Climate Minute #8: The Important Role of Trees in Addressing Climate Change
- jahaugh
- 16 minutes ago
- 3 min read
Introduction:
Because climate change is largely due to the increased presence of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, CFREE has been educating Lincoln residents on how they can reduce carbon dioxide emissions by improving the energy efficiency of their homes. Equally important, however, is the need for us all to protect the natural systems that are hard at work removing carbon dioxide from the air. Dr. William Moomaw, an internationally recognized policy scientist, recently spoke to Metrowest Climate Solutions, providing a compelling overview of the contribution of trees and other natural systems to offsetting greenhouse gas emissions. For context, although worldwide emission of carbon is almost 11 billion tons, the net increase of carbon in the atmosphere is only 4.7 billion tons, because oceans, soils, and plants are absorbing more than half of those emissions1.
We must protect those natural systems. Without them, the greenhouse gases in the atmosphere due to human activity would have reached unsustainably high levels long ago.
Trees are carbon collectors
In all plants, the basic process of photosynthesis takes in carbon dioxide to create the carbon-based building blocks of their living systems. Trees continue to collect carbon in their increasingly massive trunks, branches, leaves and roots as they grow, thus removing carbon dioxide from the air and storing it. In his recent talk, Dr. Moomaw stated that a mature tree can contribute to the mitigation of climate change by absorbing an average of about 50 lbs. of carbon dioxide per year.
The amount of carbon dioxide stored by an individual tree and the rate by which more is stored varies according to not only the tree’s species, but also its size. According to Dr. Moomaw, the largest one percent of trees store half of all the carbon in forests worldwide2; younger, smaller trees store a much smaller amount.
Therefore, keeping mature living trees in place generally does much more for the climate than cutting them down and planting seedlings or saplings over the same area.
What can be done
Actions at many scales are needed to protect both individual trees and forests.
For an individual homeowner, it is simple: don’t cut down living trees on your property unless they pose a danger to your buildings, power lines or the road. If a tree has branches that might fall on a building, remove those branches, not the entire tree. Where possible, find places to plant new trees.
At a town-wide scale, regulations in Lincoln offer strong protection to trees that are in wetlands or wetland buffer zones, but the survival of all other trees is up to the discretion of the Department of Public Works or individual landowners. Many nearby towns have bylaws or regulations that require a permit to remove mature trees; Lincoln should consider doing the same.
On the regional scale, Dr. Moomaw recommends that with proper management, forests can increase their capacity to remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. He advocates for “proforestation”2, an approach that recognizes that while some forests may be suitable for growing and harvesting wood products sustainably, other forests should be retained in their natural state to provide the continual carbon dioxide storage that is possible only with the continued growth of mature trees. We can support state legislation and organizations like Massachusetts Audubon Society that are advocating for protection of existing forests and sustainable forestry practices.
Let’s work at every scale to protect trees!
References
“Why Keeping Mature Forests Intact Is Key to the Climate Fight” interview with William Moomaw by Fen Montaigne; YaleEnvironment 360, 15 October 2019.
https://e360.yale.edu/features/why-keeping-mature-forests-intact-is-key-to-the-climate-fight
Moomaw, Masino, Faison: “Intact Forests in the United States: Proforestation Mitigates Climate Change and Serves the Greatest Good” Frontiers for Global Change, 11 June 2019.
https://www.primaryforest.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/Moomaw-et-al.-2019-Proforestation.pdf
Leverett, Masino and Moomaw: “Older Eastern White Pine Trees and Stands Accumulate Carbon for Many Decades and Maximize Cumulative Carbon”; Frontiers for Global Change, 12 May 2021
Greta Eckhardt, on behalf of CFREE
31 May 2025
CFREE (Carbon Free Residential - Everything Electric) is a subcommittee of the Lincoln Green Energy Committee. CFREE provides guidance on how households can reduce use of fossil fuels and decrease greenhouse gas emissions to help Massachusetts meet statewide emissions limits set for 2030, 2040, and 2050. It also provides information about state and federal incentives that help reduce the cost of such changes. For guidance on such projects at your home, contact: Lincolngreencoach@gmail.com. For more information visit: lincolngreenenergy.org.
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