How many acres of Vashon forest does it take to offset your household’s carbon emissions each year?

Vashon Nature Center asked the Advanced Placement Environmental Science students at Vashon High School that question last winter as part of a carbon study funded by a NOAA Planet Stewards grant.

Carbon sequestration is the process of capturing atmospheric carbon and storing it in solid lifeforms like trees and kelp, or bodies of water like the Salish Sea. Trees and marine algae absorb carbon dioxide from the atmosphere through photosynthesis and store that carbon in their bodies. For centuries, the natural processes of carbon production (such as wildfires and animal flatulence) have been balanced by similar sequestration rates.

While carbon sequestration can maintain relative ecosystem balance at regular levels of natural carbon production, human activity has created rampant carbon dioxide levels in the earth’s atmosphere. Increased carbon dioxide levels create a heat-trapping effect in our atmosphere, as if a warm blanket was insulating the Earth. A warmer atmosphere can hold more water, which in the Pacific Northwest contributes to changing weather patterns like longer, hotter summers with less rain and increasingly severe winter storm events.

Research shows the mental processing of climate change information can lead to feelings of anxiety and doom. However, climate action can offset our negative feelings by making us become part of the solution. If we can contribute to rampant carbon production, why not work towards rampant carbon sequestration?

On Vashon, we are surrounded by vibrant biodiversity across all our ecosystems, from subtidal kelp forests to the lowland terrestrial forests laced with spring-fed streams and speckled with ponds. Our natural areas can be our learning lab to create a community-wide, solutions-based approach to carbon sequestration.

One mature tree can remove and store about 48 pounds of carbon dioxide each year, and getting involved can be as simple as planting a tree. Last winter, VHS AP environmental science students planted more than 300 trees and shrubs. “I discovered the feeling of helping the earth and how easy it is to give back to the earth if you truly want to,” one student said. “It is a rewarding feeling knowing that the trees planted will go towards helping mitigate the carbon in the air.”

The compound effect of positive action can push the needle toward significant progress. For example, the 300 trees planted on the island by students were part of a larger effort to plant 10,000 trees to offset carbon emissions — a goal of the inaugural Youth Hip Hop Climate Conference hosted at the University of Washington by Hip Hop Is Green and AVELA, a UW student group.

Vashon Nature Center took the environmental science students to the conference in November, where leaders from across the nation discussed career pathways in the work against climate change. The message was clear: In the face of adversity, we have to work together across boundaries and obstacles to equitably achieve progress in the work on climate change.

By taking public transportation to the conference, the Nature Center and students avoided emitting 677 kilograms of carbon from everyone taking their own vehicles.

During the planting project, students used recomposite soil — soil made from (willingly) composted dead humans. During the process, nutrients in the human body support new life in the soil, saving an estimated one metric ton of carbon dioxide per person from entering the atmosphere compared to standard burial or flame cremation. This means our mulch pile alone saved 14,000 tons of carbon entering the atmosphere.

Students will return to the planting site this spring with the help of Vashon Nature Center to monitor planting success and collect more data. Not only is their work inspiring individual action and engagement in the environment, but it’s increasing their knowledge of science and understanding of our evolving climate, too.

Each of us can be positive change-makers in our communities. For this project we worked with Hip Hop is Green, AVELA, and Vashon-Maury Island Land Trust and had funding support from NOAA Planet Stewards, Vashon Schools Foundation and Vashon PIE.

By taking action, we can push the needle toward a more balanced climate while individually pushing the needle of the climate anxiety wheel away from feelings of fear and sadness toward positivity.

Tackling issues together like this can be, as a student said, “a very rewarding experience, and it [feels] good to know we are helping give back to the Earth.”

Education and Outreach Assistant Arianna Fardad and Education Director Maria Metler are both part of Vashon Nature Center. This article was originally published by the Vashon Nature Center and has been republished with permission.

Lena Puz plants trees with the Vashon Nature Center and Vashon-Maury Island Land Trust at a Land Trust preserve. She and other advanced placement environmental science students at Vashon High School planted more than 300 trees to restore a developed property adjacent to a salmonid-bearing stream. Students also collected data to record how their project would improve the rural community’s carbon sequestration rates. (Vashon Nature Center photo)