For two decades a nurseryman has led a team of men all over the world to snip branches from some of the world’s largest and most durable trees. They plan to clone these trees in an effort to restore ancient forests and help fight climate change.
The real challenge is getting these specimens into the ground. Over two dozen California redwoods were planted in seven nations on Monday. Austrailia, Canada, Germany, Great Britain, Ireland, New Zealand and the U.S. all welcomed the mighty redwoods onto their soil.
The trees are just a little over a foot tall, but they are genetic duplicates of three trees that were cut down almost a century ago. David Milarch, co-founder of the Archangel Ancient Tree Archive said that “this is a first step towards mass production,” since his nonprofit is leading this project. He truly believes that reforesting the planet is imperative, and using the oldest trees to do so makes the most sense.
He became concerned with the world’s forests in the 1990s and searched the world for “champion” trees that had lived for hundreds or even thousands of years. The Archangel’s believe that these old trees have superior genes, which has allowed them to survive this long.
Recently, they have focused on towering sequoias and redwoods. They consider these trees to be best suited to absorb massive volumes of carbon dioxide, the greenhouse gas primarily responsible for climate change.
“If we get enough of these trees out there, we’ll make a difference,” said Jared Milarch, the group’s executive director.
The challenge is “finding places to put the trees, in addition to locating people who will nurture them”, Jared Milarch said. Archangel functions purely on donations ans clones.
While it’s true that many trees will be planted on Arbor Day, 90 percent of them will die due to neglect/ David Milarch said “you can’t plant trees and walk away and expect them to take care of themselves.”
Although, the various recipients of Archangel redwoods have pledged to care for them properly, he said.
What do you think about the genetically produced trees? Do you think they are the answer to global warming, or just a waste of time and money?