Historic, Arcliive Document

Do not assume content reflects current
scientific knowledge, policies, or practices.

^^ ^ ^ f United States Department of Agriculture • Forest Service

Program Aid No. 1442

6/

Trees
Are the Answer ♦ ♦ ♦

The Tree Planting Program
Has Taken Root

Fielden "Sonny" Poirier has given
up trying to grow oats and other
grains on 90 sandy, eroding acres
on his farm in Bonner County, ID. "I
spent quite a bit of money to keep the
land in production over the years, and
it's been an uphill battle," he says.

But Poirier hasn't given up on his land.
In 1987 and 1988, he enrolled the
acreage in the Federal Conservation
Reser\'e Program (CRP). With financial
assistance from the Government, Poirier
planted a new "crop" — 47,000 ponder-
osa pines.

The trees won't yield a financial return
for several decades, but Poirier says that
isn't his main concern. "Some of that
land probably never should have been
cleared in the first place," he says. "In
the long run, I think it will be more
profitable put back in trees — and better
for the soil."

All across the country, seedlings are
growing on what were once eroding farm
fields, thanks to the CRP. This Federal
conservation program, created by the
Food Security Act of 1985, is projected
to be the largest publicly sponsored tree

planting program to date. It is designed
to encourage farmers like Sonny Poirier
to stop growing annual crops on lands
that are most vulnerable to wind or
water erosion.

Instead of farming fragile acres, farmers
who participate in the CRP are paid to
take the land out of production for 10
years. To protect the soil from the
effects of wind and water, it is planted in
vegetation such as trees or perennial
grasses. These "cover" plantings may
not be harv^ested during the 10-year
contract period, although trees can be
sold commercially after the agreement
has expired.

In the first 3 years of the program, about
2 million acres had already been set
aside for trees.

Other Federal programs are also helping
trees take root. Under the U.S.
Department of Agriculture's Forestry

Incentives Program and Agricultural
Conservation Program, the Government
shares the cost of tree planting with
private landowners. Under these
programs, more than 8 million acres of
trees and shrubs have been planted.

Forestry, agricultural and environmental
officials are eyeing a variety of addi-
tional proposals to broaden the Nation's
tree planting efforts. In addition to
expanding planting on cropland and
pastureland, they are working to put
more trees around houses, in towns, and
along highways and to encourage
woodlots on industrial lands.

Why trees?

Trees offer short-term and long-term
benefits that few other cover plantings
can match. Because of their extensive

2

root systems, trees are as effective, and
in many cases more effective, than other
types of vegetation for keeping soil
where it belongs — on the ground and
out of waterways. Trees also provide
shelter for many kinds of birds and
animals.

In addition, trees offer another benefit,
one that is gaining more attention as
people grow increasingly concerned
about the greenhouse effect and global
climate change. Changes in global
climate are caused, in part, by the
buildup of carbon dioxide in the atmos-
phere. Because trees use carbon dioxide
in the photosynthetic process and store
carbon in their wood, large-scale refores-
tation may be one way to counteract the
greenhouse effect.

Trees provide these benefits for decades,
because once farmland is planted in
trees, it tends to stay in trees. The
records of previous farmland reserve
programs bear that out. For example,
approximately 90 percent of the acres
planted in trees under the Soil Bank
program of the 1950's and 1960's have
remained forested, while many of the
Soil Bank acres planted in grass have
been returned to crop production.

Taxpayers benefit from trees, too. Gov-
ernment expenditures to promote tree
planting will "buy" decades worth of
conservation on planted acreage. In
addition, those programs that foster tree
planting on cropland are expected to
shave billions of dollars from the U.S.
Department of Agriculture's agricultural
support program expenditures, because
the Government will not need to make
price and income support payments for
surplus production of crops like wheat,
com, sorghum, barley, and oats.

When land is planted to trees, the
Nation is also insuring badly needed
future timber supplies. The Forest
Service estimates that the total demand
for wood products will increase by
almost 10 percent by the year 2000 and
as much as 40 percent by the year 2030.
Tree plantings on private lands will help
satisfy these future needs for wood.

But perhaps the greatest value of a tree
planting program is the way it takes the
future into account, says John Bethea,
former State Forester of Florida. "We're
a now generation — we tend to live very
much in the present," he says."But when
we're dealing with environmental
matters as serious as the loss of soil
productivity, the degradation of our
waters, and possible changes in our
climate, we need to find ways to think
not only about the here and now, but
about what's down the road."

"When we plant trees," he says, "we are
doing both."

Planting Trees — An Investment
in the Environment

When one forester was asked
"Why plant trees?" he gave a
simple answer: "We feel
better being around them."

We feel better around trees, whose
graceful forms relieve the monotony of
straight roads and row-cropped fields.
We feel better around trees, whose
shade cools on a hot summer day. But
we also feel better around trees because
they literally make our environment
healthier. At the same time that they
hold the soil, trees reduce water pollu-
tion, clean the air, and help wildlife.
The result is an environment that is a

better place to be — for us and for all
the creatures we share it with.

Trees Help Fields
"Hold Their Ground"

Every year, more than 3 billion tons of
topsoil erode from our Nation's crop-
lands. But all fields don't erode at equal
rates. Hilly fields, fields with light,
sandy soils, and fields that are more
often exposed to wind and water are
among those that tend to lose the
greatest amounts of soil when they are
plowed up for crop production. These
are the fields that will benefit from tree
planting.

Data from the Conservation Reserve
Program demonstrate how well trees can
help fields retain their soil. When it was
in crop production, the typical CRP
field lost more than 22 tons of soil per
acre per year, a rate that is about three
times the national average for cultivated
cropland. But after the land was entered
in the program and planted in trees or
other protective covers, erosion rates
dropped dramatically — to only 1.6 tons
per acre, according to a Federal study of
the CRP's impact, entitled "Conserva-
tion Reserve Program: Progress Report
and Preliminary Evaluation of the First
Two Years."

Trees Reduce Water and
Wind Erosion

Trees help reduce the effects of water
erosion with the aid of their roots and
crowns. The extensive root system
reaches out around the tree, holding
soil in place. At the same time, leafy
crowns — and the fallen leaves or
needles that accumulate at the base of
trees — help break the force of rain and
slow the rate at which water enters the
soil. As a result, rainwater is more likely
to be absorbed into the ground than to
wash off the surface of the land, carrying
soil with it.

Trees also reduce wind erosion. Rows of
trees planted at the edges of fields as

windbreaks help reduce soil losses by
blunting the force of winds and blizzards.
According to one estimate, a field wind-
break helps reduce wind erosion in an
area about 10 times the height of the
windbreak times its length.

Trees Keep Rivers and Streams Clean

Soil erosion is one of the major causes of
water quality problems in many of the
Nation's streams, lakes, and estuaries.
Sediments running off fields cloud
waters and cover over aquatic habitats;
the fertilizers they carry with them cause
excessive algae growth, while pesticides
can threaten the health of fish and
wildlife.

By holding soils in place, trees signifi-
cantly reduce the amount of soil that
washes into waterways. Trees and other
vegetation planted as filter strips along-
side rivers and streams are especially
effective in trapping cropland soils and
keeping them out of waterways.

In addition, because farmers use much
lower amounts of fertilizer and pesticides
on forested acres than they do on crop-
land, tree planting produces a significant
decline in the amounts of agricultural
chemicals that make their way into
streams. According to the CRP evalu-
ation, that program alone could reduce
by 3 percent the amount of fertilizer

used annually on the Nation's farm-
lands. Further reductions are possible as
more acreage is planted in trees. Other
studies suggest that similar reductions in
pesticide use can be expected as well.

In areas where large amounts of farm-
land have been planted in trees, "water
bodies and wetlands that are impaired by
pollutants from highly erodible cropland
are expected to show a significant im-
provement," according to the CRP
evaluation.

These water quality improvements will
pay off in healthier fish and wildlife and
in improved swimming, fishing, boating,
and waterfowl hunting.

At the same time, taxpayers will benefit
from reductions in the hefty costs associ-
ated with cleaning up fouled streams.
According to a 1985 study by the Con-
servation Foundation, the "off farm"
costs of cropland erosion — the costs of
cleaning up waterways for recreation, of
treating water for drinking, and of
dredging channels for navigation —
amount to more than $2 billion a year.

Trees Can Help Counteract
the Greenhouse Effect

Global climate changes are caused, in
part, by a buildup in the atmosphere of
carbon dioxide (CO,), generated when

5

fossil fuels are burned. The CO^ gas acts
something like the glass of a greenhouse:
It allows the sun's rays to penetrate and
warm the earth, but then traps the
longer wave heat rays that would
otherwise radiate back into space. This
causes the earth's temperature to gradu-
ally rise and leads to climate changes.

However, because trees use CO^ in the
photosynthetic process, they can help
reduce amounts of this gas in the atmos-
phere. According to the American
Forestry Association, an acre of trees
uses about 2.6 tons of CO^ per year.
The Environmental Defense Fund,
meanwhile, estimates that 10 million
acres of new forest could absorb virtually
all the CO^ emitted by the power plants
to be built in the U.S. over the next
decade.

Admittedly, tree planting represents
only one step of many needed to address
the climate change problem. Yet,
considering the severity of the threat
and the fact that vast tropical forests
continue to be destroyed around the
world, scientists and environmentalists

are paying increased attention to the
role that a domestic reforestation effort
could play in countering the greenhouse
effect.

Moreover, forest replanting is one of the
most cost-effective ways of reducing the

CO^ buildup. A University of Califor-
nia study found, for example, that
reducing CO, by one pound through
tree planting costs 0.3 to 1.3 cents. It
would cost 2.5 cents to accomplish the
same thing by increasing the energy
efficiency of appliances, and 10 cents to
achieve the same CO^ reduction by
building more fuel-efficient cars.

Trees Help Wildlife

Once trees have had a chance to get es-
tablished, they could mean a boom in
such farm or forest wildlife species as
deer, turkey, fox, raccoons, squirrels,
quail, owls, and songbirds, to name only
a few.

For a number of reasons, wildlife do well
on forested land. First, trees and other
permanent vegetation provide them
with den and nesting sites that remain
undisturbed as the wildlife raise their
young. At the same time, trees and
special wildlife plantings provide pine
cones, nuts, fruits, and berries for food.
Tree stands also offer shelter from severe
weather and places where wildlife and
birds can escape predators.

Trees Pay Off for Landowners

The way that CM. Stripling sees
it, putting cropland into a tree
planting program "isn't idling
land, it's finding a viable new use."

Stripling says it has often been a struggle
for Georgia farmers like himself to make
much of a profit from the soybeans, com,
peanuts, and other row crops they tried
to grow on the State's sandy soils. But,
he says, "with pine trees you can do it."

Taking advantage of financial incentives
provided by a Government tree planting
program. Stripling has replanted 177 of

those marginal acres to pines. He chose
a mix of slash and loblolly pine for the
better sites and sand pine and longleaf
pine for sandier areas.

In Argenta, IL, meanwhile, Alvin and
Connie Boyd have found a new use for
an eroding 24-acre soybean field. In
1988, the couple enrolled the rolling
acreage into a Federal program and
planted 10,500 black walnut seedlings.

One of the advantages of trees to people
like the Striplings and Boyds, is that
trees can be harvested. Quick-growing

softwoods can begin to show returns in
about 15 or 20 years; hardwoods Uke
walnut trees take 30 to 40 years or more
to grow to marketable size.

Trees are usually relatively inexpensive
to plant (under some programs, the
Government helps share the cost of
buying and planting the seedlings), and
they're easy to maintain. Some land-
owners hire commercial tree planting
contractors to do the work or obtain a
tree planting machine from county con-
servation oftices and do the work
themselves. The Boyds installed their
trees with a planter Alvin built himself
from scrap iron.

Timber Profit Outlook

Just how much of a profit can trees
yield? That depends on the species
chosen, establishment costs, growing
conditions, and future market condi-
tions. At this point, the future looks
bright for trees planted on private land,
according to Forest Service projections.
Trees established today, will go to
market over the next 20 to 40 years.
Because demand is expected to exceed
supply, these trees should find a ready
market.

To give an indication of the ways trees
can pay off, Mr. Stripling, the Georgia
farmer, points to the income he has
received over the years from 450 acres of

pines that he planted in the 1950's and
60's under the Soil Bank, an earlier
Federal cropland retirement program.
So far, he has sold 14,000 cords of pulp-
wood and other products for $288,000;
the 300 acres of timber that are still
standing are worth an additional
$375,000, excluding the value of the
land. In addition, he was paid $54,000
by the Government to enroll the land in
the program.

Conditions for tree planting are espe-
cially favorable in the South, where soils
are suited to fast growing conifers,
growing seasons are long, and lumber
mills plentiful. But forestry experts say
there is a large untapped potential for
commercial forest plantings in other
regions of the country', as well.

Conservation Benefits

Ot course, the benefits from trees don't
lie only m their potential to generate
cash. There are a variety of other tree
planting options whose main advantages
are conservation-related. Rural land-
owners might choose to install wind-
breaks, plantings for wildlife, or filter
strips along streams or lakes, or to return
a cropped wetland to native hardwood
trees. Urban dwellers might plant shade
trees around their homes, reducing
utility costs.

Eventually, those farmers who are tilling
erodible land may need to adopt these or
similar soil saving practices anyway, in
order to meet Federal conservation

8

regulations. Under the conservation
comphance provisions of the 1985 farm
bill, farmers must develop and be
actively applying an approved soil con-
ser\'ation plan for all highly erodible
fields by 1990, and have that plan fully
in effect by 1995, or they will lose their
eligibility for certain U.S. Department
of Agriculture farm program benefits.
As a result, many producers could take
advantage of financial incentives avail-
able under Federal tree planting pro-
grams "to do what they ultimately may
be required to do to be in compliance,"
points out an official with the USDA's
Agricultural Stabilization and Conserva-
tion Sen.'ice.

Other Farm Impacts

Tree planting on former cropland may
also help drive up crop prices, which will
work to the farmer's advantage, CM.
Stripling points out. By taking millions
of acres out of current crop production,
surpluses will be reduced. "Those who
want to continue to farm will have a
better chance of success because there
will be less competition at the market-
place," he says.

But CM. Stripling says that for himself,
the greatest motivation to put land into
trees comes from neither the dictates of
the Government nor the incentives of
the marketplace, but rather from the
value that he places on his land — for
himself and for those who come after
him.

Stripling, who is in his late 60s, admits
that he doesn't expect to live to see the
returns from his latest stands of pines.
"But when 1 plant trees, I know I'm
practicing good soil stewardship," he
says. "And 1 know that I'll be leaving
the land that we own in better shape
than we found it."

9

Branching out:
Improving on Success

The CRP tree planting effort is
on the verge of becoming the
largest publicly sponsored tree
planting program in the Nation's
history, topping the tree planting figures
tallied up by the Civilian Conservation
Corps in the 1930's and the Soil Bank
Program two decades later.

Close to 30 million acres of land were
set aside in the CRP during the pro-
gram's first 3 years, with tree planting
occurring on some 2 million of those
acres. Changes made in the program in
1988 to spur more tree planting pro-
duced a significant increase in the per-
centage of CRP land devoted to trees.

The Forestry Incentives Program, the
Agricultural Conservation Program and
State incentive programs have put
billions of additional trees into the
ground across America.

While tree planting programs have
made a good start in encouraging
reforestation across the country, there is
still room to grow. Forestry experts are
looking at some additional steps that
could be taken to help increase tree
planting.

While growing conditions and markets
for trees may be most favorable in
Southern wood producing regions,
timber producing stands can yield profits
in other regions. Stepped-up landowner
education efforts and additional finan-
cial incentives have been suggested to
encourage more tree plantings in other
regions.

In those locations where commercial
stands may not be viable, there are
other tree planting options that do
make sense. Windbreaks, filter strips,
and woody plantings for wildlife are

well suited to fields and pastures in
many parts of the country. Agriculture
and forestry officials are especially
interested in encouraging more wind-
break plantings in the Com Belt and
Great Plains areas where the trees can
significantly reduce wind erosion.

Officials are also working to involve
more urban dwellers, businesses and
corporations, and local governments in
tree planting efforts. As one Forest
Service official said: "In this age of the
greenhouse effect, trees offer our com-
munities the double benefit of reducing
CO, buildup and encouraging energy
conservation by reducing the cooling
needs of our homes and offices."

Getting Involved

Tree planting is important not
only to rural and urban land-
owners, agriculturalists, and en-
vironmentalists — but to us all. As
Nebraska landowner and tree advocate
J. Morton Porter says, "Just think how
we could transform our country if we'd
really get serious about planting trees.
Every tree we plant brings us a little
closer to a land of clear streams, deep
topsoil, lush woodlands, and abundant
wildlife."

There are a number of things people can
do to help the tree planting effort
branch out further:

• If you're a landowner, contact your
local ASCS office or State forestry
office to talk about the tree planting
options. In addition to timber-
producing stands, you might investi-
gate wildlife plantings, windbreaks,
filter strips, and wetland reforestation.

• If you're a forester or conservation
agent, meet with as many landowners
as possible to explain the benefits of
tree planting. "Many landowners
think it's going to cost an arm and a
leg and mean a lot of work," explains
one local forester. "It takes personal
contact to convince them otherwise,"
he says, "but when you're done, you
often find that the person who wasn't
going to plant any trees at all may
end up planting 20 or 30 acres."

Another way to promote tree
planting is through Ic^cal reforestation
committees. Georgia attributes its
tree planting successes, in part, to
using this approach. Consisting of
State forestry agency and forest
industry representatives, landowners,
and community leaders, these
committees identify reforestation
goals, publicize tree planting, and
make contact with landowners.
Similar committees are at work in
Alabama, South Carolina, and
Mississippi.

Conservation districts in some
States have also purchased tree
planting equipment, which they lend
to landowners. Mississippi has a goal
of making a tree planting machine
available in every county.

• If you're a conservationist, offer to
help landowners obtain seedlings and
plant them or to lend a hand with
maintenance. Time is important to
farmers, and your help could make the
difference.

Conservation groups might also
approach State officials or State law-
makers to discuss additional incen-
tives that could be adopted to
promote tree planting in their State.

• If you're an outdoor enthusiast who

hunts, fishes, or camps on a farmer's
land, this might be a good chance to
have a friendly chat with that farmer
about the benefits of trees for wildlife,
says Arkansas outdoor writer Joe
Mosby. "He doesn't need some city
slicker trying to fast-talk him into
signing up for another Government
program," he points out. "But he
might use a bit of friendly conversa-
tion, a sounding board about some of
the advantages and disadvantages of
tree planting."

Sportsmen's groups might offer to help
buy seed for wildlife habitat plantings,
assist with the plantings or provide
information on recreational leasing
agreements and landowner liability
issues.

• If you live in a city or town, begin
by planting trees around your own
home. A few well-placed trees around
a house can cut home air conditioning
bills between 10 and 50 percent.
And, as an American Forestry Asso-
ciation official says, "Tree planting is

a positive, people-sized step that any
person can take to help address global
climate change."

Kiwanis, Rotary and other business
clubs can adopt tree planting as a
community service project — distribut-
ing trees and using contests and other
methods to promote local tree
planting. At the same time, individ-
ual businesses can help by installing
trees around their own buildings and
by contributing time and money to a
larger local tree planting effort. Their
participation helps boost community
morale and the company's corporate
image.

Local officials can promote tree
planting in public places — along
streets and highways and in city parks.
They can also encourage public
utilities to begin tree planting
programs.

Finally, school children, youth groups,
garden clubs, and senior citizen groups
can be tapped to provide volunteer
labor to plant city trees.

• If you're an educator you might
adopt some local acreage as an
"outdoor classroom." Have your class
help the landowner establish the
trees; then as they take root, use the
area as a laboratory to study forest
growth and ecosystems.

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Trees Are the Answer

For the environment, tree planting:

• Protects soil productivity.

• Keeps streams clean.

• Helps counter the greenhouse effect
and global climate change.

• Enhances rural landscapes.

• Improves wildlife habitat.

For landowners, tree planting:

• Provides future income from tree
stands and the opportunity to
diversify farm operations by combin-
ing cropping with tree cultivation.

• Provides financial incentives and
technical assistance for converting
some types of land, such as
erodible cropland, to a use that is
better suited to the land.

For the economy, tree planting:

• Adds to the future wood supply.

• Adds to the stability of rural econo-
mies by providing long-term income
to farmers and jobs in the forest
products industry.

• Reduces base acreage, when trees are
planted on retired cropland. In those
cases, trees reduce crop surpluses and
Federal commodity program costs.

For More Information

For more information on tree planting
programs, contact your State or county
forestry offices, the USDA Forest
Service, the Agricultural Stabilization
and Conservation Service, the Coopera-
tive Extension Service or the Soil Con-
servation Service.

September 1989

13

United States
Department of
Agriculture