Wisconsin Nature at Home: Everyone as Conservationist

I spent the past couple of posts musing on various human impacts on water. Water's the easy one. Let's talk carbon.

Since the dawn of time, man created carbon emissions. Prehistoric man burned wood or dry dung to cook, for light, for heat. Early humans burned grasslands to hunt. Fire was used to fashion tools from the Stone Age through to the Iron Age. Kilns fired pottery and bricks essential to the development of civilization.

The Industrial Revolution and urbanization brought increased carbon emissions. The burning of coal for heat and cooking as well as steam power to drive machines, trains, and ships. Whale oil lit lamps. Similar technologies were used to turn turbines at coal-fired power plants. Later petroleum pumped from the ground and burned for driving our automobiles, airplanes, and modern industries. As industrialization has spread to all continents, the need to consume fossil fuels has only increased. Even "cleaner" burning natural gas which can be used to heat homes, create electric energy and warm water heaters still puts green houses gasses into the atmosphere.

Since the time of the Industrial Revolution forests have been felled at a rate earlier generations couldn't have imagined. A Paul Bunyan story I remember from my childhood pits the legendary lumberjack against a steam powered saw which narrowly defeats the giant. The point being that industrialized outfits could take down forests much more quickly than before. Old growth forests in the United States were largely wiped out by 1900s. Most of the forests even in heavily forest covered states like Wisconsin are less than 125 years. Reforesting was a core a mission of the CCC during the Great Depression.

Increased production of greenhouse gases coupled with the loss of forests is devastating to the atmosphere. Trees are amazing at taking carbon out of the atmosphere. Forests are a key part of carbon sequestration or containment. The carbon is fuel for growth; it ends up in the wood and in the roots.

The current burning of forests in Brazil, Bolivia, and Indonesia is hugely problematic. Not only are we losing an important tool for capturing carbon, but as the forests burn tons of carbon are put back into the atmosphere. At the same time studies indicate that we are losing urban trees in the United States as well.

Loss of urban trees isn't really surprising. Woodlots are cut down to develop property. Invasive species like Emerald Ash Borer have devastated native tree populations. Anecdotally from driving through newer neighborhoods, yards don't have many trees. Trees were once part of the American yard; they were important sources of fruit and shade. Planting shade trees to the south and west was as an important way to keep your house cool. Tree lines to the north helped break winter winds. Now many yards have an ornamental tree or two as decoration and homes are cooled and heated by HVAC.

So there are two high level actions you can take:

1) Plants trees and shrubs in your yard to help sequester carbon. Trees and shrubs and other woody plants sequester significantly more carbon than turf grass. Likewise other deep rooted plants like Big Blue Stem will sequester more carbon than turf grass. But seriously trees, big ones.

2) Reduce your carbon footprint. There are a lot of things you can do here. Some cheap, some expensive. I'm not going to enumerate everything. But here are some thoughts:

    A) Look at your transportation. Is it time to go EV or Hybrid? Or even just a really efficient car like a subcompact? Can you use public transportation? Carpool? What about biking, walking, etc? Or moving closer to where you work / shop to reduce driving?

    B) Look at your energy use at home. Are things getting turned off when not in use? What's your thermostat set to? Can it be set warmer in the summer so the AC doesn't run so much? Can it be set cooler in the winter? Can you use a more energy efficient water heater like one that heats on demand? Are you efficiently using natural light where you can?

    C) The big one. Can you generate your own power? Solar panels are becoming less expensive. Even if you can't completely go off the grid, solar is a pretty good way to create power. In some places, heat pump technology can be an effective means to climate control your home as well.

The solutions here are varied, and when put together constitute a total change in lifestyle. We need to be planting trees. Lawns needs to look more like savannas and forests and less like golf courses. Transportation use and options must continue to evolve, and we must be onboard. There are many expenses we'll encounter along the way as we consider replacing water heaters, installing solar panels, and driving electric. With some luck there will also be savings as well in the form of spending less at the gas pump and hopefully writing fewer checks to the electric and gas company.

These are daunting challenges, but just as with the previous posts, we have the ability to take action and make different choices. We've tried plant our yard heavily. We have 11 trees, 21 woody shrubs, and host of prairie flowers and grasses.