Why Trees?

Dear Mr. Green Guy, Everyone tells me I should plant trees on my land. Why?

Aside from beauty, trees provide huge ecological benefits. This diagram is pretty self explanatory. Trees help absorb excess runnoff, contribute to deep seepage for aquifer recharge, intercept rainfall so it doesn't fall so hard on the land creating erosion, and contribute in all the ways this diagram demonstrates. Yes, Dear Mr. Good Guy can't say enough good things about planting trees!

Storm Water vs. Run off.

Dear Mr. Green Guy;

What's the difference between rain falling on the ground and rain falling on the roof and then to the ground? It's all on the ground. Why do I need to do a fancy hookup system like the city is demanding?

An Irrigated home owner

The difference is this. As little as one hundred years ago, or less, your site probably was covered with trees, shrubs and groundcovers. These natural plantings easily collected the rain on their leaves and branches before it fell to the ground. The rain dropping from leaf to leaf was softer, reducing erosion and splashing that would result if it free fell from the sky directly onto the ground.

Finally, the decomposing forest material, called duff, can be 3" to 3' thick. This duff would have been able to absorb several times it's weight in water. If a square foot 4" thick weighted 15 lbs, then it could possibly have held 30lbs of water or 3 gallons. Duff is nature's sponge.

Most developers and builders will not only cut down most of the trees and remove the understory, but they will scrape the duff off the land. While this may make foundation work and site work easier initially it leaves the soil void of nutrients and microorganisms and often compacted from heavy equipment and poor site management. Plus without plants, duff or tilth incapable of absorption.

The bottom line is with the duff gone, the soil compacted, few to no trees or plantings to catch and slow down the rain water, your roof water will accumulate, drop harshly to the earth, run off your site in rivulets, hit the road and run like a river into gutters, sewer drains or ditches, rivers and streams, and the ocean. Neighbors, cities and towns are left with flooding, poor aquifer recharge and our good potable water being mixed with sewage or salt.

Hook up those down spouts for wise water management. Better yet, collect the roof water into a pond and wetland to enjoy its beauty, habitat and natural absorption into the earth. The pond below was newly constructed to capture roof water. This pond flows, by way of a 100' stream into a larger pond and then overflows into a wetland.

Too big!

Dear Mr. Green Guy says this tractor isn't sustainable. See the man down by the tracks. No way can this machine move softly on the land.