Video | Trees are Critical to Our Future

We all know trees are good, but did you know they are critical to our future as a species?

My name is Basil and I am so impressed with the complexity of this planet. The more I learn about trees and soil, the more amazed I am at how intricate everything is. The more convinced I am that we know so little.

Nature has been building complex systems over millions of years, but things are changing in a relatively short amount of time. We’re seeing a loss of topsoil for growing food, a loss of clean drinking water, temperatures are rising, and we’re seeing ecosystems verging on collapse.

We’re all looking for solutions, but we have to avoid the temptation of an easy fix. For example, when we grow food, we often use chemical inputs as a way to increase our yields. Short term, this is a gain. But over the long term, we actually end up destroying our soils, destroying our fresh water resources, and creating a thousand other unintended consequences that cause harm to we humans, as well as our surrounding ecosystems.

In our quest for solutions, we look to nature. We have found that healthy trees and healthy soil, which are virtually inseparable, are two of nature’s most powerful tools for creating a healthy planet. They create places for us to grow food. They create stores of clean drinking water. They create healthy ecosystems. They lower our temperatures, and they provide unbelievable number of odd and unique benefits to we humans.

So what are some of the things that you can do today to make a difference? Plant trees. Focus on creating healthy soils by leaving your leaves and putting down woods chips. And don’t use any chemical inputs on your property, there are no shortcuts.

Planet Earth is an extraordinary place. It’s been here for eons and it will continue to be here for who knows how long. But the big question is: will we be here to enjoy it?