Why Eastern Forests Don’t Grow 300-Foot Trees

Why Eastern Forests Don’t Grow 300-Foot Trees

Adam Harrington - Learn your Land - March 25, 2026

It’s a question that leads to an interesting realization: Forests in eastern North America are known for their exceptional biodiversity, but none of the trees that grow in these forests attain the heights that the tallest trees out west reach. Why is this the case? Is it a lack of rain? Is it the soil? Or are there other factors involved?

Beavers are turning rivers into powerful carbon sinks

Beavers can convert stream corridors to persistent carbon sinks
Lukas Hallberg et al - 18 March 2026 - Nature
Recent reintroductions of the Eurasian beaver (Castor fiber) across Europe represents an ecological shift with potential implications for carbon cycling in stream corridors. We present a comprehensive carbon budget of a beaver-influenced stream corridor ... Annually, the beaver wetland was a net carbon sink (98.3 ± 34.4 t yr-1), driven by subsurface removal of dissolved inorganic carbon.
Beavers can turn streams into carbon stores – we measured how much
Jonathan Larsen, Annegret Larsen, Lukas Hallberg - The Conversation - March 18, 2026
Across Europe, beaver numbers are increasing after a long period of decline. As these aquatic mammals recolonise rivers, they are gradually rebuilding wetlands that once existed across many river valleys ... Over just 13 years, the wetland we studied in northern Switzerland locked away more than 1,100 tonnes of carbon. That’s comparable to two Olympic swimming pools filled with charcoal ... When a dam slows the water, sediments begin to settle. These sediments carry organic material such as leaves, soil and plant fragments that contain carbon. Instead of washing away downstream, the material becomes buried in wetland soils.

Beavers might be one of nature’s most unexpected allies in locking away carbon and fighting climate change.
Science Daily - March 22, 2026
Over just 13 years, a beaver-engineered wetland in Switzerland stored over a thousand tonnes of carbon—up to ten times more than similar areas without beavers.
Groundbreaking study finds a natural way to fight climate change
Doyle Rice - USA Today - March 22, 2026
The new research, published on March 18 in the journal Communications Earth & Environment, has, for the first time, calculated the carbon dioxide emitted and sequestered due to engineering work by beavers in suitable wetland areas.