Trees do many things for us, provide shade on a hot day, hold soil in place, produce food, release oxygen and capture carbon dioxide to name a few.

At a time when we are worried about the amount of carbon dioxide in our atmosphere it is important to remember that there are nature based solutions to the issue of climate change that recruit things like trees to help.  For example, we can both plant trees and protect existing forests, both actions result in carbon capture.

Now, not all trees are the same, some are big, some are small, some have dense wood others not so much.  Some trees are better at capturing carbon than others.  Knowing more about which trees do this job better might help us maximize the benefits of using trees to help solve climate change.  To this end, we have made a simple web-app that will calculate the amount of carbon a tree has captured both in its lifetime and this year.  All you have to do is find a tree, figure out what type it is, measure its diameter and height, enter your observations into the app and discover exactly how much work it has been doing for us.  Compare your tree to others nearby and look for patterns.  Consider graphing your observations for deeper insights.

Below is our Tree Carbon Calculator and a few other resources that might help you deepen your understanding of trees, carbon capture and climate change. Note: if you can’t see the Tree Summary you may need to scroll down over the web-app.

You may also use visit the webapp page directly: https://survey123.arcgis.com/share/1bd29c1df8b64e0c97ed91401e170f3d

To help with tree ID we have a variety downloadable worksheets that you can find here.

We also have a few video’s that you might find helpful when trying to measure a tree’s diameter or height.  Our video’s are here.