World Conservation Day is held each year on July 28. The event highlights the importance of safeguarding our natural resources. That includes our trees, which help improve other resources like air, water, and soil. Learn more about the importance of trees and how you can help us plant more of them!

They’re Good for Animals

When we step out into the forest, there are a lot of critters sharing the space with us. Forests are home to more than 80% of land animals, plants, and insects. Broken down further, 80% of amphibians can be found there, as can 75% of bird species and 68% of mammal species.

Though forests cover 31% of our land surface, and all these creatures can be found across all that space, tropical rainforests are especially biodiverse. Up to three out of four plant and animal species are native to them. They’re also hiding lots of biology secrets we haven’t yet uncovered. There are millions of species yet to be identified, and researchers say it’s likely that most live in the rainforest. 

Even older and decaying trees can provide shelter, too, as they host birds, mammals, reptiles, amphibians, insects, fungi, bacteria, and mosses.

They’re Good for People

Trees and forests aren’t just beneficial for wildlife, but for people, as well. They help filter our drinking water, and the more forest cover there is in a watershed, the less water treatment may be needed. This is because trees help reduce runoff and trap pollutants. Through photosynthesis, they also help filter the air we breathe, storing carbon to produce oxygen.

As summers become warmer, trees are allies in the fight to stay cool, too. We all notice a marked difference when we get under a tree canopy on a hot day, but those differences can mean substantial air conditioning savings or help people who lack A/C. One piece of research showed that trees in urban areas decreased land surface temperatures in central Europe by as much as 12 degrees Celsius during the summer and other heat events. In fact, they could reduce the need for A/C by up to 30%. 

There are even further benefits. More than 25% of our medicines come from tropical rainforests, 33 million people are estimated to work in the forest sector, and up to 5.76 billion people regularly use non-timber forest products on a personal level or use them to support themselves. 

They’re Good for the Planet

As mentioned before, trees help filter our water, produce the oxygen we breathe, and pull pollutants from the air. In just American forests, about 15 years’ worth of net carbon emissions are stored. Worldwide, nearly 730 billion tons of carbon are contained within forests, which mostly occurs within the soil.

These figures could be even higher with better management of our forests. According to the 2022 State of the World’s Forests report, compiled by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, more than 3.9 billion tons of carbon dioxide emissions could be eliminated each year between 2020 and 2050 by halting deforestation and maintaining forests, while restoring degraded land through afforestation and reforestation could take up to 1.65 billion tons of carbon dioxide equivalent out of the atmosphere each year. 

Forests with a wide variety of trees can also have big benefits across the board. Research by the Smithsonian Institution shows that diversity in forested areas leads to bigger trees, richer soil, more diverse wildlife, and lower ambient temperatures.

They’re Facing Threats

Despite all these benefits, our forests are in trouble. Though they take up 31% of our land mass, that figure used to be just under 50%. Public awareness of deforestation has increased substantially, but, even as recently as 2015 to 2020, nearly 25 million acres of forest were lost on average each year. This is owing primarily to agricultural expansion. However, the world’s increasingly substantial fire seasons are also burning more acreage than they used to, and most are human-caused. When trees are lost, the carbon they had been storing is released, worsening our climate issues.

What We’re Doing for Trees and How You Can Help

To help support our ever-important forests, we’ve teamed up with a variety of organizations and agencies to plant trees. Some of these efforts have focused on forest loss driven by fires, deforestation, invasive species, land degradation, flooding, climate change, and other catastrophic events. Partners have included the Pan African Sanctuary Alliance, or PASA, with whom we’ve worked to plant trees in critical chimpanzee habitat.

The Minnesota Department of Natural Resources’ Future Forests Fund has also been part of our work. Through our partnership, we’ve helped plant tens of thousands of trees along Lake Superior, with the goal of establishing climate-adapted tree species, increasing deer habitat, and maintaining water quality in neighboring streams.

Your free clicks, answered trivia questions, and donations have made these projects possible. This World Conservation Day, we could use support in planting more trees, to help provide habitat to animals, improve our own wellbeing, and help fight back against climate change.

To find out how to help, click below!