Dr Tony Robinson

A great question was asked in April 2019: “If I want to plant enough trees to make a difference to my carbon footprint, how many should I plant”? My answer (here) was:

I'll assume that an average tree takes 20kg a year over a 40 year life. I'll also assume uniform growth, so that's 1kg on first year, 2kg in second year, etc up to 40kg in last year (I know this is not quite right, but it's a lot better than assuming 20kg in the first year and I think it's good enough). So, over t years a tree will absorb t*t/2 kg of carbon. Let's say we need to take action in the IPCC 10 year frame, then if we plant now then one tree is 50kg (10*10/2). At 10 tonnes a year, that's 100,000 kg to absorb and so 2,000 trees to plant now. If you wait to plant then the number goes up very quickly as most of them will be small and not absorbing much.

I figure that if I use pots that are 10cm by 10cm then that's a total area of about 4.5m by 4.5m which is about what I have in my back garden. Where I'll get the seeds and pots from is a problem for this year, where the trees will go when they outgrow their pots is a problem for next year.

Here is what the saplings looked like at the start of June 2019:

From Freecycle/Trash Nothing I was given about 200 2 litre mineral water containers which will do well for the willow. At Strawberry fair I collected about 300 used plastic pint cups, when stacked in 20's a power drill was efficient in providing drainage.

I've got three buckets and a dustbin crammed full of willow cuttings, it seems that the larger ones in the buckets will root fine, the smaller ones haven't done so yet. That's got to be very many hundred more saplings to come, maybe a thousand.

On germination https://treegrowing.tcv.org.uk/grow

Some thoughts on land:

• A map of tree planting projects
• There is about 15 miles of “motorway” being built near Cambridge, I've asked them if I can plant but haven't yet had a reply.
• I think we will see a change in hill farming soon which will result in more planting land:
  • Why Britain's barren uplands have farming subsidies to blame
  • EU subsidies that are only guaranteed until 2020 https://www.pressandjournal.co.uk/fp/news/politics/westminster/1756773/brexit-could-bust-more-than-21000-farms-across-scotland/
  • The resiliance of Welsh farming
  • As sheep leave the hills, what’s to become of Ireland’s uplands?
  • The current climate crisis should put pressure on ending subsidies for methane producing beef and lamb and favour tree planting.

Here are some people that will plant trees:

Fix https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/jun/19/planting-billions-trees-save-planet

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