How did you celebrate Arbor Day?
Did you enjoy a special conversation with your favorite trees? Did you discover new tree friends?
While we may have long talked to our trees, honored them in our literature, poems, music; it hasn’t been that long since we confirmed that trees possess a secret leanguage all their own.
Trees communicate with each other, store memories and respond to attacks. They have a profoundly positive effect on our emotions … but can we know how they feel about us?
As noted in many scientific and increasingly general interest publications, trees communicate through their interconnected root systems.
“Trees store memories, respond to attacks and transfer sugar solution, and perhaps even memories, to their offspring. All these abilities suggest that they must also have a brain,” as noted in the Guardian.
I encourage you to get out in nature and to experience communicating with trees using all your senses.
In the “before times,” I took a Forest Bathing class at the New York Botanical Garden ( It was profound. Affirming. Healthy and Mindful.
You can practice Forest Bathing right in your own park or yard or local botanical garden.
rI venture that far too many folks might ask, “What is Arbor Day?”
While you can find out everything you need to know by visiting the Arbor Day Foundation website, the spirit and work of the nonprofit organization
uses reforestation and urban forestry to solve issues of climate change, community, and biodiversity.
Arbor Day was founded in 1872 by J. Sterling Morton in Nebraska City, Nebraska.By the 1920s, each state in the United States had passed public laws that stipulated a certain day to be Arbor Day or Arbor and Bird Day observance. ... On the first Arbor Day, April 10, 1872, an estimated one million trees were planted.
On that first Arbor Day - there were parades, and more than 1,000 people who came out to hear speeches and celebrate the trees.
Today, Arbor Day is set aside to raise awareness of trees - around the world - and the important role that they play in our environment.
I just wish more folks would get excited about our trees. They are the lungs of the earth. Trees absorb CO2, removing and storing the carbon while releasing oxygen back into the air.
And while the environment experienced a cleansing during the covid crisis because we didn’t burn fossil fuels like we were due to stay-at-home restrictions, the concern is that we haven’t changed our lifestyles - rather we just hit the pause button.
Trees are true carbon sinks.
Hopefully, it’s not too late. We can modify our behavior.
How?
Learn about trees, including what native trees there are in your area that you can grow in order to improve your part of the world, while helping the pollinators.
Trees can boost the market value of your home by an average of 6 to 7 percent, according to Dr. Lowell Ponte as featured on the Arbor Day website.
Landscaping, especially with trees, can increase property values as much as 20 percent, according to the Management Information Services/ICMA.
And “Healthy, mature trees add an average of 10 percent to a property's value.”
The USDA says, “The net cooling effect of a young, healthy tree is equivalent to ten room-size air conditioners operating 20 hours a day.”
Plus trees help with runoff to protect the soil and our water.
Learn about planting trees in groupings rather than as solo stars.
Visually, this creates a focal point. if you have the space, a grove of trees can be a reflection point when planted near water; they can create a walkway; and create a view.
Furthermore, I always suggest Cluster Planting of trees. Here, Penn State Extension describes why this is good practice:
Cluster planting is done by strategically installing plants in groups of threes, fives, or higher odd numbers to block specific views or prevailing winds. Cluster planting provides an attractive, natural-looking screen without walling off your house and yard like a fortress. By planting clusters away from your house, you also provide backgrounds for interesting flowering and fruiting shrubs that are visible from your deck or living room. Additional cluster plantings can be used to create groves. The combined effect provides screening and an interesting design, allows for good airflow, and accommodates walkways through your property.
There’s a million reasons to love our trees. And to plant a million more trees.
A few years ago, I read the Pulitzer Prize winning, The Overstory novel by Richard Powers. It is a profound, life-changing read that I highly recommend.
Bill and I were most fortunate to view The NYBG YouTube presentation of the author’s talk at the Garden. I encourage you to take the 30 minutes to watch and learn…
The Wood Wide Web
photo NPR
And please do read all about my ultimate Sheroe ~ Suzanne Simard ~ the ecologist whose indefatigable work and dedication to researching the underground networks of forests characterized by fungi and roots ~ despite all the naysayers.
“Simard identified something called a hub tree, or "mother tree". Mother trees are the largest trees in forests that act as central hubs for vast below-ground mycorrhizal networks. A mother tree supports seedlings by infecting them with fungi and supplying them the nutrients they need to grow,” according to Wikipedia.
(NPR)
For me: when I saw Avatar and the Mother Tree ? Tree of Souls ~ it wasn’t Hollywood spectacular. It was the true magic of nature that was finally understood to be the star of any story…
Trees are a wonder.
Plant trees.
Yes, hug your trees.
Walk among the trees. Talk to your trees. Go sit under a tree…
Honor them.
Here’s our Kwanzan Cherry Tree in our front yard. She is so very glamorous. We revere her; we love her.
