The Threats Facing Trees — and How to Save Them

From the soaring redwoods of California, to the emerald lushness of the Brazilian Amazon, to the lofty canopies of American Elms, trees add character and majesty to our natural landscapes. But trees aren’t just beautiful — they’re indispensable to our survival. They produce oxygen, sequester greenhouse gasses, and support countless species. But now, many of them are facing numerous threats.

On this episode, we explore those threats, along with potential solutions to help trees survive and thrive. We hear stories about why saving California’s redwoods could mean cutting some of them down, an investigation into what’s killing the Amazon’s tropical giants — and what it means for climate change, and the surprising discovery that could save America’s besieged ash trees from an invasive pest.

Also heard on this week’s episode:

• California’s towering redwoods are some of the tallest and oldest trees on Earth, with a lifespan that can top 2,000 years. But the coastal redwoods have been under threat since the 19th century, when the booming logging industry decimated their numbers. In this piece, excerpted from THE WILD podcast, ecologist and host Chris Morgan delves into an effort to restore some of these forests, using a surprising approach: cutting trees down. Listen to the full episode, “Redwood National Park: Saving the tallest trees on Earth.”
• Trees don’t only keep us cool on hot summer days — they help keep the planet cool through carbon sequestration, the absorption and storage of billions of tons of carbon dioxide every year. The giant trees of the Amazon rainforest shoulder much of that work — so when they’re ailing or dying, it has a big impact. We follow reporter Daniel Grossman to the Amazon to find out what’s causing these trees to die, and what scientists are doing about it.
• Around the Great Lakes region, ash trees once blanketed the landscape — but over the past few decades, hundreds of millions of ash trees across the country were killed by an invasive pest called the emerald ash borer. In this story from the Points North podcast, host Dan Wanschura ventures into a dying ash forest to find out about a surprising discovery that could help save ash trees from dying out.
• Planting trees feels hopeful — it’s a tangible, doable solution to climate change, which can otherwise seem like an overwhelming challenge. But, as many failed tree-planting efforts around the globe have shown, it’s not as simple as it seems. We talk to conservation scientist Lauren E. Oakes about why that is, and what she learned from her travels around the world about balancing the promise of planting trees against the risks of relying on a single solution. Her new book is “Treekeepers: The Race for a Forested Future.”
• Whether you’re picking a tree to grow in your yard, or taking part in a whole restoration project, you have to choose the right tree for your climate zone. But, as temperatures warm, these zones are starting to shift. Susan Phillips reports on how these changes are affecting growers.