Conservation / Tree Health

The non-profit CTREES is launching the first-ever digital platform for calculating the carbon in every tree on the planet, with complete accuracy.

By: Malin Rivers, Adrian C. Newton, Sara Oldfield, Global Tree Assessment Contributors

After the species was devastated by an Asian blight in the early 20th century, a single American chestnut tree in Centreville has been deemed a “precious resource” by the Delaware Nature Society. Jim White, a senior fellow at the Delaware Nature Society, said the tree discovered at Coverdale Farm Preserve is the largest and oldest he’s seen in his 50-year career. “For people who are interested in trees, that’s kind of a holy grail-type thing, to see a big American chestnut,” he said. “I’ve never seen anything that size anywhere, and very few people have.”

Perched among the fronds of the world’s loneliest tree, Viswambharan Sarasan had an important decision to make. Sarasan had worked for years to get access to this palm — the last living member of the species Hyophorbe amaricaulis, which grows in Curepipe Botanic Gardens, Mauritius.

By Shihab Jamal

For the first time, researchers have completed threat assessments for all 881 native tree species in the contiguous United States, resulting in a comprehensive checklist and synthesis that will serve as a critical baseline to guide future tree conservation efforts.

A conservation team has rediscovered a native magnolia tree in a forest in Haiti for the first time since it was lost to science in 1925.

Boasting pure white flowers and uniquely shaped leaves, the northern Haiti magnolia (Magnolia emarginata) was found originally in the forest of Morne Colombo, which has since been destroyed by deforestation. It was considered endangered and featured on the International Union for Conservation of Nature’s red list of threatened species, and its discovery has sparked new hope for the potential rewilding of Haiti’s forests.

A new genomic study of the rarest pine tree in the world, the Torrey pine, aimed at bolstering the case for a genetic rescue of the species barely surviving in the western U.S., revealed the complexity and risk associated with the endeavor. However, a tree geneticist at Penn State who oversaw the research suggests it may benefit efforts she is involved in to save other species in the East.

(July 7, 2022)—Botanical researchers representing a coalition of more than 10 institutions have discovered an oak tree once thought to be extinct, and now in immediate need of conservation within Big Bend National Park in Texas.

In a new global study of more than 46,000 species of trees, an international team of researchers has shown that many tree species are under substantial pressure and poorly protected. The research team, headed by Aarhus University, has also studied how this situation can be improved by means of ambitious and smart designation of new protected natural areas.

Trees play an important role for natural ecosystems, for our climate and for societies across the world. However, recent research shows that many tree species are rare, and are at risk of disappearing.