My niece asked me why we can't just plant a trillion trees

We were looking at a picture book about forests last weekend, and she said 'if we need more trees, why don't we just plant a whole bunch, like a trillion?' I had to explain it's not that simple, needing the right land, water, and care for them to actually survive and help. Has anyone found a good way to explain the limits of big tree-planting projects to kids?

4 comments

4 Comments

hollyl252mo ago

Yeah, I saw a thing about how some big planting projects fail because they put trees where they don't naturally grow. So even if you plant them, they just die. What's a good way to tell a kid that without making them feel hopeless?

wade8712mo ago

People forget trees are part of a whole living system. You need the right bugs, birds, and fungi in the soil for a forest to be healthy. Just sticking a trillion baby trees in the ground misses that bigger picture. It's like trying to build a house with only nails and no wood or tools. The trees might not grow strong, and the whole plan falls apart.

spencer_owens582mo ago

Wait, who's gonna water a trillion trees?

max_torres4425d ago

oh man that's the exact question that made me give up on my backyard tree project a few years back. i wanted to plant a dozen native oaks to help with the soil erosion and shade and stuff. thought it would be easy. turns out those little saplings need a solid gallon of water every other day for the first two summers if you want them to actually live. a dozen trees kicked my butt so bad i can't imagine a trillion. i had to drag a hose around for an hour every other night and still lost three of them to drought despite my best effort. and that's just a dozen. who's gonna do that on a global scale? nobody has that kind of time or water.