Burying burnt trees after a wildfire could help the climate episode artwork

EPISODE · Mar 18, 2026 · 25 MIN

Burying burnt trees after a wildfire could help the climate

from What On Earth

A 3,700-year-old buried log still holding the carbon it had pulled from the air sparked a radical idea: bury dead trees before they release their stored CO2. Guest host Johanna Wagstaffe wades into the wonder with the scientist who made the ancient find – in Canada. Then, we hear from a company aiming to bury trees in a sort of carbon bunker, creating carbon credits to pay for reforestation. And we check in with a forest ecologist who explains why it’s not one-size-fits-all when it comes to managing forests that have burned.

Episode metadata supplied by the publisher feed · Published Mar 18, 2026

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Burying burnt trees after a wildfire could help the climate

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