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Amazing Tree Facts
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(from the New York Times)
- A mature tree removes 48 pounds of carbon dioxide (C02) per
year from the air (roughly 10 tons per.acre).
- The amount of carbon stored annually by an acre of trees is
approximately equal to the amount released by burning 1,000 gallons
of gasoline.
- A tree that provides shade and wind protection to buildings
can indirectly cause, via energy conservation, reductions in carbon
dioxide emissions equal to 15 times the amount of carbon dioxide
the tree will absorb.
(from Journal of Arboriculture V. 16(6) 1990 p. 144)
- One acre of trees annually consumes the amount of carbon dioxide
equivalent to that produced by driving an average car for 26,000
miles. That same acre of trees also produces enough oxygen for
18 people to breathe for a year.
- A deciduous tree, like the American beech, that is 80-100 years
old has about 1,600 square yards of leaf surface area to which
dust particles can adhere.
- A healthy tree stores about 13 lbs. of carbon each year, and
a healthy acre of trees can store 2.6 tons of carbon a year.
- It takes the wood from a 100-foot tree to keep the average American
supplied for a year with newspaper, books, magazines, tissues,
paper towels, housing materials, furniture, desks, fences, boxes
and other assorted wood products. On the average that use amounts
to:
- 613 lbs. of paper products
- 200 square feet of 1" thick lumber
- 87 square feet of plywood
- 59 square feet of insulation board, particle board and hardboard
Vital statistics for that 100-foot tree:
- 18" in diameter at the base
- 100 feet tall with a 60-70 foot crown spread 0 weighs about
4,100 lbs. at harvest
- grew 200,000 leaves @ 120 lbs. per year or 3,600 lbs. over
its lifetime
- 1,300 lbs. of roots (an additional 2,000 lbs. were grown
and discarded)
- 100 lbs. of nutrients retained in the wood (twice that
amount were returned to the soil)
- took up over 5,000,000 gallons of water from the soil and
transpired it into the air; 350 gallons of water (2,900 lbs.)
were retained
- 6,000 lbs. of oxygen given off
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