How important are trees to you? More than you might realise!
Trees. They stand in isolation for centuries in a field. Mighty groups form forests across the tropics. Other lands have no trees at all. But what do trees actually contribute to the human race? It's not an exaggeration to say that the human race has been built on wood. Timber has served as fuel for our fires for countless millennia. Those fires have heated our homes and cooked out food. Charcoal has powered forges that have shoed horses, made mighty gates and humble shovels.
How many navies have been launched aboard a wooden boat? Nations have forged empires from the wooden decks of mighty fighting ships. The Romans would surround a besieged city with wooden posts to prevent the people leaving. Then they would assault the city using wooden battering rams and catapults.
Timber has formed the basic fabric of our homes through the centuries. We've dined on it, sat on it, slept on it, walked on it and sailed in it. I have no doubt that you could reach out and touch something made from wood without leaving your seat. Even the paper you read in the morning owes it's existence to trees.
But their contribution goes much deeper than that. Just pause for a moment and take a deep breath. That oxygen you have just filled your lungs with has very probably been produced by a tree near you! When you breath out the tree is there too. You breath out CO2. Trees take that harmful gas and absorb it. They absorb the carbon and release the oxygen for your to breath again.
Then there are the medicines that most of us take each day. We have the trees of the rain forests to thank for many of them. Without their curative properties many more people would succumb to sickness each year. What about the things that trees do that you probably never see?
A single tree can be home to species that exist no where else on earth. A hole in their trunk can become a home for a nesting owl or a slumbering bat. It can also be the site of delicious honey when bees come to rest there. The ground beneath a tree can be the most fertile of any. The leaves, fruit, twigs and even bird droppings that fall from the tree produce superb fertilizer for the ground. Walk through any wood and look at the soil beneath your feet. Bluebells, crocus, orchids, snow drops, fox gloves and so the list goes on. Trees planted along the bank of a river help to prevent or reduce flooding. Plant them alongside a road or a railway and they reduce the noise. Plant them in your high street and they brighten the place up. They line avenues and marshall the traffic. Really we could go on for hours writing about the things that the humble tree does for us. But one thing that is obvious is that we need trees.
It becomes a stark reality if you have the opportunity to compare a map of the countryside from, say, two centuries ago with one from the present day. The area of land given over to trees will have shrunk to a tiny fraction of it's heyday. The southern half of the UK was stripped of mighty oak woods when the need to build ships to fight wars was required. Even the weather has played its part in denuding the countryside of its silent guardians. Who can forget the hurricane of 1997 that the UK suffered? Millions of trees were destroyed.
The problem with trees is that they do not grow over night! An oak tree may take several hundred years to reach maturity and then stay standing for many more to come. Trees are some of the oldest living things on the plant. Have you ever held a tiny acorn in your hand and marveled at how that tiny seed can produce that mighty tree? It is one of natures miracles. We need to take trees far more seriously than we do. We need them and they need our protection. It certainly helps to protect the trees and forests that we have around us at present. But more is needed than that.
We need to plant millions of new trees to ensure that our future is to be full of vibrant trees. Everyone can get involved with the task. You do not have to have land to plant trees on to plant a wood. Communities can come together to find land that could be planted by its members. Schools can plant up unused corners of their playgrounds or sports fields. In the UK one national charity is spear heading the campaign to restore the woods to the countryside.
The Woodland Trust is organising a campaign to plant millions of trees over the next 50 years in the UK. Everyone, whoever and where ever they live in the UK can get involved. Just imagine the difference that will make to the countryside of the UK. The scheme, known as MoreWoods, More Good, allows landowners and community groups to obtain free trees that can be planted in woods that are open to the public of for private enjoyment. The ownership of the trees is not important. The fact that they are being planted is. There is even a scheme designed specifically for the NHS to plant new woods on empty parcels of land. So get involved.
Contact the Woodland Trust at www.woodlandtrust.org.uk and see what planting schemes are being organised in your community. If you own land then join in with the aim of planting more woodland. We all benefit from the things that trees and woodland give us, now it's time to give something back to the countryside.
How many navies have been launched aboard a wooden boat? Nations have forged empires from the wooden decks of mighty fighting ships. The Romans would surround a besieged city with wooden posts to prevent the people leaving. Then they would assault the city using wooden battering rams and catapults.
Timber has formed the basic fabric of our homes through the centuries. We've dined on it, sat on it, slept on it, walked on it and sailed in it. I have no doubt that you could reach out and touch something made from wood without leaving your seat. Even the paper you read in the morning owes it's existence to trees.
But their contribution goes much deeper than that. Just pause for a moment and take a deep breath. That oxygen you have just filled your lungs with has very probably been produced by a tree near you! When you breath out the tree is there too. You breath out CO2. Trees take that harmful gas and absorb it. They absorb the carbon and release the oxygen for your to breath again.
Then there are the medicines that most of us take each day. We have the trees of the rain forests to thank for many of them. Without their curative properties many more people would succumb to sickness each year. What about the things that trees do that you probably never see?
A single tree can be home to species that exist no where else on earth. A hole in their trunk can become a home for a nesting owl or a slumbering bat. It can also be the site of delicious honey when bees come to rest there. The ground beneath a tree can be the most fertile of any. The leaves, fruit, twigs and even bird droppings that fall from the tree produce superb fertilizer for the ground. Walk through any wood and look at the soil beneath your feet. Bluebells, crocus, orchids, snow drops, fox gloves and so the list goes on. Trees planted along the bank of a river help to prevent or reduce flooding. Plant them alongside a road or a railway and they reduce the noise. Plant them in your high street and they brighten the place up. They line avenues and marshall the traffic. Really we could go on for hours writing about the things that the humble tree does for us. But one thing that is obvious is that we need trees.
It becomes a stark reality if you have the opportunity to compare a map of the countryside from, say, two centuries ago with one from the present day. The area of land given over to trees will have shrunk to a tiny fraction of it's heyday. The southern half of the UK was stripped of mighty oak woods when the need to build ships to fight wars was required. Even the weather has played its part in denuding the countryside of its silent guardians. Who can forget the hurricane of 1997 that the UK suffered? Millions of trees were destroyed.
The problem with trees is that they do not grow over night! An oak tree may take several hundred years to reach maturity and then stay standing for many more to come. Trees are some of the oldest living things on the plant. Have you ever held a tiny acorn in your hand and marveled at how that tiny seed can produce that mighty tree? It is one of natures miracles. We need to take trees far more seriously than we do. We need them and they need our protection. It certainly helps to protect the trees and forests that we have around us at present. But more is needed than that.
We need to plant millions of new trees to ensure that our future is to be full of vibrant trees. Everyone can get involved with the task. You do not have to have land to plant trees on to plant a wood. Communities can come together to find land that could be planted by its members. Schools can plant up unused corners of their playgrounds or sports fields. In the UK one national charity is spear heading the campaign to restore the woods to the countryside.
The Woodland Trust is organising a campaign to plant millions of trees over the next 50 years in the UK. Everyone, whoever and where ever they live in the UK can get involved. Just imagine the difference that will make to the countryside of the UK. The scheme, known as MoreWoods, More Good, allows landowners and community groups to obtain free trees that can be planted in woods that are open to the public of for private enjoyment. The ownership of the trees is not important. The fact that they are being planted is. There is even a scheme designed specifically for the NHS to plant new woods on empty parcels of land. So get involved.
Contact the Woodland Trust at www.woodlandtrust.org.uk and see what planting schemes are being organised in your community. If you own land then join in with the aim of planting more woodland. We all benefit from the things that trees and woodland give us, now it's time to give something back to the countryside.
Source...