Money grows on trees: Dr. Colin Laroque’s shelterbelt app saves trees across Canada

It all started in 1903. At the turn of the century, the Canadian government began giving landowners free trees to encourage healthy forest ecosystems. For over a hundred years, these trees have grown into some of the most scenic and iconic imagery in Canada. They were expected to become part of our identity. They were expected to have a beautiful foliage in the fall. What wasn't expected? Dr. Colin Laroque's innovative way to save them over a hundred years later. And no, it wasn't by chaining himself to the trunks.

Shelterbelts: Nature's windbreaker

Shelterbelts are human-planted trees that stand in a row of ten or more, acting as a shelter or a wind-break for a specified portion of land. They affect the surrounding areas in various ways, including changing moisture levels in the soil, protecting livestock and farms from strong winds, and preventing pesticide drift from other farms. Shelterbelts can be anything from shrubs to tall trees or a mixture of different types of tree species.

To tree or not to tree – that is the question

As the head of Soil Science at the University of Saskatchewan and the Director of the Center for Northern Agroforestry and Afforestation, Dr. Colin Laroque has made trees his career. He has called both Canadian coasts home at times throughout his life, always finding comfort in the tall, leafy boughs that stretch across the country. In his own words: "I'm a tree guy."

Of particular interest to him are shelterbelt trees, which are surprisingly abundant in the famously flat Prairie province of Saskatchewan. Though they have been natural windbreakers for farms and fields for over a hundred years, their value beyond the gusts has never been evaluated.

Until Colin came along.

He began to wonder about the status of these trees, particularly in Saskatchewan. "So many were sent out across the country—over a billion!" Colin says. Yet, there was almost no data on their development or contributions to ecosystems. Without a clear sense of their worth, it was understandable that farmers started uprooting the trees. From their perspective, the trees were taking up valuable land for harvesting crops and didn't provide a tangible economic benefit.

But Colin knew there was another side to the coin. After a drought in the early 2000s dealt agriculture in the Prairies a devastating blow, one of the few saving graces was the land surrounding shelterbelt trees. With the increased moisture from snow sheltered by leaves and branches, the area beneath these trees fared far better than the rest of the land. The impact of these trees was astounding, and Colin wondered if this principle could be applied to shelterbelts across the country.

However, when it came to convincing landowners of their merit, Colin had to branch out in a different direction.

Stick with it

"Tree Guy" Dr. Colin Laroque nestled between three birch trees

To prove that shelterbelt trees were worth their plot, Colin had to do the seemingly impossible: measure each one and collect soil samples for analysis. With help from Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada's (AAFC) Agricultural Greenhouse Gases Program and its successor (AGGP1 and AGGP2), Colin recruited students every summer to gather the data. Rain, shine, heat, drought, day, night—they drove around the province for over a decade documenting trees in every region.

Thankfully, their work wasn't for naught. The trees were indeed sequestering huge amounts of carbon. Not only were they hugely beneficial to the ecosystem, but they also offset carbon footprints made by landowners. Since the Government of Canada had just issued a carbon tax in 2019, Colin and his team assumed others would finally see that the trees were worth keeping.

Unfortunately, there was still too much ambiguity in the data. The dollar value of the trees still wasn't clear. Yes, there was a tax, and yes, the trees could offset some of it, but by how much? Farmers, landowners, and the Government of Canada didn't have the answer yet.

So his team went back to the drawing board. After years of working with the AGGP1 and AGGP2 programs, Colin found that it wasn't only farmers and landowners who were interested in the data. The program, which focused on universities, research institutions, and conservation groups advancing research, transferring new technology, and adopting beneficial management practices for greenhouse gas mitigation, allowed Colin to present his work to policy advisors on a federal level.

With their input and guidance, Colin and a new crop of students found a way to present the data in a way that was accessible to anyone, not just landowners and farmers.

An app rooted in data and dollars

Colin's students worked diligently to measure trees in Saskatchewan

When COVID-19 hit, Colin and his team were forced inside just like the rest of us. It was a blessing in disguise: they finally had a chance to decipher the data and develop an app, one that would allow users to see the dollar value of shelterbelts in terms of carbon offset. They called it the "Shelterbelt Decision Support System" or SDSS.

"We made a mechanism that shares everything with everyone," Colin says. "If you want data, go to the data. If you want economics, go to the economics. All our models are there."

More importantly, federal and provincial policymakers saw the value in the trees and are willing to give farmers and landowners in certain provinces a credit on their carbon tax. When it became clear that an incentive would outweigh the return on investment for crops, farmers finally had a reason to keep the trees.

The SDSS app has opened a whole new view of trees. And even though the program has ended, Colin continues to update the app regularly. He plans to expand his data collection to areas across the country, giving everyone a glimpse into the importance of the smallest shrub to the tallest tree. Because as we all know, the best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago. The next best time is now.

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