"Trees are the lungs of the Earth"
Happy Arbor Day!
Cherry Tree, Germany
~photographer unknown~
~photographer unknown~
Arbor Day, founded in 1872 by J. Sterling Morton, is celebrated in the United States on the last Friday in April. As part of my own Arbor Day celebration, I've gathered a few links that I hope will inspire, inform, entertain, and help you help trees!
Dedicated to planting trees, they inspire people to plant, nurture and celebrate trees through a variety of conservation and education programs.
"Founded in 1972, we envision a world where trees and forests are abundant, healthy, and sustainable, and highly valued by all people. Through mass-media communications, by providing low-cost trees for planting, and by producing high-quality, easy-to-use educational materials, we work to make tree planting and care something in which nearly everyone can be involved. It is our constant goal to expand a person's desire to plant a tree into a lifelong enthusiasm for tree planting and care, and for positive involvement in conservation issues relating to trees."
Check out more about their programs, and visit their web site to learn more about Arbor Day and ways to celebrate it, including purchasing trees online and sending beautiful free e-cards (or "Treecards?")
The Fruit Tree Planting Foundation (FTPF) is an international nonprofit dedicated to planting fruitful trees and plants to alleviate world hunger, combat global warming, strengthen communities, and improve the surrounding air, soil, and water. They donate fruit orchards at places such as public schools, city parks, low-income neighborhoods, Native American reservations, international hunger relief sites, and animal sanctuaries.
"Our primary mission is to plant and help others plant a collective total of 18 billion fruit trees across the world (approximately 3 for every person alive) and encourage their growth under organic standards. FTPF provides support, resources, and guidance for those interested in planting fruit trees and spearheads a variety of planting programs. These programs are aimed at enriching the environment, providing nutritious food sources for wild and rescued animals, and improving human health by bringing delicious, fresh, locally grown raw fruits and vegetables of the highest quality into the lives of all people.
FTPF also seeks to secure land throughout the world with the sole purpose of restoring native plant ecosystems with an abundance of fruit trees and plants that benefit the surrounding air, water, and soil and provide food sources for wild animals."
What's not to love? :-)
Unless someone like you cares a whole lot,
nothing is going to get better, it's not.
Catalog Choice is a free service that allows you to decide which catalogs you want (and don't want) to receive, reducing mailbox clutter and trash while helping conserve natural resources. According to the Environmental Defense Paper Calculator, approximately 20 billion catalogs are mailed every year in the US alone (the vast majority unwanted and immediately thrown away), most made from virgin fiber - a waste of millions of trees and other resources. (You can read more about the resources used for catalogs and other junk mail and how to reduce it here and in this post).
"The mission of Catalog Choice is to reduce the number of repeat and unwanted catalog mailings, and to promote the adoption of sustainable industry best practices."
Your free daily click helps preserve rainforest habitat.
"The Rainforest Site is dedicated to the preservation of rainforests around the world. Your daily click funds the purchase of rainforest land by The Nature Conservancy, The Rainforest Conservation Fund, World Land Trust-US, and Rainforest2Reef. These organizations work to preserve rainforest land in Ecuador, Mexico, Peru, Paraguay and other locations worldwide."
Most of the site is in Swedish, which I can't read, but my understanding is that they protect the forests by raising money through their partners and sponsors with each click and use it to purchase old growth forest land.
A fun trivia game that plants trees! Just register, play the game, learn as you go, and with enough correct answers you help plant trees and save the earth, you superhero, you! (A correct answer = 1 leaf, 12 leaves = 1 branch, 15 branches = 1 tree). Good luck, have fun, and don't be surprised if you become addicted! ;-)
(You can play without registering, but if you register (it's fast and free), your accumulated leaves, branches and trees, along with your other game stats, will be saved and carried over to your next game.)
We must protect the forests for our children,
grandchildren and children yet to be born.
We must protect the forests for those
who can't speak for themselves
such as the birds, animals, fish and trees.
~Chief Edward Moody, Qwatsinas, Nuxalk Nation
Ever consider a treehouse vacation?
Hainan Island, South China Sea
There are treehouse lodgings all over the world.
Maybe after staying in a treehouse, you'll want to live in one, full or part-time. Like environmentalist Peter Bahouth, who built three treehouses in Atlanta (out of mostly salvaged materials) that he named, "Mind," "Body," and "Spirit." Spirit is also his name for the 137-year old Southern shortleaf pine that inspired and anchors the treehouse retreat. See video interviews with him in (and about) his treehouses here:
There are many books and websites about building and living in treehouses, whether you want to build a small one yourself for fun over a weekend or hire a team of professional arborist/architect/treehouse builders to create a much more elaborate one for you! Here are two of my favorite professional treehouse builder website galleries:
The woods were made for the hunters of dreams,
The brooks for the fishers of song;
To the hunters who hunt for the gunless game
The streams and the woods belong.
~Sam Walter Foss
I'd love to curl up in a treehouse, or under the base of a big shade tree, and pore over this book, which has been languishing on my wish list since 2005...
As well as this one, a recent discovery...
Enjoy a treerific Arbor Day and weekend! Go plant a tree, hug a tree, thank a tree, learn about a tree, celebrate a tree! They benefit us in so many ways, it's the least we can do!
A Blessing for the Woods
Before I leave, almost without noticing,
before I cross the road and head toward
what I have intentionally postponed—
Let me stop to say a blessing for these woods:
for crows barking and squirrels scampering,
for trees and fungus and multi-colored leaves,
for the way sunlight laces with shadows
through each branch and leaf of tree,
for these paths that take me in,
for these paths that lead me out.
~©Michael S. Glaser~
(Poem used with the author's gracious permission)
