3.4
Wood formation and carbon balance in forest trees growing in cold environments
Did you know?
Healthy forests "cool" the climate
  • Trees capture the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide.
  • Trees and forest soils are a "bank" where carbon can be stored.
  • Tree leaves lose water in a cooling process called evapotranspiration.
Forests provide many ecosystem services such as biodiversity, timber, berries, mushrooms and are homes to many animals.
Forests are growing more and expanding northwards and uphill, but they are damaged more than ever by fires and insect pests (trees weakened by drought suffer more from insect pests and dead trees are more prone to fire).
Tree rings show how old a tree is and what the weather was like in the year they were formed (See story 4.3).
We should protect forests and plant trees as people in Kenya and Ethiopia have done. (e.g. the Green Belt Movement in Kenya).
Get Active!
Let's get tree planting!
Trees act as a vacuum cleaner to suck carbon dioxide out of the air and in return, give us oxygen! Trees are essential for human life and also provide many other benefits such as helping to save water, prevent soil erosion, provide food and a home for wildlife. Trees are a great defence to combat the effects of climate change and need to be protected. Therefore, it is important that we try to halt any activities that might cut down even more trees. Deforestation can be caused by many things in addition to logging, including to make space for both agriculture, new settlements and roads. Although it is most important to protect trees in the first place, we need to plant more trees. Here are some examples of places in the UK where you can get more information about how to plant trees.

The National Forest
The Woodland Trust
International Tree Foundation

Try to complete at least one of the challenges below:
Can you plant a tree or look after one?
If you only have limited space, can you take care of a plant on your windowsill or in a community garden?
If at school, can you create a mini-orchard?