Boston Globe interviews Weiskittel for article on Earth’s number of trees

Aaron Weiskittel, a professor of forest biometrics and modeling at the University of Maine, was quoted in The Boston Globe article, “Surprise! The Earth has trillions more trees than we thought.” A new Yale University study recently published in Nature found there are currently 3.04 trillion trees on Earth, which is 750 percent more than the previous best estimate of 400 billion, according to the article. The study’s lead author said his research will help scientists and conservationists recalibrate their statistical models to better reflect the number of trees living on Earth, the article states. Other experts in the field, including Weiskittel, think an accurate estimate of the global tree population is less important. “When I think about forests and what they have to offer, the number of trees doesn’t really matter,” he said, adding a more useful statistic is the amount of biomass in a forest, which includes trunks, branches, and leaves. Biomass is a better indicator of a forest’s carbon-capturing capacity and it’s not all that closely tied to the total number of trees, the article states.