Categories: Guides & hacksHosting

Top 5 Benefits of Planting Trees on Your Land

Growing trees on your land can add benefits beyond just visual aesthetics. Before letting the care for them discourage you, lets talk about what the appeal is. Planting trees on can impact your land or farm in positive ways, like environmental changes that can financially help business practices in the long run. For many busy farmers, adding the task of tending to another item seems unnecessarily stressful, but the compelling and surprising benefits of planting trees on your farmland will have a majority reconsider.

5 Benefits of Planting Trees on Your Land:

1) Environmentally helpful in carbon removal: trees sequester carbon dioxide from the atmosphere during photosynthesis and return oxygen back into the atmosphere, reducing the greenhouse effect.

2) Energy efficiency: everything can be reused and recycled – mulch and wood chips made from branches and old wood

3) Managing soil erosion and water management: trees create natural barriers from wind and deep-rooted trees produce soil stability, while reducing water run-off.

4) Seasonal profit: As seen with fruit trees and Christmas trees, it attracts families who want to get together and enjoy the outdoors. People often like to pick their own fruit, which is a good additional attraction. Depending on the type of trees planted, farmers can host holiday fairs where craft makers can come show how to utilize tree branches to make crowns or wreaths.

Hosting on Hipcamp can be great side income for your farm that can help fund the tree farm expansion. Agritourism has become popular in the last decade as we’ve seen a shift in ideology with locally sourced foods after the rise of farm-to-table restaurants. People are curious and want to immerse themselves in this way of life. What better way to dip their feet in than stay overnight at a farm? Learn more about hosting your land on Hipcamp here.

5) Shade for crops and livestock: Shade helps protect against excessive heat seasons when placed strategically by producing helpful micro-climates. The same protection is provided for free range livestock in addition to shielding against strong winds.

Photo by Brittany Stepp at Happy Homestead in AR.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Taking the leap of planting more trees on your farm land doesn’t have to be a financial burden and can in turn provide monetary incentives. World Tree has a Farmer program that gives the tree to farmers for free to grow to maturity (about ten years) until they are ready to be harvested and then the farmers get 50% of the profits. This process repeats seven times as the tree regenerates. For the Wild is another organization that, in partnership with Hipcamp, hosts redwood tree planting events, to bring awareness to renewing and preserving Cascadia’s temperate rainforest.

With the plethora of trees to choose from, there are specific high-value, low-maintenance types that can help turn a profit. Whether it attracts seasonal fruit pickers, landscapers in need of shade trees or matured trees being sold for lumber, we hope this list helps encourage you to become more curious about planting trees on your land. We’ve compiled a list of our top ten tree recommendations that provide either fruit, landscaping needs, lumber or multiple attributes!

Ten Trees You Want on Your Land

Photo by Casey Hyde at The Olive Grove in FL.

 

1) Olive: “Arbequina” and “Koroneiki” are varieties that fruit at about three years.

2) Fig: Produce fruit between two to six years into maturity.

3) Peach: “Redhaven” peaches are the most popular ones to grow, and the trees produce fruit within two years.

4) Christmas: There are different types of trees that can be sold as Christmas trees such as varieties of Firs, Pine, Spruce and Leyland cypress; they can be used for lumber as well.

Photo by Clayton Herrmann at Madrone Tree Hill in CA.

 

5) Bonsai: Potted plants are popular even among people with yards so learning to grow a tree that would normally be 40 feet tall, be 16 inches tall, with the same beauty in a pot is amazing. Trendy bonsai trees include conifers, pines, hemlocks and maples.

6) Japanese Maple: Grows 1-2 feet per year once established; used for both landscaping and lumber

7) Douglas Fir: Can grow to over 120 feet tall in maturity; used for seasonal profit, landscaping and lumber,

8) Hazelnut: Produces fruit within two to five years with a mature tree producing 25 pounds of nuts in a single year.

Photo by Erinn Hale at Highwater Farm in WA.

 

9) Willow: Grows to a maximum height of 30 to 50 feet; used for landscaping as a shade tree, and can be used for lumber.

10) Hybrid Poplar: Can grow 8 feet per year and grow to a maximum height of 60 feet; used for mainly landscaping to provide shade as it can grow 30 feet wide, but is also used for lumber.

 

Own land? Earn money on Hipcamp. Host our community of nature lovers to earn extra income for property management, home expenses, and dream projects. Learn more here

Sources:

Cho, Renee. “Can Removing Carbon From the Atmosphere Save Us from Climate Catastrophe?” State of the Planet. 07 Dec. 2018. 25 Jan. 2019 <https://blogs.ei.columbia.edu/2018/11/27/carbon-dioxide-removal-climate-change/>.

Cohn, Lindsay. “Agriturismo, American style: 8 farm and food experiences in the USA.” USA Today. 19 June 2018. Gannett Satellite Information Network. 25 Jan. 2019 <https://www.usatoday.com/story/travel/destinations/2018/06/15/agritourism-8-farm-and-food-experiences-usa/702848002/>.

Leith-Yessian, Devin. “Christmas tree farms are a growing business in Connecticut.” MyRecordJournal.com. 2017. 25 Jan. 2019 <http://www.myrecordjournal.com/News/State/Christmas-Trees-Among-Most-Popular-Crop-Among-Local-Farms.html>.

Williams, James. “9 reasons to plant trees on your land.” Farmers Weekly. 22 Mar. 2018. Https://www.fwi.co.uk. 25 Jan. 2019 <https://www.fwi.co.uk/news/9-reasons-plant-trees-land>.

Ania Alam is a biology geek at heart, big believer in land conservation, and obsessed with national parks. She loves the outdoors in all forms, especially hiking, camping and kayaking. She's a landscape watercolor painter who is constantly looking for inspiration in nature.

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