The Eastern White Cedar tree (Thuja occidentalis)

The Eastern white cedar is known by many names, but the most common alternatives are the northern white cedar, the swamp cedar, or the eastern arborvitae.  The Latin name for this tree is Thuja occidentalis.

You won't often hear rural dwellers referring to this tree as the arborvitae.  That term arborvitae is somewhat confusing.  Many horticulturalists use it.  However, arborvitae really refers to the entire Thuja s. genus, which includes five different species.  The only other arborvitae is the western red cedar, which we plant very frequently in BC's western coastal areas.  Incidentally, the word arborvitae comes from two separate words:  Arbor, meaning "tree," and vitae, meaning "life."  The implication is "tree of life."

When you look at the taxonomic classification of the Thuja genus, they belong to a family known as Cupressaceae, or more commonly known in English as cypress.  That's right, the north American cedars are not even true cedars!  Sigh.  Why is tree classification so confusing?  True cedars are only found natively in the Mediterranean and in the Himalayas.  Let's get back to our "fake" cedar, the eastern white cedar.

Perhaps the most unique thing about cedar trees is the appearance of the needles.  Cedar branches look very different than most other conifers, due to the flattened shape of the needles:

You can see that the needles almost look like scales.

When an eastern white cedar tree develops cones, they are quite small - only about one centimeter long.  Each cone contains approximately eight seeds, however, the cones grow in very dense clusters.  They start off as a yellowish colour, but then eventually turn to a fairly dark shade of brown.  Here's a photo showing some immature cones that are still developing:

This species is not a large one.  These trees rarely grow to be more than 15-25 meters in height (about 50-80 feet).  However, even though they're usually not nearly as tall as many of the other mature conifer species in eastern Canada, their trunks can still grow fairly thick, sometimes reaching almost a meter in diameter (3 feet) at maturity.  These measurements are typical for trees growing in the United States.  When they're found in Canada, they're usually slightly smaller.

Cedar trees taste great, at least to deer.  And that's a big problem.  Deer are especially attracted to these trees.  Exploding deer populations are causing all kinds of problems in many parts of Canada.  In the town that I grew up in, in central Nova Scotia, the deer can be found everywhere throughout town, and ravage people's gardens and shrubbery.  Cedar trees are one of the favorite species for deer to eat, and this is having a negative impact on cedar populations all over eastern North America.

On the west coast, when we plant cedar, we sometimes also install "browse protection devices" over the trees.  A browse protector usually looks like a tall thin plastic cone, about three feet tall.  We place a four-foot cedar stake beside a freshly planted cedar tree, and pound this stake into the ground with a mallet so it is firmly anchored, then place the cone over both the cedar seedling and the stake.  The cone is then tied to the stake so it will remain in place for several years.  The cones are translucent, which allows enough sunlight to reach the tree for photosynthesis.  The tree grows up inside the cone for approximately 3-5 years, then the crew goes back into the plantation to remove the cones, so they can be re-used on another project.  This system seems to work fairly well for letting the cedar seedlings become established until the trees are large enough that the deer start to ignore them (the deer prefer very young seedlings that are closer to the ground).  Here's a photo of a browse cone, protecting a freshly planted young cedar:

Cedar trees can live for a very, very long time.  Here's an interesting story:  There is an old eastern white cedar located on the shore of Lake Superior in Minnesota.  The Ojibwa refer to this tree as the Little Cedar Spirit Tree.  The first known written reference to this specific tree happened way back in 1731, by a French explorer named Sieur de la Verendrye.  The Ojibwa often leave tobacco around the tree as an offering to help protect them on voyages on Lake Superior.  Despite this tree being quite famous, that doesn't mean that it's one of the oldest.  It could be, but some eastern white cedars can live to be more than a thousand years old!  Why would anyone ever want to cut one of these trees down?

Although this species prefers very moist climates, it has managed to carve out a fairly large footprint in eastern Canada by taking advantage of conditions where other larger and faster-growing trees have problems thriving.  These cedar trees can survive on rocky cliffs, and in very moist swampy areas.  In that sense, this cedar is a good species to mix with black spruce when the ground conditions are appropriately moist.  Although eastern white cedar isn't found commonly throughout Nova Scotia or in the eastern half of Prince Edward Island, it has a wide range throughout the rest of eastern and central Canada and the northeastern United States.  Here's a range map, courtesy of Wikipedia:

I want to leave you with a few interesting facts about this species:

1.  When a branch falls from an eastern white cedar, it can sometimes lay out new roots into the ground and grow into a new tree, if the conditions are just right!

2.  The inner bark of this tree is tough enough to make into string or rope.

3.  Some people plant this species in their back yards specifically to attract wildlife.  Besides deer, rabbits and many types of birds are also attracted to this tree.


For the 2020 planting season, we included several thousand eastern white cedars in our species mixes at Replant.ca Environmental.  We planted these trees in areas with more moisture or shade, including understory areas, near streams, and in swampy areas.  Even though they are one of the less voluminous conifers in our mixes, and there is a higher risk of some mortality due to deer browsing, we feel that these are a very beneficial species to add to our mixes.  Here's a photo of some of our eastern white cedar seedlings:

Thanks for reading ...

- Jonathan Clark
www.replant-environmental.ca



Replant.ca Environmental is a Canadian company that plants trees for carbon capture and builds community forests.  We also plant trees in national, provincial, and municipal public parks to mitigate damage from wildfires, storms, insects, and forest diseases.  We operate thanks to numerous small contributions from the general public, in addition to larger project sponsorships from businesses and corporations around the world.  If you'd like to learn how to show your support, visit our donations page.  Even if you aren't able to make a contribution, we very much appreciate when people are able to share our posts or our website link on social media, to help spread the word about the work that we're doing!

Teachers are welcome to use content from this post for their classes.  If you know a teacher who might like to use this information, please share it with them!  The more that people learn about trees, the better our world will be.

To learn more about the various species that we plant, visit the conifers page or the deciduous (hardwoods) page on our website.  Thanks so much for your interest!



Incidentally, our organization is often seeking additional land for our carbon capture projects.  Please visit this link if you might know of a recently-harvested property that we could rebuild into a permanent legacy forest.

The Jack Pine tree (Pinus banksiana)

Let's take a look at another pine tree that we plant, the Jack Pine.  This tree is also referred to as the scrub pine, the grey pine, the Hudson Bay pine, or the Banksian pine.  The latter name is due to its Latin name, Pinus banksiana.  The term "scrub pine" seems somewhat dismissive.  Where is the love?

To be fair, the Jack pine is not the most impressive species out there.  We mix some Jack pine into our species mixes sometimes, but that's more for diversity than because it's a major contributor to carbon capture.  We also plant two other types of pine (Norway and Eastern White) in larger quantities.  Still, diversity is important.  What happens if global warming raises average temperatures by several degrees over the next few decades?  This could have a seriously negative effect upon many of the species currently growing in Canada, and we think that Jack pine is the conifer that is least likely to be affected if temperatures do get that high (eastern white pine being the second least vulnerable).

Here's a photo of some Jack pine trees, courtesy of Wikipedia.  I'll try to replace this photo with one of my own at some point:

The range of the Jack pine is quite broad.  There are a lot of different species of pine trees in the world (about 120, depending on whom you ask).  In western Canada, you can find about twenty different pine species, four of which I've planted while working in commercial operations.  In eastern Canada, you can find about thirteen species, three of which we plant at Replant.ca Environmental.  As far as I'm aware, Jack pine has the largest geographic distribution range within Canada (of the pines).  Here's a graphic from Wikipedia to illustrate that:

Despite its broad range and hardiness, the reason that Jack pine is often omitted from "favorite tree" lists is because it doesn't grow as large as some other types (such as Eastern white pine), and the trunk doesn't often grow as straight or majestically.  Due to this, many foresters and carpenters don't get as excited by Jack pine as they do by other types of pine, although to be honest, this probably has saved more than a few individual trees from the axe.  Under good growing conditions, Jack pine usually only reaches a height of 15-20 meters at maturity (50-65 feet), and the trunk doesn't often exceed a diameter of about 50 centimeters (one and a half feet).  As mentioned, the trunks can often be twisted or knotty, so when it is used commercially, it is often more likely to be used for pulpwood than for lumber.

Jack pines can be affected by quite a few diseases.  There are weevils and sawflies and budworms that attack the trees.  Jack pine can also be affected by a disease called sweet fern blister rust.  When this happens, Jack pine is an inadvertent victim.  Normally, sweet fern blister rust affects sweet ferns, but the spores can drift onto Jack pine and attack the trees too.

Jack pine is somewhat similar to lodgepole pine, which we plant very frequently on commercial projects all over the west coast.  Like lodgepole pine, the cones of Jack pine tend to open during periods of extreme heat (including wildfires).  Remember that occasional mild wildfires can be beneficial to the overall forest ecosystem.  However, Jack pine don't regrow in densities as thick as lodgepole does after a fire.  Also, on a mature tree, the Jack pine cones look quite different because they usually point forward along the branches.

When trying to identify a pine tree, it's always important to see how many needles come in each cluster.  Each pine species is quite distinct, usually having either two, three, or five needles per cluster.  Jack pine is a two-needle pine.

When I talked about eastern white pine, I mentioned one of Tom Thomson's famous paintings, "Byng Inlet, Georgian Bay."  The Jack pine is featured in an even more well-known painting by Tom Thomson, entitled "The Jack Pine."  That painting is currently held by the National Galley of Canada.  Here's an image of that very recognizable painting, courtesy of the NGC:

Although the Jack pine will probably never feature heavily in our mixes, we have to give it credit for being sturdy and hardy, which is why this species is the most common tree found throughout Canada!  I'll leave you with a photo of some of our Jack pine seedlings:

Thanks for reading ...

- Jonathan Clark
www.replant-environmental.ca



Replant.ca Environmental is a Canadian company that plants trees for carbon capture and builds community forests.  We also plant trees in national, provincial, and municipal public parks to mitigate damage from wildfires, storms, insects, and forest diseases.  We operate thanks to numerous small contributions from the general public, in addition to larger project sponsorships from businesses and corporations around the world.  If you'd like to learn how to show your support, visit our donations page.  Even if you aren't able to make a contribution, we very much appreciate when people are able to share our posts or our website link on social media, to help spread the word about the work that we're doing!

Teachers are welcome to use content from this post for their classes.  If you know a teacher who might like to use this information, please share it with them!  The more that people learn about trees, the better our world will be.

To learn more about the various species that we plant, visit the conifers page or the deciduous (hardwoods) page on our website.  Thanks so much for your interest!

 

Incidentally, our organization is often seeking additional land for our carbon capture projects.  Please visit this link if you might know of a recently-harvested property that we could rebuild into a permanent legacy forest.

The Eastern Hemlock tree (Tsuga canadensis)

Today I'm going to talk about one of the longest-lived of the trees on Canada's east coast, the Eastern hemlock.  Some of you also might know it as Canadian hemlock, or even as eastern hemlock-spruce.  I'm not a fan of that last name, because it confuses people.  Eastern hemlock is not a spruce conifer!  But speaking of names, this species has a Latin name which I find easiest to remember of all Latin names:  Tsuga canadensis.  I guess that's because I'm a proud Canadian.

Before I get into too much detail about this species, let's start with a photo.  This is a good close-up photo showing just a handful of the several thousand eastern hemlock seedlings that we planted this year (2019).

There are three types of hemlocks in Canada, although they all have very narrow distributions.  Western hemlock and mountain hemlock are only found in BC, and mostly in coastal parts of that province.  I've planted large numbers of both of these species while doing commercial reforestation work on Vancouver Island.  So despite the fact that eastern hemlock is not widely distributed throughout most of Canada, it is still the most well-known hemlock.  It can be found throughout all three of the maritime provinces, and also in southern parts of Ontario and Quebec.  Here's a range map, courtesy of Wikipedia:

It's interesting that eastern hemlock does so well throughout southeastern Canada and the northeast seaboard of the US, considering that most hemlocks thrive in temperate rainforests.  The two west coast hemlocks definitely thrive in the moist areas of the coast, and with the exception of the Ancient Rainforest area east of Prince George, almost all west coast hemlocks grow within a hundred kilometers of the Pacific ocean.

The hemlock family got its name from a perceived similarity between the smell of crushed hemlock (conifer) needles and the crushed hemlock plant, even though the plant is completely unrelated to the conifer tree family.  You may be aware that hemlock is well known as a poisonous plant, but hemlock trees thankfully are not toxic! Incidentally, let me take a complete tangent from this post, in case you're trying to remember where you heard about hemlock plants being poison.  Back in ancient Greece, the famous philosopher Socrates went on trial for corrupting the youth of Athens (encouraging anti-democratic uprisings).  He was tried by an assembly of 500 citizens, the majority of whom decided that he was guilty, and was subsequently sentenced to death by poisoning.  At the execution, he calmly agreed to drink the poison down, and that was the end of him.  Plato and Aristotle, two other historical figures that you might be acquainted with if you've studied philosophy (or are a Monty Python fan), were two of his most famous students at the time.  And incidentally, the poisonous hemlock plant is found in twelve US states.  But I digress.  Let's get back to the conifer.

I mentioned earlier that eastern hemlock trees are quite long lived.  Indeed!  They would make any octagenarian jealous.  It is very common for mature trees to live for 250-400 years, if they aren't knocked down in a bad windstorm.  There is one eastern hemlock in Pennsylvania that is going to hit it's 600th birthday in a few decades.  That's pretty impressive.

On Canada's east coast, mature trees often reach a height of about 30m (100 feet) and the trunk of these trees can often approach 1.5m in diamater (almost five feet).  Our Charles Clark forest reserve property in north central Nova Scotia has a belt through the center of the property with almost twenty acres that hasn't been cut in about a century, and it is full of beautiful mature hemlocks.  This part of the property almost feels like a rainforest when you visit it.  In many parts of the US, hemlock trees are only found at elevations of 600 meters and above (cooler climate), but our Charles Clark property is only about 40m above sea level.

Unfortunately, the eastern hemlock is susceptible to two major pests right now.  The first is an "adelgid" (similar to an aphid) known as the woolly hemlock adelgid.  This insect was introduced to north American accidentally from Asia, and eastern hemlock is not resistant to it.  Canadian hemlocks haven't been hit too hard yet, but the adelgid is really doing a lot of damage to stands east of the Appalachians.  The other problem insect is the hemlock looper, which is a type of moth that eats hemlock (and several other common Canadian trees).  Eastern hemlock is also susceptible to a couple varieties of the Armillaria fungus, which is a widely distributed forest parasite (a small mushroom) that attacks many different species.  However, Armillaria (also known colloquially as honey mushrooms) are generally only a problem for mature hemlock.

Another problem that eastern hemlock have to cope with when they're young is being used as a snack by deer.  Deer populations in urban areas of Nova Scotia have exploded over the past decade.  I don't know if the same holds true for rural deer, but in town, we see them on our front lawns everywhere, and they've caused an enormous amount of damage to cedar shrubs and several dozen other types of small plants and flowers.  Anyway, deer love to browse on tender plants.  They tend to avoid plants with needles (except for cedar, which they love) and they also tend to avoid plants with strong odors or bitter tastes.  Although hemlock is not their preferred diet, they will sometimes snack on young hemlock trees.  Hemlock tea tastes quite bitter, but yet the deer don't seem to mind if they're quite hungry.  Hemlock tea is bitter enough that most tea drinkers would definitely turn their nose up, although it apparently has a lot of vitamin C.

If you're ever looking to plant conifers on the east coast, and the property already has some existing brush or tree cover, consider the eastern hemlock as one of the species to potentially include in your mix.  The eastern hemlock is very shade tolerant - one of the most shade tolerant conifers in Canada.

I'll leave you with a photo of some of our eastern hemlock seedlings:

 

Thanks for reading!

- Jonathan Clark
www.replant-environmental.ca



Replant.ca Environmental is a Canadian company that plants trees for carbon capture and builds community forests.  We also plant trees in national, provincial, and municipal public parks to mitigate damage from wildfires, storms, insects, and forest diseases.  We operate thanks to numerous small contributions from the general public, in addition to larger project sponsorships from businesses and corporations around the world.  If you'd like to learn how to show your support, visit our donations page.  Even if you aren't able to make a contribution, we very much appreciate when people are able to share our posts or our website link on social media, to help spread the word about the work that we're doing!

Teachers are welcome to use content from this post for their classes.  If you know a teacher who might like to use this information, please share it with them!  The more that people learn about trees, the better our world will be.

To learn more about the various species that we plant, visit the conifers page or the deciduous (hardwoods) page on our website.  Thanks so much for your interest!

Incidentally, our organization is often seeking additional land for our carbon capture projects.  Please visit this link if you might know of a recently-harvested property that we could rebuild into a permanent legacy forest.

Meet a Major Sponsor: Dirty Boots & Messy Hair

Today, I'd like to introduce you to one of our major sponsors.  They're an organization called

Dirty Boots & Messy Hair

 

Dirty Boots & Messy Hair is a lifestyle brand and educational platform that has dedicated itself to supporting photographers as they navigate the world of business, branding, and creativity.  Initially founded in 2017, DBMH has since developed into a community of hundreds of thousands of dedicated creatives around the world.  With a heavy focus on outdoorsy and adventurous photography, everyone involved with the brand is incredibly passionate about environmental issues and giving back to the planet.  This is exactly why Replant.ca Environmental is so excited to be collaborating with Dirty Boots & Messy Hair!

Before we tell you about some of the other work that Dirty Boots & Messy Hair (DBMH) is involved in, let us share some social links:

Website:

dirtybootsandmessyhair.com

 

Instagram:

www.instagram.com/dirtybootsandmessyhair

That Instagram feed is especially powerful.  Are you surprised that it has almost a million followers?  There's some really stunning photography showcased there.


DBMH is a major sponsor of the trees planted by Replant.ca Environmental.  Starting in early 2019, the DBMH organization committed to planting tens of thousands of trees annually.  So if you're a photographer who supports DBMH and is a participant in the DBMH community, you're also helping to support global reforestation efforts, and helping with the fight against climate change.


Dirty Boots & Messy Hair is not only involved with reforestation.  They're also involved with other organizations that do work to leave a positive lasting legacy on our planet.  A good example is The Orangutan Project.  The Orangutan Project was established in 1998 by world-renowned orangutan expert, Leif Cocks.  Leif is a passionate campaigner and a key player in developing conservation plans for the protection and survival of orangutans, including the first ever successful reintroduction of a zoo-born orangutan into the wild.  The Dirty Boots & Messy Hair organization is a major supporter of The Orangutan Project.  Learn more about their support at this link:

dirtybootsandmessyhair.com/we-care

Dirty Boots & Messy Hair refers to itself as, "A small business with a big mission: To help save the world."  Big mission, and big hearts.

If you're a professional photographer, you'll want to become a member of the DBMH community!  Organizations like DBMH give us hope for our childrens' futures.  Check them out today!

Incidentally, our organization is often seeking additional land for our carbon capture projects.  Please visit this link if you might know of a recently-harvested property that we could rebuild into a permanent legacy forest.

Calling on Artists for a Music Compilation of Tree Planting Songs

There are a lot of great songs about tree planting, written by various talented Canadian planters.  I'd like to see some of those shared to a wider audience, therefore, I'm going to use Replant.ca Environmental to sponsor the production of a compilation of songs about tree planting, by tree planters.

Edit:  This compilation is now complete.  It was very well received, and we'll be publishing another volume in 2024.  Please contact us if you're interested in participating, but in the meantime, here's a link to the 2020 compilation:

The Flagging Tapes, Vol. 1

Back to the original post ...

I'm aware of two previous planting music compilations:  "Planters' Punch" and "Hi & Ho, We Plant Trees."  You can find both of these by going to my public Dropbox folder at replant.ca/dropbox and then going into the "Canadian Reforestation" sub-folder, then into the "Planting Music" sub-folder.  All of the songs from these compilations have been shared publicly with permission of the organizers of the CD's (Michael & Peter).

Planters' Punch was compiled by Michael Mloszewski.  Click on his name to learn more background about Michael.  This compilation was put together in the late 1990's, if my information is correct.  Although all the songs were written or performed by planters, some don't actually have planting as the theme to the lyrics.

Hi & Ho, We Plant Trees was organized and compiled by Peter Krahn, who is still a very active member of our planting community.  I believe that this double album may have been released around 2005?  All of the songs on this album have planting as the central theme.  I've heard many of these songs when getting into crew trucks at various companies.

Anyway, it's time for a new album.  I've already been contacted by more than half a dozen planters who want to contribute songs to the album.  Artists will have to agree to have their songs published (internet) for free downloading.  None of the music will be sold, and no physical CD's will be produced.  There will be an independent panel of judges who review all submissions, to ensure that they meet a certain minimal level of quality.  Artists will be encouraged to register their songs with SOCAN in order to qualify for any potential public broadcast royalties.

This compilation will be made available at no cost to the planting community.

---------------------

 

Edit, February 2020:  This album is now available as a free download!  Visit:

www.replant.ca/theflaggingtapes

---------------------

Artists who are in the central Maritime provinces can have their tracks recorded for this compilation at my own studio (no cost), if they'd like.  I'll be located in Sackville, New Brunswick.  I'll be able to do recording sessions between mid-December and mid-January.  For anyone who is located too far away for this, you'll have to find a way to get a professional-sounding recording done on your own, at your own expense.  Home studio recordings are fine, as long as they sound good.  Once the songs are collected, I'll get the collection mastered properly.  That process will start around January 20th, 2020, so ideally all tracks need to be submitted by about January 15th.

If anyone else is interested in contributing to this project, please email me at jonathan.scooter.clark@gmail.com and give me a bit of information about your music.  Ideally, I'd like to be able to release this compilation by mid-February at the latest, before my spring coastal season starts.

Thanks for your interest, and please share this with other planter-musicians.

- Scooter
www.replant-environmental.ca

Incidentally, our organization is often seeking additional land for our carbon capture projects.  Please visit this link if you might know of a recently-harvested property that we could rebuild into a permanent legacy forest.

The White Spruce tree (Picea glauca)

For this week's featured species, we're going to look at the White Spruce.  The proper Latin name for this species is Picea glauca.  White spruce is sometimes referred to as "Canadian spruce," although that's not an official name of any sort.


Some people refer to Engelmann spruce as white spruce, but that's a different species.  Engelmann spruce is found at elevation in southern BC at the western US.  Engelmann spruce is often crossed with true white spruce to create a hardy hybrid that is planted all over western Canada.

Here's a photo that I took of a white spruce, which I believe was probably about 30-40 years old:

The white spruce is a very plentiful tree.  It's very healthy, and has a broad range.  You can find this species all across Canada, except for the very southern reaches of BC and Alberta, and the west coast of BC (where Sitka spruce takes over).  Here's a range map from Wikipedia:

Spruce trees, in general, love water.  They typically prefer flowing (aerated) water, although black spruce can thrive in some pretty fetid swampy areas.  White spruce is certainly quite happy to grow in moisture-laden soils.  White spruce, like all other spruce trees, is also a very shade-tolerant tree.  However, it is slightly less shade tolerant than red spruce (red spruce is a common tree in New Brunswick and Nova Scotia).  Regardless, white spruce will do adequately when planted under a canopy, or in areas with high brush and vegetation competition.  However, white spruce seedlings can be susceptible to spring frosts.  Having brush or a mature canopy over young seedlings acts to protect them until they're older.

When I was very young, I thought that all cones, regardless of what species of conifer the cone came from, were called pine cones.  Of course, that was that naivete of a young child.  The cones on spruce trees are called spruce cones.  White spruce has two types of cones, male and female.  Each tree contains both types.  The male cones produce pollen, which floats to the female cones to fertilize the seed.  After the cones are fertilized, it takes about three months for them to mature and open.  When the cones open, the seed is dispersed fairly far from the tree, due to small wings on each seed.  It is common for seed to spread more than 100m from the parent tree, thanks to winds.  Although the number of seeds per cone varies, there are usually at least a few dozen seeds in a cone, and sometimes more than a hundred.
 

A mature white spruce will often live to be more than 200 years old.  Some trees live to be many times older than that.  After the first century, as long as the site and growing conditions are adequate, a white spruce will often reach 30m (100 feet) in height, and can have a diameter of more than a meter (3 feet) at the base.  This species can capture very large amounts of carbon.  Our Walker Road property has some beautiful mature white spruce that are starting to approach this size.

Although we don't harvest any of our trees at Replant.ca Environmental, white spruce is often used in the manufacture of acoustic guitars.

One way to distinguish white spruce from red spruce is by the colour of the needles.  The white spruce needles are a bluish-green shade, in contrast to the more yellow-green shade of red spruce needles.

This year, we've planted many thousands of white spruce seedlings at Replant.ca Environmental.  Here's a photo of some of them:

Thanks for reading!

- Jonathan Clark
www.replant-environmental.ca



Replant.ca Environmental is a Canadian company that plants trees for carbon capture and builds community forests.  We also plant trees in national, provincial, and municipal public parks to mitigate damage from wildfires, storms, insects, and forest diseases.  We operate thanks to numerous small contributions from the general public, in addition to larger project sponsorships from businesses and corporations around the world.  If you'd like to learn how to show your support, visit our donations page.  Even if you aren't able to make a contribution, we very much appreciate when people are able to share our posts or our website link on social media, to help spread the word about the work that we're doing!

Teachers are welcome to use content from this post for their classes.  If you know a teacher who might like to use this information, please share it with them!  The more that people learn about trees, the better our world will be.

To learn more about the various species that we plant, visit the conifers page or the deciduous (hardwoods) page on our website.  Thanks so much for your interest!

Incidentally, our organization is often seeking additional land for our carbon capture projects.  Please visit this link if you might know of a recently-harvested property that we could rebuild into a permanent legacy forest.

How Many Trees are Planted in Canada Each Year?

I've been curious to know approximately how many trees are planted in Canada each year.  Apparently, I'm not the only one, since several other people have asked me this same question over the past month.  I'm going to try to come up with a very rough guess here, based upon what little information I can find, coupled with some semi-educated assumptions.  If anyone has any access to official data for any of the provinces, please let me know so I can update this post!  I originally wrote this post for my commercial tree planting blog, but it's good information for anyone thinking about our national capacity for tree planting for carbon capture purposes.

British Columbia
This one is easiest, since the Western Forestry Contractors' Association pays close attention to these numbers, and publishes charts frequently.  Their best guess for 2020 planting in BC is approximately 308 million trees.  They base their information upon a survey of sowing requests at various forest nurseries.
Source:  https://wfca.ca/2019/09/western-forestry-contractors-association-rumour-mill-roundupdate-volume-19-issue-13/

Alberta
I have 2016 data for Alberta.  That year, the province planted 57,605 Ha of the 83,786 Ha harvested (the rest was left for natural regeneration).  Assuming an average planting density of 1500 stems/Ha, which is purely a guess, I estimate approximately 86 million trees.

Saskatchewan
I have 2016 data for Saskatchewan.  That year, the province harvested 17,701 Ha.  Let's assume that they planted half of that amount, and that the average planting density was 1500 stems/Ha.  Those assumptions may be quite inaccurate, but the number of trees in Saskatchewan doesn't significantly affect the national total.  I estimate approximately 13 million trees.  Lots of room for growth in the northern boreal.

Manitoba
I have 2016 data for Manitoba, which is very similar to Saskatchewan in limitation.  Manitoba harvested 10,686 Ha in 2016, so if we again estimate that half of that area was replanted, at a density of 1500 stems/Ha, we have another 8 million trees.

Ontario
In 2016, Ontario planted 67,369 Ha of land (57% of the 117,230 Ha harvested).  If we estimate a planting density of 1500 stems/Ha, that works out to approximately 101 million trees.  Incidentally, Ontario is the only province that also seeds significant areas.  In 2016, about eleven thousand hectares were seeded throughout the province (this figure is not included in the planting totals).

Quebec
I have 2016 data for Quebec.  Quebec harvested 205,859 Ha and planted 36% of that (73,344 ha).  Incidentally, Quebec is the only province that harvests a greater land base annually than BC.  Let's again assume an average planting density of 1800 stems/Ha (this number based upon feedback from several long-time Quebec tree planters).  That gives us about 132 million trees planted annually in Quebec.

The Atlantic Provinces
There's a surprising amount of planting in New Brunswick and Nova Scotia.  Not as much in Newfoundland, and practically none in Prince Edward Island.  It's hard to tell how much planting actually takes place, because a very large percentage of blocks in the Atlantic provinces are left for natural regen.  Despite this, I know that several hundred planters work in the very fragmented industry each year.  Perhaps the best indicator would be to get a census on total sowing at all the forest nurseries in those provinces.  I'm going to have to guess for now, in lieu of any sort of reasonable data, and say that 40 million trees are planted each year in these four provinces combined.  I did find that New Brunswick planted 17,625 Ha in 2016, Nova Scotia planted 5,024 Ha in 2016, PEI planted 317 Ha, and Newfoundland planted 3,721 Ha, for a four-province total of 22,167 hectares.
Source:  https://cfs.nrcan.gc.ca/statsprofile


Totals:
308m  British Columbia
  86m  Alberta
  13m  Saskatchewan
    8m  Manitoba
101m  Ontario
132m  Quebec
  40m  Atlantic Provinces
688m  Canada-Wide

Well there you have it.  There are probably several inaccurate numbers in there, but hopefully the mistakes balance each other out to some extent so that the overall total is reasonably close.

Incidentally, I found data from Natural Resources Canada which states that 410,221 Ha were planted in 2016, Canada-wide.  Too bad that they didn't give the number of trees.  Anyway, if our estimate of 688 million trees is correct, then that would suggest that the average planting density across the country is approximately 1677 stems/Ha.  This seems reasonable based upon personal experience.


- Jonathan Clark
www.replant-environmental.ca

Our organization is often seeking additional land for our carbon capture projects.  Please visit this link if you might know of a recently-harvested property that we could rebuild into a permanent legacy forest.

Understanding Greenhouse Gases (GHG's)

Many people have heard of global warming, now more commonly referred to as climate change (even though technically, they are two different things).  However, not many people understand why global warming happens.  I'm writing this post to give our readers a general overview of the situation.  This post will be moderately scientific, but I'm going to try to stick to the basics.

Greenhouse gases are called such because they trap heat that might otherwise dissipate through various processes.  Just five greenhouse gases account for probably more than 95% of climate change effects.  These five gases, from worst to least problematic, are:

     1.  Water
     2.  Carbon Dioxide
     3.  Methane
     4.  Nitrous Oxide
     5.  Ozone

For the most part, this post will talk about the top three offenders.

Water

Many people will be surprised to see "water" at the top of the list, but I'm not referring to liquid water.  I'm referring to water in its gaseous form (known as water vapour).  Most of the water vapour in our atmosphere is essentially invisible, unless there is a large quantity present.  When water vapour becomes concentrated enough to become visible, you will perceive it as "haze," or see it even more obviously as clouds or steam.  Some people assume that fog and mist are also made of water vapour.  They're not.  Fog and mist are comprised of small liquid water droplets suspended in the atmosphere, rather than water in its gaseous form.

The chemical formula for water, regardless of whether it is in liquid or vapor form, is H₂0.  Ice (water in solid form) also has the same chemical formula.  The only difference between the three states is the amount of energy that is contained in the molecules, which is represented by the temperature.

Climate change scientists disagree about many specific observations, although there is overwhelming consensus that climate change is real.  Depending on the source, you may read that water vapor is responsible for less than half of global warming, or as much as three quarters of global warming.  Regardless of which of those choices is closer to the truth, it's a large amount.

When explaining greenhouse gases (GHG's) to someone who is interested in the science, the first major intellectual frustration usually happens when people suddenly realize that water vapour in the air is responsible for the majority of greenhouse gas effects (and therefore, and therefore, water vapour is the biggest problem when it comes to climate change).  People protest that we can't do anything about the amount of water vapor in the atmosphere.  And you're right!  Mostly right.  There's not much we can do.

The amount of water vapour in the air varies significantly depending on where you are taking a sample.  In deserts, the amount of water vapour is almost negligible.  In rain forests, the atmosphere is heavily laden with water vapour.  For this reason, we must consider global averages when we talk about the contribution of water vapour to global warming.

It is natural to have water vapour in our atmosphere.  Water vapour is essential to life, for many reasons.  For now, let me just say that the Earth's global ecosystem has been in a sort of historical equilibrium for the past several centuries whereby our planet had a "good" amount of water vapour in the atmosphere, but it was in balance.  There was not so much water vapour that it caused problems with global warming.  The real problems with global warming started to happen when we started increasing the amounts of GHG's #2 through #5 on our list.

Let's move on from water for now, although I'll have a few more comments about it at the end.  For now, if you want to memorize one key talking point, focus on this:  Water vapour is controlled by the Earth's temperature, rather than water vapour controlling the Earth's temperature.

Carbon Dioxide

We often refer to carbon dioxide by its chemical formula, CO₂.  Carbon dioxide is the gas that the public most commonly associates with climate change.  That's a good thing.  Carbon dioxide is the GHG that the general public should focus on when trying to mitigate the effects of climate change.

Carbon dioxide is composed of two substances (carbon and oxygen molecules) and the ratio is one molecule of carbon for every two molecules of oxygen.  If this gas were broken apart into carbon versus "conventional" oxygen (in its diatomic homonuclear form, O₂), the oxygen doesn't pose a problem.  We could break carbon dioxide up into carbon and diatomic oxygen, and then hide the carbon away from the atmosphere (or just hide the CO₂ itself from the atmosphere) and we'd have less problems with global warming.

We Interrupt This Bulletin to talk about the Atmosphere

No, the atmosphere wasn't on our list of greenhouse gases.  Understanding the atmosphere is important, because it contains GHG's.  Our atmosphere also contains lots of other gases.  It also contains small amounts of liquids such as rain, and small amounts of solids such as smoke particles and dust.

A lot of us learned in high school that our atmosphere is composed of about 78% nitrogen gas (chemical formula N₂), 21% oxygen (O₂ form, not the single unbonded oxygen atom), a bit of argon, and trace amounts of several other gases including carbon dioxide.  Nitrogen and oxygen in the atmosphere are called non-greenhouse gases.  These non-greenhouse gases have special properties that mean they don't absorb infrared radiation, and therefore don't contribute to the greenhouse effect.  Carbon dioxide DOES absorb infrared radiation, which is a problem.

Water vapour is not considered to be "part" of our atmosphere when scientists list the relative amounts of each constituent gas.  Although this is confusing, we need to acknowledge that water vapour is IN the atmosphere, but it's not a defined part of it.  When scientists talk about the makeup of the atmosphere, they assume that we're talking about dry air.  If we had to give different atmospheric compositions depending on where we stood on Earth, our results would vary widely.  Even a single point on the Earth would vary from day to day, depending on whether it was cloudy and raining, or clear and sunny.

When we talk about about water in the atmosphere, we have to consider both water vapour (gaseous form) and liquid water (rain, snow, mist, fog).  Sometimes one turns into the other.  Some water droplets evaporate.  Gaseous water vapour often condenses to form water droplets.  When trying to understand that water can be in the atmosphere but not part of it, you have to realized that the distinction is subtle.  Think of baking a batch of chocolate chip cookies.  If you think of nitrogen and oxygen and other gases as mixing up homogeneously, they are analogous to batter in the cookies before you add the chocolate chips.  You can no longer identify individual ingredients such as sugar, flour, or eggs in the batter.  The batter (like the atmosphere) is so well mixed that individual ingredients are no longer discernable.  But water in liquid form (tiny droplets or fat raindrops) is akin to chocolate chips that you might add to the cookie batter.  Even after mixing, you can readily identify the chocolate chips as being contained within the batter mix, even though you can't tell individual parts of the batter apart.  There is a strong analogy between the chocolate chips and the water droplets.

Maybe that was too much of a tangent.  Let's get back to our GHG's.


Methane

The chemical formula of methane is CH₄.  Methane is bad.  Well, it's not bad in and of itself.  It's a chemical.  It's used beneficially for humans, for things such as heating and lighting and in the manufacture of useful other chemicals and products.  It's only when methane escapes into the atmosphere that it starts causing a problem.  This is where certain industries need to pay special attention.

How does methane escape?  If escaped methane is the problem, can't we just be more careful with how we handle it?  Well, no.  A lot of the methane on earth occurs naturally.  Methane is the natural by-product of decay in many swamps.  We can't just fill in all the swamps around the world.  Methane is also produced indirectly through human-made activities, in sewers, septic systems, and landfills.  Methane is produced by living creatures.  All those cows around the world release methane into the atmosphere every time they burp.  And methane is also produced in the extraction and transportation of fossil fuels.

The biggest problem with methane is that even though there is much less methane in the atmosphere than carbon dioxide, it is many times more potent than carbon dioxide.  Depending on whom you ask, methane is probably twenty to one hundred times more problematic than CO₂.  Perhaps we should think of methane as the "low hanging fruit" in trying to mitigate climate change, and tackle man-made sources of methane as our highest priority?

Another problem with methane is that it too exhibits a "positive feedback loop" as global temperatures rise.  When the temperature rises, most living organisms tend to increase physiological activities (including the emission of methane).  Swamps aren't the only water sources that naturally emit methane.  Our freshwater lakes and rivers and streams and puddles are also a source, because they usually contain small organisms that emit methane.  As temperatures warm up, methane emissions increase, which then cause further increases in global temperatures.  It's a catch-22 situation.  We need to get ahead of the curve, before it's too late.

The amount of atmospheric methane today (about 1.87 ppm) is approximately 2.5 times the amount that was present in the atmosphere during pre-industrial times. 

Atmospheric Behaviour

Now that we know some of the basic characteristics of water vapour, carbon dioxide, and methane, let's look at how they act (and persist) within the atmosphere.  In this respect, these three GHG's behave very differently.

As I alluded to above, we can't really control water vapour.  Water vapour is controlled by temperature, rather than temperature controlling water vapour.  The globe is essentially in a state of equilibrium when it comes to water vapour.  The only minor exception is that as global temperatures rise, the average overall amount of water vapour in the atmosphere also rises (higher overall saturation of the atmosphere), so there's a small concern due to this positive feedback loop.  But we need to look at the other GHG's to solve the problem.  If we can reduce the effects of the other GHG's, the water vapour equilibrium will take care of itself.

Here's a trivia question for you:  Can you guess how long water vapour remains in the atmosphere?  Scientists believe that it is probably not much more than a week on average.  This means that if a molecule of water "evaporates" from an ocean or lake, chances are that on average, it will return to the surface as rainfall or snowfall in just over a week.  This is why water is so good at maintaining an overall temperature-based equilibrium.  It's in a constant state of flux.

Carbon dioxide, unfortunately, does not return quickly to the Earth's surface.  If it did, we wouldn't have these climate change problems (although we'd probably have a different set of problems).  Carbon dioxide is removed from the atmosphere predominantly by photosynthesis, and also by being mixed into the ocean (carbonated surf?).  But this process takes many years.  Estimates are that even after one hundred years, half of any carbon dioxide that has been emitted into the atmosphere is still present up there, and still contributing to global warming.  Even if we could completely stop emitting CO₂ tomorrow, in 2069 the atmosphere would still have half of the carbon dioxide that's already up there (mind you, that would be a "sustainable" level).  If reducing methane emissions is the "low hanging fruit" of climate change mitigation for certain industries, then reducing CO₂ emissions could be called the "heavy lifting" (on a global scale), and almost everyone can help tackle the carbon dioxide problem.

Methane, our third significant GHG, is a big problem.  Let's look at the positive side first:  A lot of methane disappears from the Earth's atmosphere in about a decade, which is much faster than carbon dioxide.  However, the negative side is that methane is MUCH worse than carbon dioxide when it comes to trapping heat (by worse, I mean that it traps heat more effectively, which is bad for humans who don't want climate change).  If you compare methane and CO₂ side-by-side in the first twenty years after release into the atmosphere, methane is almost ONE HUNDRED times as problematic.  Even on a hundred-year comparison, methane is still the bigger problem.  Now you understand why many people say that we need to reduce the number of cows on the planet.  Or teach them to stop burping and be less flatulent.

Fun fact:  NASA says that cow burps release more methane than cow flatulence, in case you wondered which end was the bigger problem.


Ozone

Again, a tangent.  I said earlier that ozone is one of the top five GHG's, although to be fair it is far less of a problem than the top three.  So if it's a problem, that must mean that "More ozone equals more warming," right?  Yes, that's correct.

But right now, some of you are probably thinking, "Wait, if ozone is a problem, why did we ban CFC aerosol cans?  Can't we just spray a lot of CFC's into the atmosphere and wipe out all the ozone, so the ozone stops contributing to global warming?"  Well, yes, I guess that's an option.  But the reason we banned CFC's was because we need ozone to protect us too.  Even though it contributes to global warming, it protects us from deadly types of radiation.  If we eliminate the ozone, we might be cooler, but we'd also have very high rates of skin cancer, eye cataracts, and damage to our genetic and immune systems.  So please, let's not target ozone.


Summary

I think that I've covered all the basics.  In point form:

- Water vapour is the main greenhouse gas, but since we can't do anything about it, don't think that we need to eliminate it.
- Carbon dioxide is second most common GHG, and since we can change the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere through processes such as carbon capture methods, then it's a great target for climate change reduction.
- Methane is often overlooked because it's less prevalent than the two GHG's listed above, BUT since its effects are so much more significant than carbon dioxide, we should also target methane emissions wherever possible.  This is especially important for certain industries such as oil & gas (ie. flare or capture associated natural gas, which is mostly methane, rather than venting it).


Thanks for reading this far.  In a future post, I think I'll talk about carbon capture technology and ways to target methane emissions.  In the meantime though, remember that trees act as a great filter for our atmosphere, because they help remove carbon dioxide.  And that's why we like to plant trees.  Please visit our website to learn more about our carbon capture and community forest projects.

- Jonathan Clark
www.replant.ca-environmental.ca

Replant.ca Environmental is a Canadian afforestation/reforestation company that plants trees to help mitigate climate change.  Click on the graphic below to learn more about our vision:

Incidentally, our organization is often seeking additional land for our carbon capture projects.  Please visit this link if you might know of a recently-harvested property that we could rebuild into a permanent legacy forest.