Chain saw roars to life
Leaves flutter to earth
Twigs tumble to the planet
Branches severed in strife
Thud when they hit the ground
More branches come down
Higher and higher cuts the saw
Whining a tree’s death sound
No more branches shield the sky
Slicing through the trunk
Chunks crash to the lawn
Birds, homeless, wonder why
Roaring chain saw
Cuts to the stump
Everything hauled away
There ought to be a law
Beautiful tree reduced to memory
replaced by two for victory
Inevitably there are several ways to respond to climate change. Orienting the United States to “green” lifestyles while the rest of the world continues to produce and consume is inane. Planting trees is one of the most sensible and effective means of generating oxygen while countering rising carbon dioxide levels, thus delivering a green new deal.
Simple, yet it involves positive action our elected federal representatives can take for our future.
Allow me to take an excerpt from Daily Signal: “According to the Government Accountability Office (GAO) analysis…about 2,300 farms, or about .15 percent of the 1.6 million farms receiving direct payments in 2011, reported all their land as ‘fallow,’ that is, producers did not plant any crops of any type on this land—for each year of the last five years (i.e. 2007 through 2011), as allowed under the farm bill.”
The article goes on: “In addition, according to our analysis of U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) data, 622 farms reported all of their farm’s acreage as fallow for each of the previous 10 years, from 2002 through 2011.”
This means the government pays farmers to leave land lying vacant for five years or more. Our country has more than enough acreage producing food crops to feed America and other nations, so why not put fallow land to good use—fighting climate change? Trees could be well on their way to maturity in a five-year span.
Anne Schechinger, in an article published online for Ag Mag on November 7, 2017, wrote: “During the Dust Bowl of the 1930s, the federal government planted 220 million trees to stop the blowing soil that devastated the Great Plains. Now, just when drought and dust storms are on their way back, this “Great Wall of Trees” is crumbling – and federal farm policy is partly to blame.
A new investigation by the Food & Environment Reporting Network and the Weather Channel found that throughout Nebraska, farmers are tearing out trees to eke out a few more acres of land to plant row crops like corn and soybeans, which receive federal subsidies. These so-called shelter-belts were critical to alleviating the conditions that created the Dust Bowl and have helped stop them from coming back.
-Tree shelter-belts help farmers adapt to drought conditions by reducing soil erosion and keeping moisture in the soil. But instead of planting more trees or adapting to changing climate conditions through other conservation practices like planting cover crops, farmers are doing the exact opposite.
The federal crop insurance program is partly to blame for farmers not implementing adaptation practices. As Environmental Working Group (EWG) reported this year, crop insurance encourages farmers to ignore climate change and continue to plant the same crops in the same way, year after year, regardless of more frequent droughts. Crop insurance also makes destroying shelter-belts easier: If there’s a crop yield or price loss, farmers receive payments on the acres that were formerly used as shelter-belts.
Climate change is making farming harder in the Great Plains and it’s only going to get worse in the future. Government policies should be encouraging farmers to adapt to changing conditions, such as motivating farmers to keep and plant more shelter-belts, instead of helping them tear trees down.”
The true green new deal solution is to encourage your representatives to enact legislation that compensates farmers and land owners for planting trees rather than leaving land lying fallow.
I have heard arguments that planting trees means a lot more work when a farmer wants to reclaim the land for production of crops. They must remove the trees, which involves cutting them down and probably making money selling them for lumber or firewood. They also must pull the stumps and re-work the land to make it arable. The other side of the argument involves saving the planet by planting trees instead of leaving the land fallow, possibly for generations in the hopes it will one day be needed…when it’s needed now to remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere!
While that once fallow land sprouts beautiful trees, carbon dioxide is removed from the air and life-giving oxygen is generated. One acre of mature trees generates enough oxygen for 18 people. If only one million acres lying fallow became forests of mature trees, 18 million people would have more oxygen to say nothing of the reduced carbon dioxide.
Care to search for how many acres lie fallow on our planet? Be prepared for a surprise. Planting trees on fallow land sounds like a green new deal to me! Write or call your elected federal representatives if you agree.
Planting Norway pine trees serves a dual purpose: One creates Christmas trees and the other provides habitat for wildlife. That was the intent of starting a Norway pine nursery in early November 2018 on private property in the Crocker Hills of Wisconsin.
The trees were ordered through the Arbor Day Foundation and arrived as bare root trees. The first image shows the site preparation. Each tree needed three feet of space, so the calculation was to create an area roughly 15′ by 6-7′ to start the 10 trees. Leaves were cleared and holes prepared with some roots needing to be cut. That was the first day and while the site was readied, the roots were separated and allowed to soak for three to six hours in water.
Five steel fence posts were also pounded into the ground to form the wildlife barrier once the trees were planted; a sixth post would be added when planting and mulching was completed.
The next day, chicken wire fencing was attached to four of the fence posts, leaving one of the long sides open to work on the field. Each of the trees was carefully planted in one of the ten holes, dirt filled back in by hand and gently patted down…not packed hard. Water was poured into the indentations after the trees were secure and upright. Once those steps were done, mulch was spread around the trees, the sixth fence post was pounded in, and the rest of the chicken wire was secured to keep animals out.
The goal was to get the trees started, protect them until they can survive on their own, and then replant them in 3-4 years.
Did you know that 10,000 pounds of junk mail are sent out every year?
That statistic was cited by Bear Heart in 1996 in a book by Molly Larkin entitled “The Wind Is My Mother.” It’s about the life and teachings of a Native American Shaman–Bear Heart.
Bear Heart expounds on junk mail: “If 100,000 people refused junk mail 150,000 trees would be saved. Trees hold the soil together, and now their numbers are dwindling.” That was 10 years ago, so how many more pounds of junk mail are sent each year now?
Bear Heart offers many more perspectives on how we should live as human beings, so it’s an excellent read if you’re at all interested in learning with an open mind.
The life and teachings of a Native American Shaman
Fruit trees provide food for humans and animals.
When we were looking for a tree nursery, the first place we looked Google. The goal was to find fruit trees suitable for planting at deer camp. Obviously, we want to see deer and this was one chosen option for providing a more attractive habitat.
Although camp is in managed forest crop land, planting different trees provides diversity and fruit trees can produce fruit suitable for human consumption as well. One of the considerations is to ensure the trees you plant are suitable for the climate.
We were fortunate to find Grandview Orchards just east of Antigo, Wisconsin. After communicating via E-mail, we obtained two apple trees: one McIntosh and one Red Regent. They were compatible varieties and we relied on the advice of owner Lisa Rettinger on spacing for planting. The trees were easily transported to camp.
After site selection and preparation, the trees were successfully planted and watered. We also planted some young white pine trees to begin creating diversity in our section of the forest.
Here are suggestions for finding the tree nursery you’re looking for:
Keep in mind you might have to lug water to the location, as we did. We loaded two gallons of plain water in a backpack and lugged those to the site carrying shovel and weed whacker. The time of year for planting certain varieties of trees is also important to consider.
Once the site was prepared using measurements from the soil package around the tree, we went back to carry the tree to the location. We had chosen the site and pre-positioned the tree as close as possible to save labor. Some water went in the prepared hole, with the rest being used to water after planting the tree. All that was left to carry out was tools and backpack with empty water bottles.
Save Earth. Plant more trees, wherever you can.
In his acceptance remarks, Academy award winner Leonardo DiCaprio spoke of the importance of saving our planet. He was correct in that we need to do more to protect our environment.
Best actor acceptance
The answer, however, does not lie solely on the shoulders of major corporations and larger polluters. It weighs on the shoulders of every individual on earth as well. Yes, you can get the major corporations to kneel with your purchasing decisions, but beware! Do your research before making a choice that could be more harmful.
We get on the case of paper companies for harvesting too many trees, yet the paper industry plants two trees for every one they harvest. They would go out of business if they didn’t propagate their own raw material.
Let’s look at some personal options each of us can do to reduce greenhouse gases and help our planet’s environment support the population.
Yes, reducing the population and the pressure we put on the environment is one option, yet we are not going to tell anyone not to have children. It’s more about responsibility.
Use your motorized vehicles less. Next time you’re driving in a big city, pay attention to how many people are riding in each vehicle. You’ll find most have only one person in them. So carpool or take public transportation or walk or ride your bicycle to work or the grocery store. Patronize the local grocery or convenience store instead of chasing to the larger grocer.
Use less electricity. Conserve water. Eat natural instead of processed foods. Plant trees.
For most of us, yard chores are a necessity that is often despised.
A landscaper who loves to use natural elements in designing a yard used to promote bumper stickers with the slogan “Lawns are for Losers.”
How many of us detest having to mow the lawn and pollute the air with those exhaust fumes?
Or despise the back-breaking work of shoveling snow off the sidewalk and drive?
And what about raking leaves?
If you’ve ever wondered how many leaves there are on your trees, a USA Snapshot in USA Today used sources Nature magazine and American Grove.org to report that 200,000 leaves could fall from one large mature tree. Time for a leaf blower?
If you have five large mature trees in your landscape, you’re going to potentially rake one million leaves, and what are you going to do with them? It once was that you could pile them up and burn them, but that’s not acceptable today. You pile them up on the curb and the municipality hauls them off to a yard waste site or landfill. You can mulch them, too.
Mother nature takes care of the leaves that fall on forest floors. They naturally deteriorate and mulch the woodlands, so why do we rake?
Odds are we want our yards to look nice and neat and clean. Same reason we mow or shovel.
So as you tackle those chores, appreciate the beauty of those colorful leaves as they gently float to your lawn and create a kaleidoscope blanket on the grass.
Today – September 13th, 2015 – is Grandparent’s Day. What better gift can you, as a grandparent, do than to plant one tree for each of your grandchildren?
Yes, the odds are against you ever sitting under the shade of those trees, but your grandchildren will have them to enjoy. Whenever they sit under one of those beautiful gifts of nature, they will remember you. And their grandchildren will have heard the stories about you as well, so that gift will last for generations as your legacy lives on in the simple planting of a tree.
Sure, today is a day they’re supposed to honor you, but when you think about it, they paid you homage when they gave you your grandchildren in the first place.
A tree can be a gift that lasts for generations.