A TREE: “Poems are made by fools like me but only God can make a
tree.”
Joyce Kilmer, right?
It’s something to ponder when you’re picking out your Christmas
tree.
What other living thing does so much for the planet – and
especially for us humans who inhabit it?
Perhaps most obvious to us in the newspaper business great
numbers of trees are made into newsprint. And how many other paper
products? Writing paper, boxes, toilet paper, magazines, paper
towels, to name a few.
Trees are converted to lumber which translates into framing
material for our houses, schools, office buildings.
Think of the array of furniture which derives from wood: desks
and chairs, book shelves, coffee tables, bed frames. Even twigs and
branches are chipped up, glue added for particleboard which, if you
look around, is used in more and more products in the office and
house.
Trees provide a place for robins to build their nests. Owls
roost there. Even an old decaying tree provides a home for insects
and, thus, a feeding ground for other birds. Some animals live in
their holes and hollow parts.
Many trees have beautiful blooms in the spring and fruit –
apples, beechnuts, hickory nuts, acorns – in the summer and fall.
In turn, that fruit is used by man and beast.
They absorb carbon dioxide and release oxygen. Imagine how bad
global warming would be without them!
They hold back the waters of a raging rainstorm.
In the fall, their leaves turn beautiful shades of red, yellow,
orange and purple. When you burn the leaves, they smell delicious.
Leaves and pine needles in the forest provide bedding for deer and
other animals, and then decay to provide nutrition for itself and
surrounding plants and seedlings.
They shade us when it’s hot.
And when it’s cold, trees can provide fuel to keep us warm. How
could we dream – really dream – without looking at the embers and
flames from a wood fire in our house or a campfire outside?
Where would kids build their “tree” houses?
Last but not least, they provide a place for snow to land and
turn out landscape into a Christmas card.
