Cliff Chapman: Let’s clear the air by planting trees throughout Indiana

This summer, I attended a concert at a venue I’m old enough to still call Deer Creek. I’ve seen dozens of shows there through the years. This was one of the best. But it will stand out in my mind for something other than music: smoke.

Like many of you, I was affected by the Canadian wildfires and hazy skies earlier this summer. My eyes burned, as did—and still does—the fire inside me to do something about fires like those as well as the blazes that devastated Maui and parts of the Pacific Northwest. I hope to spark a similar fire inside of you.

Of course, you might think there’s nothing we can do about catastrophes thousands of miles away. You might think we are powerless when it comes to wildfires in other parts of the continent. But we are not. We have the power to do things here in Indiana that can reduce the likelihood of such fires. In fact, here in central Indiana, we have opportunities for impact that other places don’t, by virtue of our native hardwood forests.

To embrace these opportunities, we must accept some facts: The increasing frequency and severity of wildfires is a product of global climate change, which is in turn a product of the countless ways we release carbon into the atmosphere. At the same time, our land use, carbon credit and forest management systems have literally added fuel to the fire.

That’s where Indiana can make a difference. Our soils and meteorological conditions are nearly perfect for growing trees that absorb and lock in carbon. Our land is relatively inexpensive compared with other parts of the country. It may be more expensive to save and plant forests with oaks and hickories than it is to save and plant pine forests on untillable and undeveloped mountain landscapes. But our native hardwood trees live for centuries. They can survive droughts, floods and fires. And we expect them to be climate-resilient in the future. Those evergreens generally used for carbon offsets, on the other hand, are short-lived, vulnerable and highly combustible.

Some still will argue for protecting and planting evergreen forests. They’ll say such forests make use of cheaper land that isn’t productive for farming or other uses, and they’ll point out that the timber isn’t very valuable. They’ll say you get more bang for your buck.

I say they’re wrong—and data backs me up. For example, a recent CarbonPlan study of six forests in California’s carbon trading system showed that, as a result of fires, those forests had released 95% of the carbon they were intended to sequester. In some ways, it’s the equivalent of a dam suddenly surrendering water that was being saved to offset droughts over the next century.

The simple truth is, Indiana is uniquely qualified to provide the planet with cost-effective carbon-absorption systems. So, sure, when I argue for land conservation and the planting of trees, I’m advocating saving Indiana’s incredible natural places. But I’m also arguing for saving the planet. And we can’t waste any time.

I saw a friend at my concert this summer. We hugged each other and then immediately talked about the air quality, not the performance. That’s how bad the air was. I say it’s time to clear the air, and we in Indiana can play a pivotal role in doing just that by protecting and expanding our hardwood forests.•

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Cliff Chapman is president and CEO of the Central Indiana Land Trust.