Given the global oxygen decrease by more than half since the beginning of the industrial revolution two centuries ago [when oxygen was 38%] and the massive heat island effect [particularly here in Maricopa County where 21 people died from the heat during a single week last July 2005 when night time lows were as high as 96 degrees], Thompson’s accomplishment is vitally relevant for the Phoenix community.

When the mid-road tarmac reads 150oF on a 110o day, the temperature at foot level in Thompson’s Gilbert oasis is a comfortable 78o. Although Phoenix urban street readings show 17% oxygen, Thompson’s greenscaped yard reads 26%. While draught and fire, flood and erosion fill Arizona’s weather news, Thompson’s Garden of Eating captures every drop of rainfall, then it shares it cooperatively with over 150 edible plants, along with scores of animal species, including mating doves and ducks, beautiful butterflies, busy bees, crawdads that migrate to the front yard, mosquito-eating fish, fly-catching birds, blue-bellied lizards, and more.

“The prime objective of OUR REXS™ is to Reforest the Globe, One Yard at a Time™”, says Thompson.

“Given 82 trees per capita as the minimum requirement in the US to offset its current fossil fuel emissions, that’s a sizeable challenge,” he adds.

The myriad benefits of vegetation are the recipe for a wealth of health. Trees and plants, including the much and wrongly maligned oleander, absorb nearly every pollutant a fossil fuel emission can throw off, including CO, CO2, SOx, NOx, Pb, and POP (persistent organic pollutants). In exchange, they are the planets greatest source of local oxygen. Trees and non-desert plants sequester, purify, recycle, and yield tons of water, which decreases temperature in the surrounding area and actually cause a major and vital increase in area rainfall.

Additionally, such deciduous and evergreen vegetation deliver profound increases in property value, rainfall, shade, biodiversity, biomass, food, fiber, fuel, flowers, wind break, mental health, physical health, community cohesion, outdoor recreation, and a re-awakening of mankind’s connection to the life-giving value and joys of our mother earth. Plants also contribute to dramatic decreases in temperature, noise pollution, crime, erosion, flood, fire, and draught.

Luce, a long term media and entertainment entrepreneur and philanthropist interested in the preservation of indigenous cultures, offered The WoodShedAZ!™ acreage because of the pragmatic expertise and obviously highly beneficial, well coordinated vision of Thompson and as well because of the fact that the property of TheWoodShedAZ! Timber-lodge-guest-ranch  itself, serves as the penultimate challenge in ecosystem recovery, having the sparsest of biodiversity in the State of Arizona. The joint venture is preparing to break ground at the Flagstaff campus later this summer.

Karen Bauernschmidt, Founder, Sustainable Energy Alliance