Efforts by the United States and international organizations to plant billions of trees in the coming years are threatened by a lack of seedlings to plant, according to a study published Monday in the journal Bioscience
WASHINGTON (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 31st July, 2023) Efforts by the United States and international organizations to plant billions of trees in the coming years are threatened by a lack of seedlings to plant, according to a study published Monday in the journal Bioscience.
"The REPLANT Act provides money for the US Forest Service to plant more than a billion trees in the next nine years. The World Economic Forum aims to help plant a trillion trees around the world by 2030," the University of Vermont said in a report on the study. "But new research shows a troubling bottleneck that could threaten these efforts: US tree nurseries don't grow close to enough trees - nor have the species diversity needed - to meet ambitious plans."
The University of Vermont-led study examined 605 plant nurseries in 20 northern US states, finding that only 56 of the nurseries have adequate stocks of seedlings for reforestation efforts, and only 14 of which were government-operated.
The study also found that forest nurseries tended to keep stocks of tree species used in commercial timber production over those used for ecological restoration.
Nurseries had low stocks of locally adapted and "future-climate-suitable" trees needed to reach conservation goals, according to the study.
"People want trillions of trees - but often, on the ground, it's one old farmer walking around to collect acorns. There's a massive disconnect," University of Vermont post-doctoral scientist Peter Clark is quoted as saying in the report.
Federal and state investments in seedling production and diversity at regional nurseries will be critical to addressing climate change through tree planting, according to the study.
