Climate change is the biggest threat to our planet. Deforestation is the second most significant cause of climate change, the biggest being the increasing use of fossil fuels. According to the World Bank, since 2016, an average of 108,000 square miles of forest have been cut down every year. 46 percent of the world’s trees have been felled and every 2 seconds, a forest the size of a football field is destroyed. This is the combined effect of logging, industrial agriculture, and grassland creation to meet the world’s appetite for red meat. 

Without trees, we will no longer have clean air to breathe. The tree canopy within cities has become a growing concern worldwide as urbanization has led to land-use conversion and loss of urban forests. These challenges manifest as hotter and longer summers, wildfires, severe weather events, increased heat waves, and more severe droughts necessitating urgent action. 

Trees counter the phenomenon of heat islands caused by the expanses of concrete and asphalt in urban areas. Planting trees helps to sequester carbon dioxide via photosynthesis, reduce greenhouse gas concentrations, provide cooling shade and modulate temperatures, improve air quality and soil health, and conserve water. Tree planting reduces harmful emissions from automobiles and factories to maintain cleaner air, water and soil conditions. Green spaces provide ecological and beautification benefits, enhance property values and support the physical and mental well-being of our communities. 

We plant drought-tolerant native trees (5-45 gallon size), proven to do well in North Texas, as part of our urban forestation and prairie and wetland restoration initiatives, in and near parks, creeks, schools, and streets. Once the root system becomes fully established (roughly 1-3 years), it requires no maintenance while it continues its constant planet-saving activities for 50 to thousands of years depending on the species. They are stalwart foot soldiers, and the more of them we have, the better.