Trees

There is a recurring daydream I have – on a warm lazy afternoon to be resting on a grassy bank of a stream or brook, in the shade of a willow tree. It somehow appeals to me.

Regarding trees, have you ever thought how useful and beautiful trees actually are? They have been around for a very long time indeed and have adapted to grow virtually everywhere there is water in liquid form. The trouble is forested areas are now decreasing at an alarming rate because of human activity. If you have recently tried to buy some dressed timber for shelving or something similar you will know how expensive it can be and is often of poor quality. It is almost as if wood should now be considered a semi-precious material!

Having used timber for various projects in the past I learned to deeply appreciate its innate beauty; the silky feel of newly planed wood and also, for me, the lovely nostalgic resin smell of newly cut pine wood. This is just the sensory appeal. Just think of a few of the uses we have for trees generally and for timber:

• Trees provide shelter and shade. Anyone who has ever walked in the shade of trees, on a hot day, will appreciate the coolness their shade provides. It is a more satisfying coolness than concrete, corrugated iron or shade cloth.

• Trees are beautiful – the overall shape pleases the eye. The colour of the leaves, particularly those which change with the seasons, is a sight for sore eyes. Those fortunate enough to have camped out and slept under a tree will know the beauty of the tracery of the leaves, like fine lace, set against the firmament. Delicate patterns of black against the deep blue back drop of the night sky, lit by the stars - that is beauty indeed.

• Anyone who is foot sore and weak after a long walk will know the feeling of renewed energy they get if they rest with their back against the trunk of a largish tree. I have no idea what it is that is ‘transmitted’ by the tree – life energy or something – but it works. After about 15 to 20 minutes of such rest I am ready for more activity. And it is not ‘just’ the resting that helps, there is something more that I, for one, cannot adequately explain.

• Trees provide wood to craft things of beauty – furniture, carvings, inlaid boxes for jewellery, toys and many other such artefacts.

• Wooden chopping boards are more hygienic than those made from plastic and do not dull knife blades as quickly as other materials.

• The timber from trees provides structural materials for protection against the elements and against those of a less than generous disposition; for houses, bridges and as props in mine shafts.

• Trees provide fruit, food and medicines (e.g. Aspirin and many other pharmaceutical products).

• Wood floats and for millennia all water born travel was made in wooden ships. All the great voyages of discovery by the Phoenicians, Greeks, Vikings, Arabs, Portuguese, Dutch and British were all made in wooden ships. A wooden boat is a thing of beauty.

• Trees are a major ‘carbon sink’ and as every school child knows – they take in carbon dioxide and give off oxygen.

These are just some of the more common uses. Of course wood burns and this is a problem in itself even though burning wood does keep us warm in winter. The trouble is that people ‘waste’ timber by burning large tracts of forests in the Amazon Basin, the Congo Basin and in South East Asia, to clear land for cash crops.

Trees have been with us through the whole journey of mankind. We should all take greater care of those trees we have. I resist chopping down trees whenever I can because they are such beautiful and useful things and because I love them.