Plans to plant billions of trees threatened by undersupply of seedlings
I’m glad planting trees is happening. And yet, I think the execution will not be that great.<p>In my neighborhood park, there were a bunch of new trees planted this year. And yet, it looked like someone just sprinkled trees without a care about the specific species, sun, and water.<p>There were places that were great ideas for planting — west sides of pathways to help block the blazing afternoon Phoenix sun.<p>And yet, there places they planted too close to existing trees, where they won’t even get sun (plants compete for sunlight, not root space).<p>They didn’t bother to dig basins or to mulch (both harvests water, helps retain moisture, and feed the trees).<p>The species are not appropriate for the lower Sonoron, but it is what people expect for “trees” in the cultural idea of “parks”. There were no concept of designing for canopy layers (at least, overstory vs understory), much less adding shrubs or flowers to help round out the ecosystem. (“Diversity” is not really about different species of trees, but rather, the ecological function of each plant at the different canopy layers, working together to form a stronger, more resilient ecosystem).<p>Instead, they got their planting numbers up and everyone can pat themselves on the back for Doing Something.