re: #41 NO SMOCKING GUN!

Learned something new; planting the wrong kind of trees in the wrong places is environmentally destructive. slate.com

Yup. Though most trees which are not actually native to areas are not a danger to the environment (such as my Siberian Elm tree, which grows way bigger in Nebraska than they do in Siberia because we have two more weeks of non-winter), some trees are a threat to local environments, crowding out native trees and plants.

I still want a honey locust tree for yard defence though.

From the Slate article:

The passion for planting trees comes partly from the fact that, in some places, they sequester carbon.

All trees sequester carbon (as do all plants). Trees give up carbon when they die and rot or are burned.

The black cherry tree which became part of my wife’s cherry kitchen table a hundred years ago still has all the carbon it sequestered from the day the table was made.