Commentary
Nature-Based Solutions
This is one in a continuing series of educational columns about fostering environmental stewardship and leadership coordinated by ACES — The Alliance of Climate and Environmental Stewards.
In the recently concluded COP29 climate summit, one of the important elements of climate care highlighted was developing more "nature-based solutions.”
Nature-based solutions relate to everything from rewilding beavers near streams and ponds to curing land, denuded of trees and with few marshlands for biodiversity to bloom. To help jump start rewilding in the UK, the former UK Prime Minister, Boris Johnson, gifted his father a group of beavers on his 80th birthday. Although native to Britain, excessive hunting has made them almost extinct. Bringing a handful of wolves back into Yellowstone began as a rewilding effort, but helped the environment in other ways as well. Little streams which had warmed over the years began to cool as wolves scattered the elk and deer and the resulting regrowth of vegetation cooled the streams. Trout came back as did small birds and mammals who benefited from that vegetative “edge effect.”
Planting and responsibly harvesting trees can serve as a nature-based solution for climate change because trees sequester carbon and can also be used to replace some plastics. For instance, there are important design efforts underway by several universities to replace plastics with fiber-based packaging. New construction methods using wood frame construction rather than climate-damaging concrete on larger buildings are emerging and developers and trade unions around the world are starting to see the benefits. Trees can also be effective in creating a variety of niches from your back yard oak trees to the cork oak forests of Spain or the old olive groves of the Mediterranean region.
We can also personally enact our own nature-based solutions. For instance, we can establish a new family tradition of planting a tree or lilac bush in remembrance of a relative’s birthday or a recently deceased loved one. Find some space in your or a sibling’s yard, or ask a friendly local land owner to allow you to plant one in theirs.
New England may want to reinforce its shorelines as protection from rising sea level and bigger storms by rebuilding historically large oyster reefs. Well-developed oyster reefs break up wave energy, protecting coastlines from wave erosion and storm damage. When these reefs disappear due to over-harvesting, habitat destruction and disease, the benefits also go away. In the Netherlands, the World Wildlife Federation recently led a nature-based solution project to engineer new oyster reefs, which improve water quality as they filter feed and provide nursery habitat for feeder fish species and vegetation. What if locally Joppa Flats and the Plum Island Basin had oysters replanted? We could benefit from both reduced health concerns, such as eliminating red tide events, and the fortification of our ocean edges. Can we advocate for a pilot project here like the one in Boston Harbor by UMass Boston?
COP29 ended with appeals for more climate-related financing and enhanced economic tools. Maybe local farmers and woodlot owners can form a co-op to document and quantify their land's carbon storing capacities and find ways to offer this as carbon credits to the world market. And while we’re at it, let’s do a scientifically designed survey of Newburyport’s twenty-six parks and water department woodlands and document their carbon storage capacity. Maybe such a survey will identify where to plant more trees, reduce runoff into our rivers, and monetize carbon credits for the benefit of taxpayers and land owners.
We humans are part of nature and we can be part of the solution. Natural Resources team leader is Lon Hachmeister who can contacted at lonehachmeister@aol.com.
ACES believes we can make a BIG difference together. Team members invite you to stay updated on environmental matters by subscribing to our monthly newsletter via the “Join Our List” link on this page. Please consider joining our community of stewards who are committed to Make Every Day Earth Day by contacting acesnewburyport@gmail.com.
This educational column first appeared in The Daily News of Newburyport on December 13, 2024.