Book 17, Question 141
How Does Planting Trees Help Heal a Rainforest?
Planting trees helps heal a rainforest by bringing back homes for wildlife! Groups collect seeds from native trees, grow them in nurseries, and plant them where the forest was lost. It takes decades, so protecting old forests comes first.
More fun facts
- At the Agua Salud project in Panama, Smithsonian scientists study how replanted and regrowing forests help heal damaged land.
- Their data showed that tropical forests act like a sponge, soaking up water in rainy times and slowly releasing it in dry times.
- That means more water during the dry season for the Panama Canal, drinking water, power and farms.
- Young forests pull in carbon surprisingly fast, even on poor soil.
- Forests only 20 years old already hold more than 40 percent of the plant material found in 300 year old forests.
- Trees that add nitrogen to the soil can store carbon up to nine times faster than other trees.
- Native trees like cocobolo and amarillo outperformed teak on many kinds of soil and with different amounts of rain.
- In about 30 years, the mix of tree species in a regrowing forest starts to look like a mature forest.
Sources: Smithsonian
Questions kids ask
How long does it take for rain to soak into the soil properly again?
At Agua Salud, water soaking into the upper soil recovered within about 15 years.