See:California’s Redwood Trees Are Best in the World at Storing CO2
Local Democrats call on the Supervisors to Protect Trees
Yesterday, the official branch of the local Democratic Party passed a resolution urging the Board of Supervisors to put in place by the end of the year, a temporary “ time out “ on applications for significant tree removal projects and “county approved” tree removal projects until such time as the scheduled update of the County Tree Protection Ordinance is completed. The “time out” does not apply to work conducted around individual homes or communities for fire protection.
The urgent request was passed based upon the “Declaration of Climate Emergency” the Board passed in September and on the scientific conclusion that the most effective tools we have right now to take CO2 out the atmosphere are trees, forests, and woodlands. Their protection and expansion are, therefore critically important to all efforts to protect our people and environment from climate change. Because we only have 11-12 years to make changes to prevent our climate from warming beyond 1.5 degrees Celsius, we need mature trees to keep on pulling down the vast carbon amounts they are capable of sequestering, and we need many more trees.
The County’s policies currently allow large land owners to bull doze oak woodlands without mitigation or meaningful environmental review. Oaks are very good at sequestering carbon as are maples, firs, and many more. From the period 2007 – 2013, approximately 950 acres of woodlands were ruined in Sonoma County.