- Trees keep our air supply fresh by absorbing carbon dioxide and producing oxygen.
- In one year, an acre of trees can absorb as much carbon as is produced by a car driven up to 8700 miles.
- Trees provide shade and shelter, reducing yearly heating and cooling costs by 2.1 billion dollars.
- Trees lower air temperature by evaporating water in their leaves.
- The average tree in metropolitan area survives only about 8 years!
- A tree does not reach its most productive stage of carbon storage for about 10 years.
- Trees cut down noise pollution by acting as sound barriers.
- Tree roots stabilize the soil and prevent erosion.
- Trees improve water quality by slowing and filtering rain water as well as protecting aquifers and watersheds.
- Trees provide protection from downward fall of rain, sleet, and hail as well as reduce storm run-off and the possibility of flooding,
- Trees provide food and shelter for wildlife.
- Trees located along streets act as a glare and reflection control.
- The death of one 70-year old tree would return over three tons of carbon to the atmosphere.
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Facts about tree biology
- Trees are the longest living organisms on earth.
- Trees and other plants make their food through a process called photosynthesis.
- The inside of a tree is made of phloem, cambium, and xylem.
- The xylem of a tree carries water from the roots to the leaves.
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Facts about trees and science
- Dendrochronology is the science of calculating a tree's age by its rings.
- Tree rings provide precise information about environmental events, including volcanic eruptions.
- A mature birch tree can produce up to 1 million seeds per year.
- Moon trees were grown from seeds taken to the moon by Stuart Roosa, Command Module pilot of the Apollo 14 mission of January 31, 1971. The effort included 400-500 seeds, which orbited the moon on the first few days of February 1971. NASA and the USFS wanted to see if being in space and in the moon's orbit would cause the seeds to grow differently than other seeds.
Facts about Trees and fertility rites
- Among certain nomad tribes in the Near East (e.g. Islamic Republic of Iran), young women sometimes have the image of a tree tatooed on their abdomens to encourage conception.
- In India, women hang red handkerchiefs on certain trees close to wells to conjure away sterility.
- Symbolic “marriages” between humans and trees (the person touches the tree trunk for a period of time, usually a number of hours) have been recorded in the Punjab and Himalaya regions of India, among Sioux Indians in North America and among some sub-Saharan African tribes.
- In southern India, infertile couples sometimes planted the male and female of a tree close together in the hope that this would bring about the birth of a child.
- The frequency with which father trees and mother trees are encountered in legends and popular tales probably led to the concept of the ancestor tree, which has come down through history as the genealogical tree (Chevalier and Gheerbrant, 1982).
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BBC Planet Earth: Forests and Jungles
