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Tree planting is the process of transplanting tree , generally for forestry, land reclamation, or landscaping purposes. It differs from the transplantation of larger trees in arboriculture and from the lower-cost but slower and less reliable distribution of tree . Trees contribute to their environment over long periods of time by improving air quality, climate amelioration, conserving water, preserving soil, and supporting wildlife. During the process of photosynthesis, trees take in carbon dioxide and produce oxygen.
In silviculture, the activity is known as "reforestation", or "afforestation," depending on whether the area being planted has recently been forested or not. It involves planting seedlings over an area of land where the forest has been logging or wildfire, Forest pathology, or human activity. Trees are planted in many different parts of the world, and strategies may differ widely across nations and regions and among individual reforestation companies. Tree planting is grounded in forest science and, if performed properly, can result in the successful regeneration of a deforested area. However a Plantation rarely replicates the biodiversity and complexity of a natural forest.
Because trees remove carbon dioxide from the air as they grow, tree planting can be used to help limit climate change. Desert greening projects are also motivated by improved biodiversity and reclamation of natural water systems, as well as improved economic and social welfare due to an increased number of jobs in farming and forestry.
To promote the growth of native ecosystems, many environmentalists advocate only indigenous trees be planted. A practical solution is to plant tough, fast-growing native tree species which begin rebuilding the land. Planting non-invasive trees that assist in the natural return of indigenous species is called "assisted natural regeneration." There are many such species that can be planted, of which about 12 are in widespread use in the US. Alternatively, farmer-managed natural regeneration (FMNR), involves farmers preserving trees (not replanting), and is considered to be a more cost-effective method of reforestation than regular tree planting.
If the size of the planting program allows, there is little doubt that such scheduling would be advantageous in that it satisfies one, and commonly 2, of the factors essential for success: (1) the use of planting stock that is physiologically capable of responding to a growth environment at planting, and (2) planting when site factors favour tree survival and growth. The 3rd factor a good planting job, and although desirable in all plantings, is probably somewhat less critical in conventional spring plantings than at other times. If, however, a planting program cannot be completed in this way, there are other options: conventional fall planting with fresh-lifted stock; summer planting with fresh-lifted stock; and spring and summer planting with stored spring-lifted or fall-lifted stock.
The may be planted not only throughout the spring planting period provided that the period of most active shoot elongation is avoided, but virtually throughout the whole growing season, with little loss of performance other than some reduction in increment.Mullin, R.E. 1971. "Some effects of root dipping, root exposure and extended planting dates with white spruce." For. Chron. 47(2):90–93.
Mullin and Forcier (1976)Mullin, R.E.; Forcier, L. 1976. Effect of lifting and planting dates on survival and growth of spring stored nursery stock. Ont. Min, Nat. Resour., For. Res. Branch, Toronto ON, For. Res. Notes 3. 4 p. and Mullin and Reffle (1980)Mullin, R.E.; Reffle, R.J. 1980. Effects of dates of lifting and planting on success of frozen spring storage at Swastika Nursery. Ont. Min, Nat. Resour., Toronto ON, Nursery Notes 66. 5 p. examined the effects of spring-lifting date and planting date on several species, including 3+0 white spruce after frozen storage, with fresh-lifted controls planted on each planting date for comparison. In all plantings, the earliest (2 May) lifting gave highest average second-year survival in all species. In another study, Mullin (1978) found that outplantings of frozen-stored 3+0 white spruce were consistently successful to the end of July only with the earliest-lifted (25 April) stock. Sutton (1982)Sutton, R.F. 1982. "Plantation establishment in the boreal forest: planting season extension." Can. Dep. Environ., Can. For. Serv., Sault Ste. Marie ON, Inf. Rep. O-X-344. 129 p. also used 3+0 white spruce in outplanting every 2 weeks from the end of June through the growing season in 3 successive years on a variety of sites in northern Ontario. Despite variation in planting stock, poor storage environments and adverse weather, 4th-year results showed a consistent pattern of reasonable survival and growth rates among trees planted through July, with a rapid decline in performance of trees planted thereafter. Overwinter storage of stock has also been employed. It has the advantage of lifting stock at the end of the growing season when physiological processes are invoking natural dormancy.Mullin, R.E.; Parker, J.D. 1976. "Provisional guidelines for fall lifting for frozen overwinter storage of nursery stock." For. Chron. 52(1):22–25.
Natural refrigerated overwinter storage has been used in root cellars and snow caches. Using natural refrigeration in root cellar storage, Jorgensen and Stanek (1962)Jorgensen, E.; Stanek, W.K.L. 1962. "Overwinter storage of coniferous seedlings as a means of preventing late frost damage." For. Chron. 38(2):192–202. kept 3+0 and 2+2 white spruce in dormant condition for 6 months without apparent detriment to performance after outplanting. Moreover, the stock was highly resistant to spring frost damage. Natural cold storage for overwintering 3+0 and 2+2 white spruce was also used by Mullin (1966).Mullin, R.E. 1966. "Overwinter storage of baled nursery stock in northern Ontario." Commonw. For. Rev. 45(3):224–230. Unlike Jorgensen and Stanek's (1962) stock, which was raised 550 km to the south of where it was planted, Mullin's stock was raised in a nursery at about the same latitude as the planting site; the stock experienced inside-bale temperatures down to -15 °C in mid-winter, but still showed first- and second-year survival rates of 85.9% and 65.9%, respectively, compared with 91.4% and 76.2%, respectively, for fresh-lifted stock. However, Mullin's stored stock was much more damaged by spring frost than was fresh-lifted stock and it "showed a reduction in vigour as measured in terms of survival, susceptibility to damage and growth".
There is a strong volunteer movement for conservation in Australia through Landcare and other networks. National Tree Day is organised annually by Planet Ark in the last week in July, encouraging the public to plant 1 million native trees per year. Growing trees for Timber industries is a long-term project. It may take many years for a tree to mature to an age and size that is appropriate for the Timber to be used by industry. Some trees are many hundreds of years old.
Many state governments run their own "Million Tree" programs each year to encourage community involvement.
Trees for Life (Brooklyn Park) is an excellent example of a community organisation having a sustainable impact.
Tree planting crews often do not permanently reside in the areas where they work, thus much planting is based out of or bush camps. Bush camp accommodations usually consist of a mess tent, cook shack, dry goods tent, first aid tent, freshly dug , and a shower tent or trailer. Planters are responsible for bringing either a tent or car to sleep in. A camp also contains camp cooks and support staff.
The average British Columbian planter plants 1,600 trees per day, but it is not uncommon for experienced planters to plant up to 4,000 trees per day while working in the interior.These numbers are higher in central and eastern Canada, where the terrain is generally faster, however the price per tree is slightly lower as a result. Average daily totals of 2,500 are common, with experienced planters planting upwards of 5,000 trees a day. Numbers as high as 7,500 a day have been recorded.
Quite often, tree planting contractors will deduct some of the cost associated with the operation of the contract directly from the tree planter's daily earned wages. These imposed fees typically vary from $10 to $30 per day, and are referred to as "camp costs".[1]
Once inflation is factored in, real tree planter earnings have declined for many years in Canada. This has adversely affected the sector's ability to attract and retain workers.
Based on statistics for British Columbia, the average tree planter: lifts a cumulative weight of over , bends more than 200 times per hour, drives the shovel into the ground more than 200 times per hour and travels over with a heavy load, every day of the entire season. The reforestation industry has an average annual injury rate of approximately 22 claims per 100 workers, per year. It is often difficult and sometimes dangerous.
Planting is part of the rotational nature of much British plantation forestry. Productive tree crops are planted and subsequently clearcut. Some form of soil Tillage may take place and the ground is then restocked. Where the production of timber is a management priority, a prescribed stocking density must be achieved. For species this will be a minimum of 2500 stems per hectare at year 5 (from planting). Planting at this density has been shown to favour the development of straighter knot-free sawlog.
Planters are normally paid under piece work terms and an experienced worker will plant around 1600 trees a day under most conditions.
Ek Kadam Sansthan's campaign One Tree My Duty is working with technology-enabled tree plantation work.
The largest planted forest in Israel is Yatir Forest, located on the southern slopes of Mount Hebron, on the edge of the Negev Desert. It covers an area of 30,000 (30 square kilometers). It is named after the ancient Levite city within its territory, Jattir, as written in the Torah: "And unto the children of Aaron the priest they gave Hebron with its suburbs, the city of refuge for the manslayer, and Libnah with its suburbs, and Jattir with its suburbs, and Eshtemoa with its suburbs" (Book of Joshua 21:13–14). In 2006, the JNF signed a 49-year lease agreement with the State of Israel which gives it control over 30,000 hectares of Negev land for the development of forests.Professor Alon Tal, The Mitrani Department of Desert Ecology, The Blaustein Institutes for Desert Research, Ben Gurion University of the Negev. "NATIONAL REPORT OF ISRAEL, Years 2003–2005, TO THE UNITED NATIONS CONVENTION TO COMBAT DESERTIFICATION (UNCCD)" ; State of Israel, July 2006 Research on climate change is being carried out in Yatir Forest. Studies of the Weizmann Institute of Science, in collaboration with the Desert Research Institute at Sde Boker, have shown that the trees function as a trap for carbon in the air. Shade provided by trees planted in the desert also reduces evaporation of the sparse rainfall. Yatir Forest is a part of the NASA project FluxNet, a global network of micrometeorological tower sites used to measure the exchanges of carbon dioxide, water vapor, and energy between terrestrial ecosystem and atmosphere. The Arava Institute for Environmental Studies conducts research that focuses on crops such as dates and grapes grown in the vicinity of Yatir forest. Vu du Ciel-documentary by Yann Arthus-Bertrand The research is part of a project aimed at introducing new crops into arid and saline zones. MERC Project M-20-0-18 project
The JNF has been criticized for planting non-native pine trees which are unsuited to the climate, rather than local species such as olive trees.Rabbi David Seidenberg."The Giving Tree: A Way to Honor Our Vision for Israel"; Neohasid, 2006 Others say that JNF deserves credit for this decision, and the forests would not have survived otherwise. According to JNF statistics, six out of every 10 saplings planted at a JNF site in Jerusalem do not survive, although the survival rate for planting sites outside Jerusalem is much higher – close to 95 percent.
Government agencies, environmental organisations and private trusts carry out tree planting for conservation and climate change mitigation. While some work is carried out by private enterprise, there are also planting days organised for volunteers. Landcare Research use planted forests for their EBEX21 system for greenhouse gas emissions mitigations. EBEX21 , Carbon Credits System
The largest planted forest in the Southern Hemisphere is located in the Sabie/Graskop area in South Africa and covers approximately 6,000 km2.
Machine planting is another common planting method in the United States. Equipment and transportation costs are such that machine planting is generally used for larger acreages where reduced labor cost and high planting productivity are desired. Machine planting is generally restricted to reasonably level terrain with good soil and limited obstacles. While machine planting is most often associated with plantation silviculture in the Southeast and Upper Midwest, it has been used in ecological restoration. Machine planting was used for forest restoration on Alaska's Kenai Peninsula following a large scale Spruce Bark Beetle outbreak in the 1990s.
Trees for the Future and Plant With Purpose are non-profit organizations based in the U.S. that plant trees in developing countries to improve land management. Other organizations that plant trees in the United States include:
The concept of planting multiple trees together on a large scale to replenish material supplies first developed in Europe during the Middle Ages, and gradually gave rise to forestry plantations. The earliest records of conifer plantations come from Nuremberg in 1368,Rubner K. 1925. Die pflanzengeographischen Grundlagen des Waldbaus. J. Neumann. although the planting of trees on a large scale may have taken place as early as the 13th century in this region to reafforest exploited areas.Ortloff W. 1999. "Sustainability issues in Switzerland's forests." New Forests 18: 59–73.
As Neolithic humans assumed a more settled way of life, and with the technological development of agriculture and consequent growth of civilization, more trees would need to be felled and gathered as a source of timber and other forest products and to make way for cultivation of crops. Given the finiteness of tree products in the absence of sufficient replanting, it was realized that clearance of forest and woodland must be controlled, and forests had to be managed and conserved for the natural resources they provided as demand grew. In England for example, this is evident from early laws that were passed in 1457 to encourage tree planting.Harris E, Harris J. 2003. Wildlife Conservation in Trees and Forests. Second Edition, pg. 29. Research Studies Press Ltd. However, despite these laws, persistent destruction of woodlands since the Anglo-Saxon period had by the seventeenth century led to a so-called "timber famine".Hoskins WG. 1967. The Making of the English Landscape. Hodder and Stoughton Ltd. Because of this shortfall, timber was at a premium and thus became very expensive, which was especially problematic for shipbuilding and naval enterprises. Following an appeal by the Navy Board to the Royal Society for a solution,Albion RG. 1926. Forests and Sea Power: The Timber Problem of the Royal Navy, 1652–1862 (Vol. 29). Cambridge: Harvard University Press. one member of the Society, John Evelyn, wrote and published his seminal 1664 work Sylva, or A Discourse of Forest-Trees and the Propagation of Timber. This conveyed a successful plea for reafforestation by persuading landowners to plant millions of trees on their private estates to make good the severe shortage of timber and repair the "wooden walls" of England.
In the tropics, there is a long history of planting teak for timber, dating back to the 15th century in Java. The demand for sustainable teak for general construction and shipbuilding purposes intensified with the arrival of the Portuguese in the 15th century and the Dutch in the 17th century. The teak growing industry thereafter became controlled and monopolized by the Dutch East India Company.
In North America, tree planting on the western prairies was practiced by immigrants from the east during the 19th century. This was to satisfy the demand for wood and other tree products as well as to establish shelterbelts for agriculture, since naturally growing trees were very scarce on the Great Plains.Droze WH. 1977. Trees, Prairies, and People: A History of Tree Planting in the Plains States (Vol. 10). Texas Woman's University.
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