Rural Routes/Margot Ford McMillen

Don’t Count on Trees to Capture Carbon

I was standing outside with my camera, hoping to catch the moment — the exact second — when the oak tree fell in the exactly right place that my chainsaw-wielding sweetie had designated it to fall. A few feet to the west, it would take out the fence. A few more feet wrong, it would take out the barn. And if it fell east? The feed shed, the clothes line and the house would be wiped out.

This was a mighty tree, about 80 feet tall, with limbs that extended 30 or 40 in each direction, and just one of many trees in the old fence line that needs to go. And while you might be thinking that we’re going to go metaphorical and talk about other things that need to go — the House or the Senate, or POTUS — sometimes a fence line is just a fence line.

But a tree isn’t just a tree. Scientists tell us that 45% of the carbon in the world is being stored by forests and that when there’s a die-off, like the aspens in the Rockies in the early 2000s, the carbon stored in wood tissue starts to re-enter the atmosphere. And that contributes to climate change. In fact, every set of how-to-fix-the-climate steps we see includes the humble request to “plant trees.”

So I was watching the old man and his chain saw when it occurred to me that, maybe because of where I live, I know more people killed or damaged in wood-cutting accidents than in car wrecks. And these have been among experienced tree men. “P” was killed when he was cutting firewood and a tree fell the wrong way. “M”’s partner — I was never clear about his name — was tending a patch of walnut trees he had trimmed and pruned for 20 years, making it his life’s work. “T” was just removing a tree so he could move his driveway; the roots somehow heaved up, taking T’s leg with it. He gets along well with the prosthetic, which is decorated in camo, so he jokes he’s always ready for hunting season, but still …

So it’s a dangerous business, this cleaning up after trees, and we would hope that we could save them rather than taking them down. But drought, floods, excessive heat and cold take their tolls. The trees dying in the fence line aren’t all from one species either. We’re losing red oaks to oak wilt, a fungus spread by beetles. Ash trees are killed by an emerald ash borer. Apple trees are disappearing due to something nobody can explain, but they call it “Rapid Apple Decline” or RAD. Elms, butternut and even walnut trees are dying off. One of my best pals, a forester who has taken the best care of his naturally-developed 80 acres of trees, harvesting a couple of loads a year, no more, told me he’s clear cutting this year, to avoid the heartbreak of losing a few acres at a time in the future.

So, trees aren’t the final answer to capturing carbon and you probably don’t need to be convinced that we need to figure out new strategies for curbing carbon emissions or sequestering carbon in a permanent sealed container. We have, after all, just survived the hottest July on record and are headed for another blast in August. There is no greater crisis for the future than the climate.

And, the future also means more people. Estimates are as high as two billion more by 2050. Increasing temperatures combined with increasing populations mean that we need strategies to first sequester carbon and second create housing for new humans.

An innovative idea comes from the UK, where lack of affordable housing is already a national discussion topic. Why not, they ask, create housing materials from carbon? Materials like coal ash and other recovered carbon-based pollutants could be captured once and for all in bricks that could be made into housing, walkways, walls and even roads.

Experimenters have created these “supermud” bricks and found that, compared to bricks made of clay or concrete, they take far less energy to make. Clay bricks need to be fired at temperatures exceeding 1,000 degrees. Concrete becomes strong and dry at 1,450 degrees — and then needs more water to re-constitute. Experimental carbon-based “geopolymer” bricks are cured at 80 to 100 degrees, meaning you could have put them outside to cure in Missouri on a late summer day!

Meanwhile, back at the ranch, my husband’s chainsaw had carved a deep gash into the north side of the mighty tree. Doomed, it began to creak and lean in exactly the way he said it would. He moved away, watching from behind another tree in the line. I started snapping pictures and in an excrutiatingly slow move, the red oak laid itself down.

Margot Ford McMillen farms near Fulton, Mo., and co-hosts “Farm and Fiddle” on sustainable ag issues on KOPN 89.5 FM in Columbia, Mo. She also is a co-founder of CAFOZone.com, a website for people who are affected by concentrated animal feeding operations. Her latest book is The Golden Lane: How Missouri Women Gained the Vote and Changed History. Email: margotmcmillen@gmail.com.

From The Progressive Populist, September 1, 2019

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