“What is the best type of tree to plant to save the planet?”

What is the use of the timber – construction timber stores carbon for the lifetime of that building, whereas wood logs emit the stored carbon when they are burnt? What about wildlife and habitat? [Strutt & Parker]

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The Sidmouth Arboretum and the Town Council have embarked on an ambitious programme for the Sid Valley – but it is nevertheless legitimate to ask: Should we be planting thousands of trees?

Or, rather, we should be looking to the right trees in the right place  – and asking when planting trees: where, what and why?

The key question then is: What is the best type of tree to plant to save the planet?

Horticulturalists can advise on how to plant the right trees to combat climate change; the Woodland Trust suggests 6 small garden trees to fight climate change; the RHS has a good list of trees for climate change; and a piece from the BBC widened the notion of looking after the plant by looking at the best trees to reduce air pollution.

An excellent piece from Alex Brearley and Hugh Williams at consultants Stutt and Parker poses and answers the direct question: What is the best type of tree to plant to save the planet? Here’s the opening – with more results from the research at their link:

The question of whether there is a particular type of tree that is best for the environment is one that we get asked quite often and giving an answer, based on strong evidence, is harder to do than you might think.

The answer is that it is complicated and that it depends on what you take into account. Carbon stored – yes, probably. Timber produced – yes, probably too. What about how long that timber might last and continue to lock up the carbon inside it?  What is the use of the timber – construction timber stores carbon for the lifetime of that building, whereas wood logs emit the stored carbon when they are burnt. What about wildlife and habitat?

The good news is that there is more research and more tools available – like the Forestry Commission’s Ecological Site Classification tool and the Woodland Carbon Code (a quality assurance standard for woodland creation projects in the UK) – that help answer this question.

In addition, Forest Research, Great Britain’s principal organisation for forestry and tree-related research, has published an interesting study of the differences in carbon stored and released in two quite different woodland:

• A mature broadleaved – oak – woodland in lowland England
• A 50-year-old conifer – Sitka spruce – plantation in Northeast England. 

Studies of this type are scarce under UK conditions, so it is a very useful addition to the evidence that we have on how different types of woodland take in, and release, carbon. The full paper can be seen in The carbon balances of two contrasting forest stands.

What did the research find?

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