Ancient Sequoias Might Hold The Key To Reversing Climate Change

While debates continue on which action is the best and most efficient at curbing Climate Change; a group of Arborists and Tree Climbers who are largely volunteers under the “Archangel Ancient Tree Archive”- have begun planting thousands of trees in order to do their part in protecting our world.

The Archangel Ancient Tree Archive gathers hundreds of genetic samples specifically from the Native California Sequoia’s; which can grow up to 300 feet tall and reach ages of 3,000 years old. The group says that these trees are very suitable for fighting Global Warming due to their robustness.

“It’s really a race against time,” David Milarch, co-founder of the project, told the Associated Press. “If we start right now, we can go after climate change and reverse it before it’s too late.”

Recently a group of a dozen volunteers visited California’s Sierra Nevada region, and scaled the sequoias and redwoods to collect samples. The samples were then transported back to the Archangel lab in Copemish, Michigan, where they were snipped into about 2,000 shoots and placed into jars with mixtures of peat, gel and growth hormones. These shoots then began to grow as individual “baby” versions of the 3,000 year old trees. They plan on planting these new shoots later this year.

In order to preserve existing tree’s genetic make-up and to propagate the genes that have produced success. They have cloned 170 types of trees and planted more than 300,000 of them in seven countries. Mr. Milarch believes that both the size and hardiness of the sequoia trees will make them ideal for absorbing greenhouse gases.

Resilience is an important attribute of trees, especially trees that you want around when fighting environmental changes. Native Sequoias work very well in this aspect because of their ability to turn off Their stomata (pores in their leaves) and essentially live off of stored water reserves. Normally giant sequoias can use up to 800 gallons of water a day during the growing season. The nice thing is that they absorb large amounts of CO2 from the atmosphere and are relatively resistant to diseases and fires. This alone makes them a good candidate for long term climate solutions.

Monterey-based horticulture consultant Bill Werner, who has worked with the Archangel Ancient Tree Archive has said- “It may be a drop in the bucket, but at least somebody’s doing something.”

With that in mind, please remember to to do your part to keep our home clean, any bit of recycling, planting, and even car pooling will help. If we all act as a drop in the bucket, then collectively we will be the bucket of water.