Imagine living in a place with no trees. I’d up and move immediately; rather, I wouldn’t move there to begin with.
About 10 years ago, a large dying birch tree in my side yard had to be chopped down. I still miss that tree. There are magnificent trees in this neighborhood, some of them 80 feet tall. There are maples, cottonwoods, birches, oaks, willows, pines. Just before I bought this house 13 years ago, I walked into it, looked out the large windows, saw all the trees in every direction and made up my mind on the spot: “Yup, I’m buying it.”
Later, I discovered quite a lot of these large, stately trees were planted as seedlings 40 years ago by my neighbor, Richard Dubbin, after he and his wife moved here when this mobile-home site was pretty much a featureless prairie. Thank you, Richard.
Trees are very much part of my memories of the old South St. Cloud neighborhood, by the college, where I grew up. The boulevards along Fifth Avenue were lined with elm trees. There were oak trees everywhere, including in Barden Park where we often played. My brothers and I, like hairless monkeys, loved to climb the big old oak trees in our yard. At the Stotkos’ yard on our block, we built a nifty tree house in one of the oaks. We loved to climb up there to read comic books and smoke snitched cigarettes on breezy summer days.
So many housing developments these days are tree-less. Driving by them creates a feeling of desolation, one boxy house after another, side by side on flat ground with no greenery in sight. Eventually, the seedlings now planted will grow tall and beautiful, and those neighborhoods will have plenty of charm and character, but it will take some time.
Some small-town main streets are also nearly tree-less, giving them a stark, unwelcoming look, especially in summer when the sun is glaring down and radiating in heat waves off of asphalt and from the sides of old brick buildings.
What sparked this rumination about trees is a Care2 website posting headlined as “50 Ways Trees Benefit Our Health, Community and Environment.” After reading it, I realized – again – how trees have been such an important part of my life and everybody else’s life on Planet Earth.
Here are some of the 50 benefits of trees:
- According to a study in London, fewer people who live in areas with more trees have anti-depressant prescriptions.
- Trees can separate and define space, which can give people a sense of privacy and create a feeling of relaxation and well-being.
- Workers are more productive when they can see trees or plants from their office windows.
- Trees are carbon “sinks,” meaning they can absorb more carbon than they release. Trees take in carbon dioxide and through photosynthesis release oxygen into the atmosphere. Thus, trees help fight climate change.
- Trees can absorb odors and potentially harmful gases.
- Trees are natural “air conditioners,” helping to keep air indoors and outdoors cooler and acting as wind breaks to keep winter blasts off houses, helping houses retain heat. According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the net cooling effect of a young healthy tree is equivalent to 10 room air-conditioners operating 20 hours a day. If the United States had 100 million trees living around city spaces, we would save about $2 billion each year in energy costs.
- Trees prevent erosion and absorb or prevent harmful chemicals from getting into waterways.
- The habitats for wonderful creatures and organisms, most obviously birds and squirrels, are trees and even decaying trees.
- Trees can screen ugly views such as moldering vacant houses, weedy lots and heaps of junk in unkempt yards.
- Shoppers linger longer – and spend more money – in downtowns or malls landscaped with trees.
- Trees contribute to so many products, including some vitamins, medicines, paper products, books and – yes – newsprint. But as we use trees, we should be replanting them constantly. A world lacking in trees would be a cheerless world, indeed.
Next time you hear the suggestion to “Plant a tree,” take it seriously. For a good place to learn more about how to plant trees or how to contribute to the effort, visit the following Nature Conservancy website: www.plantabillion.org.
