Look after our roots!

My calendar tells me that today is world day to combat desertification and drought.

This year it's all the more poignant after a conversation earlier this week with a climate refugee. After three evacuations, 2 from fires and one from an inevitable flood, she decided to move from that area of the world back to her roots. Vegetation and roots were exactly what was missing following the fires, which allowed the soil just to wash away and further floods were bound to follow, as watersheds had lost the storage capacity of the forest, and more problems will likely flow on from that..

Forest ecosystems play a critical role in stabilizing the climate, as well as supporting much of the world’s biodiversity, they are regulating water quality and availability. Sustainable Development Goal 15 urges the global community to sustainably manage forests, combat desertification, halt and reverse land degradation, and halt biodiversity loss.

I am planting a tree to mark this day. It's a rowan that I recovered as a weed from a flower bed, where it had self-seeded. Three years on it's shoulder height and looks like it wants to be back in the ground where it can put down a strong taproot. I have picked a spot where a tree has died, it will replace the root system, create cover and storage, and provide for the wildlife around it.

Wherever we are in the world action is needed, and action can be of any size to be useful. My tree planting effort may look puny alongside others, but this is something I can do today, along with writing this post, to raise awareness; and writing protests to the local authority about the felling of healthy trees happening around me during this climate emergency which they have declared. I can encourage use of reclaimed timber where that's possible and look for sustainable resource symbols when buying new. #Goldenhour #Climateemergency #ClimateCoachingAlliance

What else? Please share.. What can you do today in your neck of the woods?