b' conservationKeeping forests healthy helps animalsBy Healthy Owl Times stafftrees near where they already plant beans, bananas, and other Inquiry Charter Schoolcrops. People then dont need to use trees from the forest for cooking.When he was 12, Michael Stern started working as a volunteer at the Philadelphia Zoo.Mr. Stern also works in Vietnam, where people are dealing with the loss of trees. He says preserving forests around the world He grew to love the gorillas, monkeys, and other primates. Hehelps combat climate change that affects everyone, continued to learn about them when he wentincluding people in the Philadelphia area. to college and pursued a career working with them. He is now curator of primates and smallForests are considered carbon sinks by mammals at the Philadelphia Zoo and worksconservationists. A carbon sink is an area that on conservation projects in other parts of theabsorbs and stores carbon, according to the world. National Geographic website. Trees soak up carbon that is released into the atmosphere from activities His work took him in 2000 to western Ugandasuch as driving cars or trucks or burning coal or oil. to study primates. While he was there, heThese human activities are causing the planet to observed that people were cutting down treeswarm and the climate to change.in the Kibale Forest National Park so they had firewood for cooking their meals. But the treesMichael SternIn Kibale, some trees are huge, Mr. also give monkeys homes and food as well asConservationist Stern says. They are 200 absorb carbon from the atmosphere that isfeet tall and 10 making the Earth warmer. Keeping forests healthy also helps keepfeet across.people, animals, and the environment healthy, Mr. Stern says. They are soaking in Since 2006, he has worked with communities in Uganda tocarbon all day and conserve the trees in Kibale. all night andThe work I do in Uganda is focused on helping people get what they need in ways that dont harm the rainforest, says Mr. Stern. He and his wife, Rebecca Goldstone, started an organization called the New Nature Foundation with that goal in mind. Mr. Stern teams up with Ugandans in three ways to conservestoring it. And trees. They build fuel-efficient stoves that use less wood. Thethats whats stoves are also safer for people because they are less likely tohelping the topple over and cause spills and burns, he says.environment.PHILADELPHIASecondly, his team helps people make charcoal using farm waste like banana peels and peanut shells and industrial waste like paper and sawdust. The charcoalcalled eco briquettesreplace wood from trees. In addition, his team encourages people to plant fast-growing FUN FACTSIn a rainforest, most trees grow to about 60 to 100 feet tall.From 15 to 25 percent of tropical rainforest leaves are eaten every year, mostly by insects. Scientists believe the rainforest canopy is home to about half the plant and animal species on land.Many rainforests have existed for 60 million to 100 million yearsas far back as the dinosaurs.Trees clean our air, absorbing a gas called carbon dioxide and providing oxygen, the gas we breathe.Facts from The Leaf Detectiveby Heather Lang. Book review on page 25!22B Y K I D S , F O R K I D S | S p r i n g 2 0 2 3'