-Oxygen Recharge:  Forests are virtual oxygen factories.  Because trees take in carbon dioxide and give back clean oxygen, forestry is becoming more popular in urban areas as a means of improving air quality.  Trees also can sequester carbon by turning carbon dioxide into wood which ties up the carbon, thus keeping it out of the atmosphere.  Trees, like all green plants, use energy from the sun during photosynthesis to make glucose-a simple sugar.  In the process, trees take in carbon dioxide from the air and release oxygen.  To grow a pound of wood, a tree uses 1.47 pounds of carbon dioxide, and gives off 1.07 pounds of oxygen.

-Water Purification:  Forests and forest soils help improve water quality by filtering out impurities, including nutrients necessary for tree growth but potentially damaging to lakes or streams.  As water percolates through the soil, it is absorbed by the tree roots.  Water travels throughout the tree and is released as vapor through the leaves; many of the substances carried in the water are left behind in the tree.

-Soil Protection and Flood Control:  Trees help to hold soil in place, reducing erosion and preventing silt from washing into rivers, lakes, and streams and damaging organisms.  Forest soils soak up water and help control flooding by regulating water flow within a watershed.

-Nutrient Recycling:  Trees absorb nutrients from the soil through their roots and transport them to cells in their leaves, branches, and trunk.  When the leaves or needles fall and decay, they return nutrients and other organic and inorganic materials to the soil.

-Climate Control: Each day, in a process called transpiration, trees absorb through their roots and release through their leaves thousands of gallons of precipitation.  In addition, trees provide shade, insulation, and protection from the wind.

-Wildlife Habitat: Forests provide a place where thousands of plant and animal species live.  The complex structure of forests create many niches where animals and plants can find food, shelter, and space to reproduce.