"Trees are wonderful things. They provide shade, hold soil,
water, carbon and nutrients, and provide habitat for innumerable species. Our
ancient ancestors lived in and among trees, and both benefitted. Is there still
a primal connection between humans and trees, and do we still benefit from being
among them? The answer is yes. Studies have shown that we are psychologically
healthier when we spend time around trees and in woods." Harv “Ponderosa”
Teitelbaum
Heart, Lungs and Soul of the City
Urban trees have a terrible life. Tall trucks bash them, utility companies dig
up their roots and trim back their branches, high-density developments squeeze
them out, insurers hate them. However, trees have real benefits for cities. They
provide cleaner air, help reduce noise, provide flash flood protection and can
actually reduce air temperature. They can also enhance our emotional and
physical well-being. According to behavioral scientist Roger Ulrich, physical
signs of stress such as pulse rates and muscle tension lower within four minutes
of a stressed person moving into leafy surroundings.
New York City’s parks department has found that, including their ability to
combat pollution and add real estate value, the city’s street trees provide an
annual benefit of about $122 million, with the city receiving $5.60 in benefits
for every dollar spent on trees. In Salem, Oregon, there is a Greenways
Ordinance, which is designed to help preserve salmon habitat. In recognizing
trees’ role in reducing the amount of impervious surface area in the city,
planning officials have also realized that shading parking lots reduces the
temperature of stormwater runoff so it doesn’t harm aquatic life.
Climate Change
Trees remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and store it as
carbon in the plant material and in the surrounding soil. Over the last 300
years or so, the activities of humans (such as the burning of fossil fuels, and
vegetation clearing) have lead to a large increase in the concentration of
greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, creating what we call
climate change or global warming.
There are a couple of problems with using trees for carbon
offsets. For one thing, you would need a woodland about 1.7 times the size of
the UK to absorb the UK's current carbon output. Secondly, the carbon
sequestered during a tree's lifetime is locked up in the woody tissues. If it is
used to build houses or furniture, the carbon remains locked up in the timber.
But if it is burnt or allowed to decay much of the carbon is released again into
the atmosphere.
Embracing Protection
Given all the benefits we receive from trees, it’s our duty to protect them,
whether that’s by physically preventing them from being cut down or by carefully
stewarding the use of the products made from them, like wood and paper. The term
“treehugger” – originally derogatory – came from the Chipko movement, a group of
villagers in India who prevented commercial logging by hugging trees. Some of
the largest protests have been to protect the old growth temperate rainforests
in coastal British Columbia from clearcutting. And one of the main protestors is
a 78-year-old grandmother named Betty Krawczyk who was first arrested with
almost 90 others during the notorious 1993 Clayoquot Sound demonstration against
MacMillan Bloedel on Vancouver Island. She is still regularly jailed for
defending thousand-year-old Douglas Firs and is currently incarcerated at
Alouette Correctional Centre for Women in Maple Ridge B.C.
Tree sitting is another tree protection tactic. For 738 days in the 1990s, Julia
Butterfly Hill lived in the canopy of an ancient redwood tree called Luna to
help raise awareness of the plight of ancient forests. That led to protection of
the 1,000 year-old tree and creation of a three-acre buffer zone around its home
in Stafford, California.
Planting trees and combating deforestation is the focus of a Kenyan woman named
Wangari Maathai who founded the Green Belt Movement to organize poor women to
plant trees. Since 1977, over 30 million trees have been planted and over 30,000
women trained in forestry, food processing, bee-keeping, and other trades.
Maathai received the 2004 Nobel Peace Prize for her work with the movement.
I think that I shall never see
A billboard lovely as a
tree.
Perhaps, unless the billboards fall,
I’ll never see a tree at all.
Ogden
Nash, Song of the Open Road
Enlightenment from the Trees
Many people feel a strong kinship toward trees and some ancient cultures
believed humans came from trees.
Spiritual insight and personal transformation can be achieved through close
contact with trees. Many an inspiration is born while meditating, praying,
singing or writing beneath a tree. Perhaps the most famous enlightenment ever
came while the Buddha was sitting under the bodhi tree.
Both the ancient Celts and Native Americans believed that trees reaching for the
sky united the earth with the spirit world. They believed trees communicated
with the moon and the stars and were forewarned of any oncoming dangers by the
wind. Trees, in turn, would send those warnings and other heavenly messages down
to the earth through their roots. The “wish trees” of northern Europe are
successors to ancient pagan tree shrines where people once appealed to the
spirit beings or devas for help in solving problems.
In North America, trees are also an integral part of the rich relationship with
Nature that the indigenous peoples of the Northwest Coast First Nations have
evolved over thousands of years. They carve totem poles from the native,
densely-grained ancient western red cedars. Unfortunately, during the past
century, industrial logging has dramatically reduced the number of these trees
that are suitable for totem pole carving.
The Ultimate Treehouse
People of all ages are fascinated by treehouses. Perhaps the most lavish is
owned by the Duchess of Northumberland in northeastern England. Sitting high in
the branches of 16 trees, the five-room, 6,000 square-foot structure is part of
a transformation of Alnwick Castle’s grounds into a fantasy garden. The castle
is already famous as the setting for Hogwarts School in the Harry Potter films.
“Regardless of their ability, children should be encouraged to get outdoors and
appreciate nature,” says Lady Jane Percy, the energetic young Duchess whose
husband’s family have resided at Alnwick since the early 14th century. The
duchess was apparently an avid tree climber as a child and was inspired by a
survey which found that one-third of children aren’t allowed to climb trees.
What we are doing to the forests of the world is but a mirror
reflection of what we are doing to ourselves and to one another. ~
Mahatma Gandhi
Resources for Healing
Since ancient times, trees have offered resources for healing. They have not
only yielded medicines from their leaves, roots, bark, wood and fruit, but have
also supplied a source of energy on which many indigenous healing and curing
traditions rely. For thousands of years, trees have been used to make infusions,
decoctions, poultices, ointments and tonics to heal both humans and domestic
animals. Even modern-day pharmaceutical companies include parts of trees in some
of their drugs and treatments. Medical researchers have found the dried bark and
needles of the Pacific yew to contain taxol, an anti-cancer compound that has
been judged effective in treating ovarian cancers.
Photos (c) Shutterstock Images
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