How tree planters turned a bare valley into a wooded glen (UK)
The Borders Forest Trust has planted nearly two million trees since it was set up 25 years ago.
Along the way its work has transformed one bare valley into a wooden glen which is "full of life".
Forest trust director Charles Dundas said their efforts at the Carrifran Wildwood near Moffat showed what could be achieved and he hopes to replicate that success elsewhere in years to come.
"You have to start the ball rolling - we are hopefully giving a kick start to the natural process," said Mr Dundas.
"At Carrifran, two decades on, you can see the difference that we have made to the landscape. The work that we do is our calling card.
"It is not like after 25 years we are looking to pack up shop - we have got a lot of work still to do."
https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-scotland-south-scotland-58760924
= new reply since forum marked as read
...enabling aquifers.
How Trees Help to Recharge Aquifers
Plant roots take up lots of water from the aquifers during the dry season. But they also help to put lots of water back into these aquifers later. The aquifers are recharged by this rain, but they depend on plants to get the rainwater down into them. The same plant roots that remove groundwater from the aquifers during the dry season provide drainage pathways for rainwater into and through soils during the rainy season. These root pathways can help rainwater to drain into and recharge the aquifers. In fact, if we looked closely at one of these plants, we could count thousands or even millions of roots—that’s thousands to millions of pathways for rainwater to travel along to recharge the aquifers! And, if we look for tiny roots with our microscopes, we will see countless other mini-root water pathways that intertwine with the roots of other plants. So, the complex root system can promote water movement from the soil surface to the aquifers in the wet season, while also nourishing the plants in the dry season.
The story of roots and aquifers is a little more complicated though, because a lot happens to rainwater between the treetops and the soil surface. When the rain reaches the forest’s leaves and bark, it is forced along one of three paths… and not all of them lead to the soil surface. First, some water will be stored on leaves and bark and will eventually evaporate back into the air. Second, some water will drip to the surface, as if a branch has become a leaky faucet. Finally, some rain will stick to the bark, branches, and stems and will drain all the way down to the soil surface at the bottom of the tree trunk. This last process is called stemflow. Water that is captured by plant leaves and branches and drained down their stems. Stemflow comes from many branches all draining down to one spot at the surface right next to the trunk, so it can result in a very concentrated flow of water to the soil in that location.
Stemflow does not just come from rain. In fact, in some arid and semi-arid regions where the rain is usually short-lived but very intense, where there is little rainfall, water vapor from the air condenses into liquid water when it contacts the plant and drains to the soil via stemflow.
https://kids.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/frym.2021.589362
A great thing to read on this day. 