Plant Trees, Plant Hope

The Shenandoah River with the field beyond best illustrates the nutrient banking concept.

Photo by Robert Banner

Plant Trees, Plant Hope

By Robert Banner

Before the pandemic, civil unrest, and the election began dominating the headlines, trees were trending. Climate change was front page.

The Trillion Trees Act, sponsored by Rep. Bruce Westerman (R-AR) was being debated in Congress. Scientific American and National Geographic agreed. Plant trees, and you plant hope.

ACRE Investment Management in The Plains is having a big impact on the effort to reverse climate change. The company considers trees the most scalable solution for removing carbon from the atmosphere and nutrient pollution from the river system. It’s been their mission for more than 15 years.

As a result, ACRE now manages more than 42 million trees on 120,000 acres of land. You may ask, “How can I possibly play a role in a program so large?” The following may reassure you that we all can make a difference.

First, a local story. We’re partnering with Justin Mackay-Smith in Clarke County. Justin is the son of Alexander Mackay-Smith and there’s not a horseman around who does not recognize the name of the late editor of The Chronicle of The Horse. Justin is not a horseman, “just a farmer” on the family farm. Together, we’re converting 25 acres of his cropland back to forest. The new stand is designed to filter nutrient pollution (phosphorous and nitrogen) from the soil before the runoff reaches the river system.

The project is in conjunction with the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) and their nutrient trading program for state landowners. It’s designed to reduce the growing dead spot in the Chesapeake Bay and find a financial benefit for participating landowners.

A Wisconsin couple, Scott Anderson and his wife, Nicki, own and operate Artisan Dentistry, a successful dental clinic in Madison. Their commitment to socially responsible business operation—a “business for good” model— is defined by their participation in the Certified B Corporation community.

The Andersons have evaluated their carbon footprint, reduced carbon emissions where they could, and recently purchased carbon credits from our company, GreenTrees (a division of ACRE), becoming the first carbon neutral dentistry clinic in America.

“What underpins all this is our interdependency,” Anderson said. “When we’re dealing with a global pandemic that spreads based on our relational interaction, I think that primes our minds to consider the host of other interdependencies that exist between us, the environment, and our neighbors. It’s definitely changed our internal views of the people we live and work with.”

Perhaps you’ve heard about “nutrient banking” and wondered, “Can I do this on my land? What’s the benefit for me?”

It’s been determined 80 per cent of the problem creating the dead spot is caused by fertilizers leaching from fields into rivers and eventually the Bay. While fertilizers help farmers boost production, they accelerate the growth of algae in the water. The algae dies, bacteria forms, and that consumes oxygen. With no oxygen in the water, no marine life can survive. That’s the dead spot.

The runoff can be filtered using the widespread root structure of trees. The trees’ roots keep it on the land where you want it, not in the river system where you don’t. The DEQ creates values for your project that relate to nutrient credits. The credits sell to real estate developers who need them to permit their projects in more urban settings. We sell them and distribute the net revenue to you.

Over the last nine months, many Americans have become more socially conscious, the better to create a better world. Today, from the simple act of growing trees, we plant hope for a future for all to embrace.

Robert Banner is the Special Project Officer at ACRE, a full-service natural capital asset platform for landowners to manage their ecological portfolio. For more information on all of the above, ACRE is hosting an interactive webinar on Tuesday, Jan. 12 from 5-7 p.m. Contact Robert Banner at rob@acre-investment.com.