The ASU Carbon Sink & Learning Forest will be a 1,000-tree forest of Honey Mesquite, Screwbean Mesquite, and Foothills Palo Verde trees on 10.8 acres at the ASU West campus. The trees have been grown by our partners at Northern Arizona University in a special deep-pot method to facilitate drought-tolerance and survival. The trees are to be planted in mid November 2020 by a crew from the non-profit Ancestral Lands.
The project is a result of the ASU Carbon Project–a project created to offset ASU’s difficult to mitigate carbon emissions. It is estimated that the Carbon Sink will store about 3,400 metric tons of CO2 over the next 30 years as well as providing benefits such as shade, stormwater management, and wildlife habitat.
The Carbon Sink & Learning Forest will also serve as a living laboratory for hands-on learning through classes, labs, and student projects. Ongoing measurements at the site will include studies of above- and below-ground carbon sequestration (led by Dr. Becky Ball), and local microclimate monitoring (led by Dr. David Sailor). Local condtions from the site are available online here.
Stay-tuned as the project evolves!
