometimes the rabbit hole leads you back to where you started : )