trees and forests Archives - Favorite World Press

The FWP weekly digest of wondrous wildlife happenings
and other interesting items from the natural world

Creatures to meet | Things to learn
Things to do

Lisa S. French

2.5-minute read

Loss of habitat resulting from deforestation is one of the greatest threats to wildlife on the planet. In tropical forests alone, home to red pandas, lemurs, and pangolins—Bengal tigers, Asian elephants, and orangutans, researchers estimate that some 75,000 species have already been wiped out or doomed to extinction.

According to a study by the United Nations, we are losing approximately 10 million hectares of forest per year to land use change, and since 2001, an additional 3 million annually and counting to wildfires. The same forests that benefit humanity by cooling the atmosphere, capturing carbon pollution, filtering water, and supporting livelihoods provide habitat for 68 percent of the world’s mammals, 75 percent of bird species, and 80 percent of amphibians.

Beyond the lovely-to-look-at value of iconic creatures, each of the one million species now at risk represents a thread in the web of life that helps to keep ecosystems that we depend on functioning as nature intended. Half of the 85% of at-risk species threatened by loss of habitat live in rainforests, and that’s why restoring and protecting tropical landscapes is critical to their survival and to the health of the planet.

We Plant Trees Where the Wild Things Are
Through our partnership with Tree-Nation, we’re grateful to have the opportunity to support forest conservation with organizations like the Eden Restoration Project, planting trees in some of the world’s most remote locations that not only restore habitat for endangered wildlife but help to improve the living conditions of local communities. Places like Madagascar, home to nine species of lemurs, with only 10% of native forests remaining, and Nepal, where Bengal tigers, Asian elephants, and red pandas roam and forests have been diminished by 70%.

By educating rural populations on the benefits of maintaining the environment they live in, Eden is helping to preserve wildlife habitat through community-based tree-planting projects that generate long-term, social, economic, and biodiversity benefits. Empowering people to care for nature by restoring and protecting forests will help to ensure that the last places on Earth where the wild things are will continue to exist. Thank you for helping us help them re-habitat.

ICYMI Nature News

Jellyfish Learn Without Brains
According to new research, jellyfish don’t need grey matter to acquire knowledge. The gelatinous sea creatures can learn from past experiences through neurons in their eye structures. Read about it here.

Silkworms Can Out-Spider Spiders
Through the process of gene editing, scientists have enabled silkworms to replicate the bulletproof silk of spiders. No copyrights for spiders, apparently.

Rhinos are on the Rebound
On the conservation yay front, finally, some good news for rhinos. According to the IUCN, global numbers of the critically endangered animals have reached 27,000. More work to be done to reach the 20th-century pinnacle of 500,000, but it’s an encouraging milestone.

Maui Banyan Tree Keeps on Treeing
After the devastating August wildfires, the iconic 150-year-old Maui Banyan tree is sprouting new leaves—a hopeful testament to the resilience of nature.

Thank an Earthworm for Your Loaf
Never underestimate the importance of earthworms. A new study has revealed that the little wrigglers going about their earthworm business significantly boost wheat yields, adding one slice to every loaf—that’s 140 million tons a year to the global food supply.

Behold the Dumbo Octopus
The rare ghostly deep-sea creature was spotted in an expedition off the coast of Hawaii, and you can see it here. Beautiful!

Who’s the Fattest Bear of All?
Fire up your chooser, Fat Bear Week is from October 4 through October 10. You can cast your vote for the most proficient salmon scarfer in Katmai National Park right here. We’re liking the looks of Chunk—now that’s a power eater if ever we’ve seen one.

Dolphin Drones in NYC
Climate Week NYC may be over, but you can still see 1,000 drones light up the skyline in support of the Amazon rainforest, courtesy of Avaaz.

FWP Carbon Capture Report
For people and for wildlife, here’s the Favorite World Press carbon capture update from April 2022 through August 2023. From April 2022 through September 2023, the trees that we’ve planted across 13 projects in 12 countries bring our carbon capture to 4076 tons of CO2. That’s the equivalent of 4,566,261 pounds of coal burned, 10,450,204 miles driven by an average gasoline-powered passenger vehicle, and 458,699 gallons of gasoline consumed.

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Lisa S. French September 27, 2023

Pining for Clean Air in Cities

2-minute read

Something unusual happened in New York City last week—the skyline disappeared. Plumes of smoke emanating from the hundreds of wildfires blazing across Canada’s boreal forest descended over the Eastern seaboard, and in just a few hours, Manhattan’s skyscrapers faded out, obscured by an eerie orange haze. As visibility plummeted, so did air quality, topping out at a hazardous to everyone 352 on the U.S. Air Quality Index (AQI). The particle pollution generated from wildfires that made it hard to see also made it difficult and dangerous to breathe.

While the air quality in NYC and other East Coast urban areas returned to a healthier range this week, city residents learned firsthand that you don’t have to be a forest inhabitant to experience the life-disrupting impacts of extreme wildfires. As the planet heats up and the number and intensity of wildfires continue to increase, scientists are exploring options to remove particulate matter and other pollutants from the air in high-population areas. One nature-based solution that both cleans and cools the air in cities and improves overall health and well-being: more green space.

If Orange is the New Blue, is Green the New Black?
Environmental scientists have concluded that planting trees is one of the most effective ways to remove heat-trapping CO2 from the atmosphere. New research has shown that leafy green sky vacuums are also absolute champs at filtering particle pollution that accumulates in high-density urban areas and is hazardous to human health. Researchers studying the absorption capacity of diverse types of trees found that while many species are effective air purifiers, one type, in particular, is good at absorbing particulates—pines.

Studies comparing the needles of evergreen pine trees to the leaves of seasonally shedding trees, including birch, poplar, beech, and ash trees, show that pine needles have the greatest year-round and longer-term potential to absorb particulate matter pollution. Air quality models created by scientists at the University of Graz factoring in leaf shape, texture, and wind patterns found that one square kilometer of pine forest planted throughout a city of 300,000 reduced the number of days that particle pollution registered over the healthy limit from 54 to 25. Increasing overall pine-age helped dial back the dust by almost fifty percent.

Trees Absorb Pollutants So You Don’t Have To
Although environmental researchers may not yet be able to provide an exact urban tree-planting protocol to help turn orange skies blue again in the case of extreme wildfire events, under relatively normal conditions, designating more green space in urban areas and planting tree species that absorb particulate pollution can help city dwellers breathe a whole lot easier.

Increasing the capacity of forest ecosystems to function as nature intended by reducing heat-trapping emissions that contribute to the drought conditions that intensify wildfires should be a top priority. As residents of New York, Boston, Philadelphia, and Washington D.C. learned last week, on a rapidly warming planet, what happens in the forest doesn’t stay in the forest—even if the forest is one thousand miles away.

ICYMI Nature News

The Tallest Sky Vacuum Ever—Ever
After a multi-year quest in search of the tallest tree in the Amazon rainforest, intrepid trekkers have finally captured exclusive drone footage of the ancient giant—in a grove of giants. Follow along on their journey here.

Roadtripping Wildlife
When humans stayed in, animals stepped out. Scientists studying the impact of Covid-19 lockdowns on the movement patterns of wildlife have discovered that curious critters took advantage of low-traffic highways and byways to get around. Learn how they made use of the roaming room here.

Hornless Rhinos Are Homebodies
Removing rhino horns to help protect the critically endangered species from poachers is turning the animals into apprehensive homebodies. Without an intact horn to protect themselves and their territory, scientists believe the modified rhinos are playing it safe by reducing their range. No horn, no go, no way.

Meet the Carpenter Squirrels
Flying squirrels in China gnaw grooves in nuts to wedge them in trees, keeping them high and dry and ready for snacking. Crafty!

A Turtle’s Eye View of the Great Barrier Reef
If you’ve ever wondered what sea turtles get up to underwater, scientists at the World Wildlife Fund have captured some amazing turtle cam footage so you can see what the reptiles see—in the sea. Have a look!

What’s the Big, Beautiful Picture?
The winners and finalists of the 2023 Natural World Photography Contest have been announced, and you can explore the amazing images of the world’s wonders here.

FWP Carbon Capture Report
Trees for cooling, trees for purifying the air, trees for habitat, trees for income. We plant them all over the world with the help of our tree-planting partners at Tree-Nation. From April 2022 through May 2023 the trees we’ve planted across 12 projects bring our carbon capture total to 3,787 tons of CO2. That’s equivalent to 371,990 gallons of diesel consumed, 4,241,864 pounds of coal burned, or 460,643,616 smartphones charged.

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Lisa S. French June 17, 2023

Re-Treeing: This is How We Do It

2.5-minute read

It’s the little things citizens do.
That’s what will
make the difference.
My little thing is planting trees.

Wangari Maathai

If you’re a regular reader, you know we’re big on trees—planting them, protecting them, and writing about them. In honor of Earth Month, we’d like to share a bit about how our planting partners at Tree-Nation do that planet-preserving thing they do—helping tackle the urgent mission of restoring the world’s forests.

Capturing carbon, protecting biodiversity, and supporting the livelihoods of local communities through reforestation are all at the top of the planetary to-do list. While tree planting seems simple enough—just dig and drop—the most successful reforestation strategies combine scientific and indigenous knowledge to create customized planting techniques that result in the greatest all-around benefits for people, wildlife, and the planet. To overcome the increasing global environmental challenges that impact survival rates, the right trees must be planted in the right place in the right way.

So how does Tree-Nation ensure that newly planted seeds and seedlings fulfill their tree-life destiny to combat climate change, purify the air and water, and provide revenue, food, fodder, and medicine for local populations and habitats for millions of species? They think globally and plant locally, using a variety of methods that align with the Ten Golden Rules of Reforestation, guidelines developed by an expert team of researchers at the Royal Botanic Gardens to help avoid the pitfalls of large-scale tree-planting initiatives.

Wherever they plant in the world, the number one objective of every project that Tree-Nation supports is to encourage a diverse mix of native tree species that minimize harm and maximize long-term benefits.

From simple methods that simulate animal dispersal to highly engineered solutions like drones, for all the forestry nerds out there, this is how Tree-Nation digs, drops, and re-trees to meet their commitment of a trillion trees planted by 2050:

Direct Sowing
Planting individual seeds directly into the soil where the trees are to be established.
Benefits: Trees grow strong and adapt well to their environment.

Muvuca Strategy
Spreading seeds of hundreds of varieties of native species over every square meter of land. You can learn how this technique is being used to save forests in Brazil here.
Benefits: Creates natural spread of vegetation and dense forests.

Seed Bombs
One or multiple seeds are wrapped in clay and compost, protecting the seed from harsh weather and animals.
Benefits: Easy to manipulate and quick to plant.

Aerial Seeding
Sowing seeds by dropping them from a drone, plane, or helicopter to disperse seeds into difficult-to-reach locations.
Benefits: Offers a cheap automated method to plant at a large scale.

Nursery Seedling Transplant
The most widespread technique in tree planting, seedlings spend 3-6 months in nurseries before being transplanted, usually during the rainy season.
Benefits: Offers great control over quantities and species planted and survival rate.

Assisted Natural Regeneration
Protecting and preserving natural tree seedlings in forested areas by employing different techniques to remove or reduce barriers.
Benefits: A natural approach that is inexpensive and well-suited to existing forested areas.

If you’d like to learn how effective restoration organizations like Tree-Nation determine which trees should be planted where check out the GlobalTreeSearch for a list of every known tree species on Earth by country.

A final thought on reforestation—as enthusiastic as Favorite World Press is about tree planting, and that would be a 10 out of 10, we want to emphasize that to maintain the healthy functioning of our planet protecting existing old-growth forests like Alaska’s Tongass is essential.

And a gentle reminder—we plant one tree for every print or e-book sold. If you’d like to make tree-planting your little thing, read with us!

ICYMI Nature News

Crying Plants
According to new research published in Cell, thirsty plants make ultra-sonic noise that can be heard by some animals. This is what it sounds like when plants cry.

Introverted Tigers
Do you think all Siberian tigers have big cat energy? Scientists have identified two distinct personality types in the stripey felines that map to the traits of introversion and extroversion in humans. Either way, we think they’re grrrrrreat!

Glow-In-the-Dark Garden Mice
Platypus do it, some squirrels and hares do it, and according to Estonian researchers, garden dormice do it. What’s that? They glow under UV light. Rodential party animals.

Self-Aware Bees
Pollination ecologist Stephen Buchmann has published new research that indicates bees are sentient and may have a primitive form of consciousness. We knew it all along.

DIY Elephants
According to a new study, elephants may be one of the few species on Earth to have domesticated themselves. If you want something done right do it your ele-self.

FWP Carbon Capture Report
From April 2022 through March 2023, the trees we’ve planted across 12 projects bring our carbon capture total to 3157 tons of CO2. That’s equivalent to 8,093,790 miles driven by an average gasoline-powered passenger vehicle, 136,664 trash bags of waste recycled instead of landfilled, or 3,536,616 pounds of coal burned.

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Lisa S. French April 10, 2023

Trees: What are they Good for?

1.5-minute read

Before we get down to tree business, wherever you are in the world, we hope that your new year is off to a promising start. Beaming you a gargantuan dose of good fortune in the months ahead.

If you’re a regular reader, you know we often write about how forests help support life on Earth: combating climate change, purifying air and water, enhancing well-being, providing habitat for wildlife, and food, energy, and economic security for rural communities.

Every month we share updates on the carbon capture potential of the trees that we plant in reforestation projects around the world. Because what we plant is as important as where we plant, we’d like to introduce you to some of the leafy green, multi-purpose marvels that help keep the planet in good working order:

Nile Tulip
Markhamia lutea

Fast-growing
Provides shade for crops
Prevents soil erosion
Bark and leaves used for traditional medicine

Red Silk Cotton Tree
Bombax ceiba

Ornamental
Restores native woodland
Provides habitat for birds and bees
Edible seeds, flowers, and leaves

Horse Tamarind
Leucaena leucocephala

Drought tolerant
Restores native woodland
Provides human and animal nutrition
Edible seeds, flowers, and leaves

Teak
Tectona grandis

Fast-growing hardwood
Used for carpentry and construction
Provides human and animal nutrition
Used for traditional and modern medicine

Pombeiro
Tapirira guianensis

Big-canopied shade tree
Provides habitat for birds and bees
Provides human and animal nutrition
Used for traditional medicine

Croton
Croton megalocarpus

Fast-growing, 94% survival rate
Provides animal nutrition
Serves as fencing and windbreak
Used for traditional medicine

As you can see, in addition to cooling the planet, trees are good for all manner of important, life-sustaining things. Wherever the trees we plant put down roots, they don’t just stand around looking pretty; they get to work providing local and global benefits. With your kind support, we’re glad to continue to offer them job opportunities through the Tree-Nation platform in 2023.

2022 FWP Carbon Capture Report:

The 16 species of trees we planted across 12 projects from April through December of 2022 bring our total CO2 capture to 2,365 tons. That’s equivalent to 102,360 trash bags of waste recycled instead of landfilled, 2,616,392 pounds of coal burned, or 266,092 gallons of gasoline consumed.

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Lisa S. French January 15, 2023

Trick or Trees

1.5-minute read

“Once upon a midnight dreary,
while I pondered, weak and weary,
Over many a quaint and curious volume
of forgotten lore—
While I nodded, nearly napping,
suddenly there came a tapping,
As of some one gently rapping,
rapping at my chamber door—
“‘Tis some visitor,” I muttered,
“tapping at my chamber door—
Only this and nothing more.”

Edgar Allen Poe—The Raven

Of all the things that go bump in the night, what is the most hair-raising horror you can imagine tapping at your door this Halloween? A horde of zombies? A pack of werewolves? A coven of vampires? A gaggle of hobgoblins? Or—gulp—all of the above.

There’s no doubt that a spooky-season visit from creatures of the underworld would be pretty darn scary (especially those zombies). Do you know what’s even scarier? The year-round global impacts of climate change. And one of the greatest contributors to climate change is deforestation. Approximately 18% of global heating is caused by the loss of trees. That exceeds the CO2 emissions created by the entire transport sector.

We have two solutions to cool a rapidly warming planet—reduce emissions, or capture the CO2 already released into the atmosphere. But lowering emissions is not happening fast enough. In fact, atmospheric CO2 reached record-high levels in 2021. While other carbon capture systems are being developed, right now reforestation is by far the most efficient and affordable solution. It is considered essential to keeping the global temperature rise below 1.5 degrees above pre-industrial levels.

In addition to helping to combat climate change, planting trees addresses other major planetary perils, including pollution, species extinction, desertification, floods, poverty, and malnutrition. Trees remove toxins from our air, purify our rivers and water sources, serve as habitats for millions of species, bring revenue to local populations, and help us get food, fodder, and medicine.

Trees offer so many benefits for people and the environment that planting them is a no-brainer. Sorry, zombies. That’s why we’ve partnered with Tree-Nation to plant one tree for every print or e-book that we sell. Tree-Nation is committed to planting 1 trillion trees by 2050, and we’re glad to have the opportunity to pitch in and help with the transition to a sustainable future.

You can learn more about forests and the benefits of planting trees right here.

As always, thank you for reading with us, thank you for planting with us.

Happy Halloween!

FWP – No tricks—just trees.

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Lisa S. French October 27, 2022

What’s Good For Lemurs is Good for the Planet

2-minute read

One of our favorite things to do here at FWP is to help restore forests that cool the planet, support the lives and livelihoods of people, and provide food and habitat for endangered wildlife. Through our partnership with Tree-Nation, every month, we have new opportunities to contribute to planting projects that minimize biodiversity loss and protect and restore some of the most threatened wild places on Earth—known in science speak as biodiversity hotspots. There are currently 36 recognized hotspots, home to 2 billion people and teeming with plants, animals and other living organisms that support the functioning of ecosystems that we all depend upon for survival.

About 8,716 miles from where we sit in NYC, give or take a few blocks, is the island country of Madagascar, one of the most biodiverse of all hotspots and a critical priority for nature conservation. Approximately 92% of Madagascar’s mammals, 89% of its plant life, and 95% of reptiles don’t exist anywhere else in the natural world.

In addition to some extraordinary creatures you may have never heard of, like tomato frogs, aye-ayes, and fossas, one of the island’s most familiar and iconic animals is the lemur. Of 101 lemur species, 96% are currently at risk of extinction. Not only do lemurs depend on forests, but forests also benefit from lemurs’ seed dispersal that helps to maintain habitats that other rare species rely on for food, cover, and toing and froing. Like other keystone species globally, including bees, sea otters, and manatees, lemurs are the canaries in the coal mine, their presence or absence is a sign of the health of their native ecosystem.

With only 10% of their natural habitat remaining due to deforestation, overharvesting, and climate change impacts, even the most dedicated lemurs would have a hard time dispersing enough seeds to keep rapidly dwindling forests intact. To give the pop-eyed primates a helping hand, we’re contributing to Madagascar’s reforestation with the Eden Projects. Since 2019, Eden has successfully planted over 10 million mangrove and flowering trees with Tree-Nation in northwest Madagascar, benefiting both people and wildlife.

Although you may be surprised to learn that what’s good for lemurs is good for the planet, to quote Madagascar’s native peoples, “the forest has been present since the dawn of time and always will be, because if it disappears, life will also disappear.” We couldn’t agree more. That’s why we pitch in with planet cooling, habitat restoring, and community-supporting tree planting projects in biodiversity hotspots around the globe. Here’s the July update:

FWP Monthly Carbon Capture Report
Our total YTD carbon capture across six projects is 1,332 tons. That’s equivalent to greenhouse gas emissions avoided by 57,936 trash bags of waste recycled instead of landfilled, 50,729 lamps switched to LEDs, or 1,480,884 pounds of coal burned.

Rolling on… doesn’t it seem like it’s about time for a playlist? We think so. Happy high summer!

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Lisa S. French August 9, 2022

And That’s Why We Hug Trees

2-minute read

As the world turns, if you find yourself in need of a mood boost this summer, we’ve got just the thing—make friends with a local forest. According to public health researchers at the University of Parma, inhaling a forest atmosphere swirling with naturally occurring, mood-elevating aerosols can influence the release of dopamine and GABA, the feel-good neurotransmitters that improve cognitive function, increase feelings of well-being and relaxation, and improve quality of sleep.

Any type of forest in particular? Cone-producing pine, fir, and cypress trees release the highest concentration of beneficial aerosols limonene and pinene, so forests where conifers are king are your best bet to brighten your spirits. Hitting the trail two hours after dawn through to early afternoon is the optimum time for a one-hour forest wander when well-being-enhancing phytochemicals are at peak release.

In addition to tree aerosol inhalation being good for your headspace, regular visits to a forest can improve your overall health. On average, we spend about 90% of our daily lives indoors, under artificial light, which keeps our minds and bodies in a constant state of low-level stress. Exposure to the green scenery, fresh air, clean water, and soothing sounds and scents of nature reduces excess cortisol and adrenaline, stress hormones that can lead to high blood pressure and heart disease.

The International Society of Nature and Forest Medicine recommends forest therapy as an effective, evidence-based, low-cost public health treatment for stress-related symptoms—not to mention doomscrolling induced brain wobble. So, if you’re looking for a free and easy way to crush the cortisol, head out to a forest near you—the conifers are calling.

Lovely, trusty trees—releasing healing aerosols and absorbing greenhouse gas—providing nature-based solutions to everyday stress and climate change. So worth hugging.

ICYMI Nature News

No Bowling for Pandas
Scientists have concluded that pandas developed a long, large thumb-like digit for gripping bamboo six million years ago. Modern-day pandas forfeited the big thumb for a shorter, flatter, hooked digit that enables them to grip tasty greens while also better distributing their weight when roaming. No bowling—or texting—for today’s pandas, but they’re still masters at manipulating bamboo.

Every Frog’s Dream Pad
A newly identified water lily species discovered by researchers in Bolivia has broken the world’s record for leaf size—10.5 feet across. Holy leaping lily pads, that’s one mighty leaf!

Chomping Down on Climate Change
Bison reintroduced to the Oklahoma prairie are taking a bite out of climate change and helping to protect native plants and wildlife through selective grazing. This is how they do it. Chomp on, big fellas.

Wake Riding Whales
For the first time, humpback whales have been recorded wake-riding behind a ship. Scientists believe that the migrating marine mammals hitched a ride to conserve energy. Because, why swim when you can ride—clever cetaceans.

Audubon Bird Beauty Twofer
The Birdsong Project Volume II is now live, featuring works from Elvis Costello, Yo-Yo-Ma, and The Flaming Lips, among beautiful others. Listen here. And Audubon has announced the tremendously talented winners of the 2022 Audubon Summer Photography award, which happens to include a snap of our friendly local snowy owl perching in Central Park. See here.

FWP Monthly Carbon Capture Report
We’re happy to report that the trees we planted in June across five projects through Tree-Nation bring our 2nd quarter carbon capture total to slightly over one kiloton (1,007 tons). That’s equivalent to 11,330 gallons of gasoline utilized, 1,114,006 pounds of coal burnt, or 2,331 barrels of oil consumed.

That’s all for now. It’s going to be too darn hot out there next week, stay safe, good people.

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Lisa S. French July 17, 2022

Where the Wild Things Are: The Atlantic Forest

2-minute read

Golden lion tamarins, wooly spider monkeys, maned three-toed sloths, red-tailed parrots. These are just a few of the thousands of species of amazing animals that occupy the Atlantic Forest in South America, the second most diverse ecosystem on the planet after the Amazon—and one of the most endangered.

From coastal lowlands to mist-covered mountain ranges, this vitally important biodiversity hotspot that extends from the southeastern coast of Brazil into Argentina and Paraguay once covered 370 million acres—about 3.5 times the land mass of California. Scientists now estimate that the Brazilian acreage of the Atlantic Forest has been reduced to remnants that are roughly only eight percent of its original size. Just eight percent.

Deforestation and fragmentation resulting from land use change, pollution, climate change and invasive species have accelerated the loss of habitat for the mammals, birds, reptiles, and amphibians that make this tropical forest their home, presenting new challenges to survival they may not have the capacity to overcome. Many of the Atlantic Forest’s endangered species, like the spectacular carroty-maned tamarin (pictured above), cannot be found anywhere else in the wild.

With one million species at risk of extinction globally, restoring degraded forest ecosystems that provide food and shelter for native wildlife is a top priority to safeguard biodiversity that supports all of life on Earth.

Through our partnership with Tree-Nation, we’re delighted to have connected with the Copaiba Environmentalist Association in Brazil to help plant native trees in the Atlantic Forest and guarantee a sustainable future for one of the last remaining places on Earth where the wild things are.

If you’re looking for an outstanding way to celebrate World Environment Day, you can learn more about the global movement to restore nature and check out active projects at Restor.eco and Rewild.org. Join us!

ICYMI Nature News

Skydiving Salamanders
When you make your home at the top of a 150-foot redwood tree, learning how to safely glide to the ground is an essential skill. Scientists have determined that the wandering salamander has perfected a life-saving parachuting technique to slow its descent when it falls. Who needs wings to fly when you have a twisty tail and torso? Dream big little amphibians, dream big.

The World’s Largest Plant
What’s 4,500 years old and three times the length of Manhattan? A stupendous seagrass located off the coast of Western Australia. Scientists believe the gargantuan marine plant grew from just one seed.

The World’s Oldest Tree
The granddaddy of all trees has been discovered in Chile’s Alerce Costero national park. The ancient Patagonian cypress is estimated to be 5,484 years old. It doesn’t look a day over 5,000 to us.

More and More Monarchs
The eastern monarch population wintering in Mexico’s forests has bounced back by 35%. Hooray for much-needed good nature news!

This Art is for the Birds
Audubon has launched the Birdsong Project, an unprecedented collaboration of more than 220 music and visual artists, actors, and literary figures contributing their creativity to celebrate the joy birds bring to the world. So beautiful. Check it out!

And it’s Moorhen for the Win
In semi-nature-related news, hearty congratulations to E. W. Scripps National Spelling Bee champion Harini Logan whose final correct spelling was a bird word—moorhen for the win. Speed-speller Harini is supercalifragilisticexpialidocious—and yes, we spell-checked.

FWP Monthly Carbon Capture Report
The trees that we planted through Tree-Nation in May will capture and store 555.6 tons of C02. That’s equivalent to 614,721 pounds of coal burned or 1,379,113 miles driven by an average gasoline-powered vehicle. Our suck-it-up stats total to date through the TN platform: 661.2 tons of CO2 stored.

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Lisa S. French June 5, 2022

It’s Earth Day—We’re All In With Tree-Nation

1.5-minute read

Trees are the earth’s endless effort to speak to the listening heaven.

Rabindranath Tagore

FWP Earth Day Dozen Playlist

If you’re a friend of Favorite World Press, you know we’re tree people. If you’re a first-time visitor—well, hello there, happy to have you—by the way, we’re tree people.

We love trees for their planet-cooling, well-being-enhancing, wildlife-supporting, music-making majesty. And we plant trees and work to protect forests because they provide one of the most effective nature-based solutions to global environmental threats.

Did you know:

31% of the world’s land surface is covered by forests,
33% of the C02 released from burning fossil fuels is absorbed by forests,
75% of the world’s accessible freshwater is provided by forests,
80% of all land-dwelling species rely on forests for their survival,
1.6 billion people rely on forests for food, water, fuel, and jobs,
17% of global greenhouse gas emissions come from deforestation.

Hope for the Planet
Because the world’s forests are major planetary players, they need protection to keep them healthy and intact. But every minute of every day, we’re losing the equivalent of 36 football fields in forest cover. To make up for current levels of annual deforestation, we need to plant an additional 10 billion trees a year.

Planting the right trees in the right place is critical to their survival and reaping their full environmental, social, and economic benefits. That’s why we’re proud to announce that in honor of Earth Day, we’re going global and partnering with the proprietary tree-planting platform Tree-Nation.

As we have for the past three-plus years, FWP will be planting one tree for every print and e-book sold from the Frankie and Peaches: Tales of Total Kindness Series. Through our new partnership with Tree-Nation, we’ll be choosing from 300 different tree species in 39 active reforestation projects in 25 countries on six different continents.

To kick-start our campaign, we’re pitching in on projects in the United States, Brazil, Tanzania, Thailand, India, and Madagascar. Each tree that we plant will be assigned a unique URL so we can track its leafy, green contribution to carbon storage, local communities, and biodiversity—it’s the internet of trees.

See how we grow with Tree-Nation here.

Thank you for helping us help them create a life-sustaining planet.

Wishing you a happy, healthy, hopeful Earth Day!

xo Favorite World Press

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Lisa S. French April 22, 2022

Aerial view of blue lake and green forests on a sunny summer day in Finland. Drone photography

Tons of Trees and Tiny Bats

1.5-minute read

Forest Protection – That’s A Yes
Here’s a quick update on forest conservation commitments from the COP26 UN Climate Change Conference:

To prevent the planet from warming beyond 1.5℃, we must reduce annual greenhouse gas emissions by 50% in the next eight years. Planting trees and keeping carbon-absorbing forests intact is an important component of this monumental but achievable mission.

Every six seconds, we’re losing a football pitch of tropical rainforest to deforestation. Millions of acres of forest in northern regions are also being lost to drought, pests, and wildfires worsened by climate change.

Aiming to avert catastrophic heating, last week, international delegates in Glasgow made some progress on the forest protection front. In a strong show of support for the future of the planet, 110 world leaders pledged to end deforestation by 2030, restore damaged land, develop sustainable agriculture for rural communities, and reaffirm financial commitments to Indigenous and local communities. The combined pledges account for 85% of the world’s forests.

To ensure that COP26 signatories walk the walk and deliver on commitments, real-time global satellite monitoring of forests will be critical. You can find out how eyes in the sky are helping to keep tabs on trees from Global Forest Watch.

The Best Bird is a Bat
And in case you missed it, the Forest & Bird numero uno, all-around champion, New Zealand Bird of the Year is—wait for it, a bat. The 2021 winner is the pekapeka-tua-roa, a.k.a. the long-tailed bat, one of the rarest bats in the world and one of only two mammals native to the island country. In an upset victory, the thumb-sized, furry night-flyer edged out 76 amazing birds to capture the crown.

The forest-dwelling micro-bat roosts in trunks and large limbs of trees in colonies of hundreds to thousands. As a result of introduced predators and deforestation, the bug-munching pekapeka is now in serious trouble. Because a bat’s gotta hang, and with only 14% of New Zealand’s indigenous forests remaining, conservationists are working to increase the number of potential roosting sites by preserving habitat, so the stretchy-winged wonder has a fighting chance at survival.

Although we apparently have a faulty bird chooser, as we’re zero for two with our 2021 Bird of the Year predictions, we’re always happy to celebrate the recognition of any precious creature in need of TLC (tender loving conservation). Congratulations little pekapeka, this year you’re batting 1000%!

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Lisa S. French November 10, 2021