Trees

Trees are among the most beautiful and useful products in nature. Trees have been cherished since ancient times, besides providing food and shelter for wildlife as well as “us.” we can’t imagine trees having a heart and soul. But they have been here millions of years before us and somehow I can’t imagine God in his infinite wisdom would not give them something that we cannot fathom and may well is beyond our senses.

We have used and abused the trees, but they are steadfast in the way they watch over us. Gods plan is to have trees watch over us for all time, and we were given the privilege of being able to use them as we saw fit. But, also, to care for them and enjoy them, try to imagine that by looking out your window all the trees as far as you could see were gone yes gone of course that meant your yard was turning to sand and your flowers had shriveled down to the roots. All that sand made you thirsty, so you went to the sink for a drink when you turned on the faucet only a puff of dust came out. The water table was so low and the ground was no longer able to hold back the coming dust bowl, you rushed to the window to see if you could see the river as now there were no trees in the way, you could make it out but it was no longer a river just a river bed. That would never do in this part of the country. Greenery from the crops in the fields, orchards of apples trees peach, and cherry trees. Plus all the thousands of trees we have faithfully planted. Nothing could ever take, that away from us could it? Falls bounty was always a blessing, and would always be there for us wouldn’t it?
We always had plenty of water in NY State we still have forested hills and sparkling lakes held there by the forests. We take all this for granted and believe it will always be there. As the sad facts however more than one third of the land in the world has turned to dust and more than 70% of the forests have been destroyed and burned and most of that in the past 25 years. By the year 2015 half of the world will be sand (dust) and 80 % of the forests will be gone....

We always imagined Africa as a country with huge jungles with Tarzan swinging through the trees that was 50 years ago. Tarzans days are over. But the furious rate of logging will not let the jungles recover. . If Tarzan could find a tree to swing from his last swing would end him splattered against the side of a semi trailer.

South America has the same problem nearly 70 percent of the forests have been cut and burned in the last 25 years after they cut 500 acres or so they burn everything. They had the false impression they would grow crops on the remains of the forest. But the soil there needs the forest to hold on to the poor subsoil in 4or 5 years the soil will not stay and it will not grow anything and of course they burned the trees and the stumps so no native plants or trees will return. It may take 300 years to get started and over a thousand to become a forest and that might not even be possible. We can be proud of our efforts in united states as well as Canada for fighting to save our last protected areas remember our trees are part of us...as far as we are concerned most of the changes that will effect us is the weather and the weather patterns. Some of these changes are noticeable already will be noticed worldwide. Most changes will be in the northern hemisphere .we probably will get aggravated brushing off 4 inches of snow off your windshield in June and some states like Virginia getting up to 125 degrees. Tornadoes and hurricanes will appear more prevalent and show up in places that never had them. These storms are already blazing new trails across the country. .

Tree what am I really I am a large perennial plant made of wood.
No I’m not a shrub I have to be able to grow 15-2o at least
I must have branches and a main stem called a trunk.
Compared with most other plants I am long lived, some of us getting to be several thousand years old and grow up to 375 ft tall.
I keep you breathing by producing oxygen and reduce carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. I am the principal component of erosion and have specific weather-sheltered ecosystems under my foliage like my human counterparts. I sometimes brag a little there always been people for centuries trying to find the tallest the heaviest and the type with the biggest trunk diameter there has long been arguments over which country had the biggest but until now there never has been a reliable way until the laser rangefinder came along.. maybe a little late to measure the record trees that we already destroyed so now we know, or do we? If a tree was in a heavy forest you might still have a problem, but we are closer than ever and the top 5 trees are. The coast redwood at 379 ft a coast Douglas fir at 326 ft, Australian Mt. Ash at 318 ft a Sitka Spruce at 317 ft and giant sequoia 311 ft the Sequoias trunk was 29 ft wide. The record diameter is 37.5 ft held by a Montezuma Cypress.
Of course some of us live to be pretty old the record so far is a bristlecone pine who has been watching us for at least 4844 years that’s 2837 years before Christ was born an d that was about 1000 years before most of the pyramids were built there are many other trees that exceed 3000 years the oldest verified tree planted by a human is the Sari Madohi sacred fig planted in 288 BC Sri Lanka and is now 2293 years. Other interesting things about us you might not know trees have played an important in many of the worlds mythologies. The tree of life, the tree of knowledge, the
World tree the New Year tree, the Christmas tree, etc.

The tree with its branches reaching up to the sky, its roots deep into the earth, can be seen to dwell in three worlds-a link between heaven and earth, and the under world.



Trees!
A good end of this little story maybe really a beginning. I believe that every one has a favorite tree or a group of trees that will always be in your mind .I have several favorites I lived across the street from a hospital on Long Island on the grounds of this hospital was a big Norway Maple it was near the entrance the time was 1944, near the entrance door my friends and I would climb to the top and pretend we were in a B-17 bomber. We had a pilot, co pilot and a bombardier. The path went right under the tree we kept score by the size people we bombed kids would be jeeps teenagers might be a truck a heavy set man or a real big woman might be recorded as a half track or a tank. That tree as far as I know is still there. Our initials were carved on one of the highest branches. Still wonder if they are still there. A neighbor friend and I had a platform in my back yard in an apple tree for several years we fort many battles in that tree and I don’t think we ever lost one.

Another favorite tree I have is a 60 ft tall white pine in the back yard of a house I lived in Harpursville for 15 years I went back there one day when I was depressed I put my arms around the tree I could only reach about half way. I started talking to it I didn’t expect any answer, but I was surprised when I did hear from the tree it wasn’t in words as much as it was a feeling. It felt I was talking to a spirit that lived in the tree. I had called him (the tree) Prince John. When I married my wife Lynn I took her to visit Prince John got along great I was afraid at first Lynn would think I was crazy. We would ask the big white pine a question sometimes he would not answer he said some hinges he thinks its unto us to find the answers ourselves. He had his own stories to tell. One of them surprised us he told us that he was much older then we guessed we thought he might be about 100 years old; but he showed us there graves of his mother I found it in the place he described to me it was about 350 feet from prince johns place she had been .cut in1915 and shipped with 10 others to N. Y. City, her father sadly was struck by lightning in 1870 at that time he was 150 ft tall and his trunk as over 5 ft. he she said he found out his grandfather was cut by the British for a ship mast in 1760 the British were the only ones allowed to cut the big pines. The British ships were big and they needed the main masts to be nearly as long as the ships the masts had to be strait and 150 ft tall, and grandfather white pine was over 160 ft tall and his trunk was over 6 ft. masts of this size were no longer available in England. While pines of that size were becoming hard to find, this mast was to replace one lost in a battle. If a colonist cut one of these trees he would be hung or shot or both.…all white pine trees belonged to the crown, as they needed 2 150 ft main masts. The other 4 masts were 120 ft was one other 150 ft mast and 4 120 ft mast they thought it was an honor to be on the biggest British war ship. I learned a lot about trees from prince john the most amazing thing yet was that even after a tree was cut or destroyed the trees spirit will live on possibly forever or until it was burned or destroyed and they still could communicate with each other until that end.

PS: A secret arrangement the Chinese government made to their people is that china has set side 150,000 square miles of forest as a permanent wild life refuge this would be a piece of land about 1000 miles long and 150 miles wide. a good piece of news..

the end………….