Tree cover loss – 2001-2020

I guess I'm surprised that Finland & Sweden lost so much tree cover. Is that due to Ikea?

The vast majority of Swedish and Finish forests are managed for logging. All of the tree cover loss on this map in my area(except for some very recent that has just been logged/replanted) is today young forest which will be logged again in a few decades...

Thank you for your work at Data Lab! I've been following WRI and GFW for a while and it's important stuff.

Also working in a global public-good project [0] I strongly resemble your challenges - uncertain funding, difficulty competing for top tech talent, and relatively small teams for huge projects. But so much more importantly the amazing benefits of working on something meaningful resonate with me. The outsized positive impact each of my team members can make on the world is a pleasure to be a part of every day, despite the challenges.

Keep up the good work!

[0] https://dhis2.org

I looked at the data from some places I knew very well for over 3 decades (like around where I grew up and are still visiting parents regularly) and it looks noisy and mostly incorrect, nothing like real tree cover change.

I’ve lived in newer suburban neighborhoods where some of the homeowners would cut their developer-planted trees down to branchless stubs, just as the trees were about to grow. I wonder what would explain the aversion to a tree. I suppose they don’t want to clean leaves during fall. The beauty of nature be damned, if even one is aware of it in this instance.

I’ve also lived in the city of San Francisco. The Department of Public Works has a tree database of all the tagged city trees. Now and then there would be a 311 call about a tree getting destroyed. If you try to plant a tree seedling it too would get pulled. Some of the reasons are that trees are equated with gentrification and raising the values of that block, thus raised rents. The beauty of nature be damned, because blight is much better.

Have you ever driven through neighborhoods with trees and ones without and think of the difference?

Trees - Joyce Kilmer

I think that I shall never see A poem lovely as a tree.

A tree whose hungry mouth is prest Against the sweet earth's flowing breast;

A tree that looks at God all day, And lifts her leafy arms to pray;

A tree that may in summer wear A nest of robins in her hair;

Upon whose bosom snow has lain; Who intimately lives with rain.

Poems are made by fools like me, But only God can make a tree.