Tree Stories Shared by the Keepers of the Trees Community
The following are tree stories submitted to us by our Keepers of the Trees Community. If you haven't yet joined in, we invite you to click the link at the bottom of this page to share YOUR tree story with us. (Note: If you have already submitted a story and it does not yet appear here, we will approve and post it shortly - thank you for your patience.)
"I saw this story of a century-plus year old "Million Dollar Monarch Tree" on a local PBS channel. It was very moving to me:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lqPyfhjBxPY&feature=youtube_gdata_player
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shared by Dana Reynolds, Dallas
"Santa Maria Del Tule, Mexico - El Árbol del Tule (Spanish for The Tree of Tule) is a tree located in the church grounds in the town center of Santa María del Tule in the Mexican state of Oaxaca. It has been verified to be a single DNA individual tree. El Árbol del Tule is a Montezuma cypress (Taxodium mucronatum), or ahuehuete (meaning "old man of the water" in Nahuatl). It has the stoutest trunk of any tree in the world. In 2001 it was placed on a UNESCO tentative list of World Heritage Sites. The age is unknown, with estimates ranging between 1,200 and 3,000 years, the best scientific estimate based on growth rates is 1,433-1,600 years. The second largest girth is the Giant Sequoia, which US regularly touts as the world's largest tree. The Montezuma Cypress is the world's largest girth trunk. Let us see if this stands up to Balboa. Local Zapotec legend holds that it was planted about 1,400 years ago by Pechocha, a priest of Ehecatl, the Aztec wind god."
This was shared by Mary Ann Reed, Chicago, who found it on Facebook.
" I was five years old when we moved to Greer Drive. Dad designed and built our house. My great grantfather, whom we called Jadeck (which means "grandfather" in Polish), had a really small house out in the country. The house, little more than a ramshackle series of lean to structures strung together, one little room by little room, by little room--and I mean little! Four people in Jadeck and Bobcha's ("grandmother") house was really crowded.
Jadeck didn't really place much value into keeping up with anyone, nor appearances for appearance sake. He valued the land that he owned, and he grew amazing vegetablee in the rich black earth that was his land.
Jadeck's property was way, way out, far into the country, and was populated with hickory, black walnut and horse chestnut trees, to name a few. I learned how to shell and when to eat black walnuts with Jadeck.
When our new house was in its planning stage, my father walked with Jadeck along his property, and together they chose a perfect black walnut tree, which they hewed, and from which my great grandfather hand planed and hand carved into our stair banister and rail. Jadeck and my father installed it together--dark, beautiful and silky smooth.
Every day from then on, my hands traveled that stairwell, and it kept me connected to my larger family."
Carole Jean Haley, just one story from a life in which trees have been markers throughout her life0
"They are continuing to clear cut all the trees down below today. I know the sound now of maples splintering, broken branches shattering as they land upon their brothers and sisters. I know when it is fir or hemlock coming down, each wide, wrinkled trunk smashing into a grieving mother earth.
I talked with my friend, Judy, yesterday, another woman who loves nature and walks among the trees with grace and reverence. We talked about my neighbor’s honest belief that he is “taking care of his family” by logging the land. She pointed out that he has forgotten that he is part of a bigger family, the family of all living beings on the planet.
What do we teach our children in the taking of the trees? That this is the way we build up bank accounts, killing off the beauty of the very land that has held and nurtured us for years? That when the money is gone, we rob the mother?
Each of us must ask the question of ourselves: What is essential, and what is the cost, in energy, in resources. Watching the trees fall is pause for thought – I am part of the consumption, I must be part of the consciousness that cares for the land, that thinks about these things.
I have walked these woods for twenty-two years now. I know the song of each bird, the story of cats and coyotes, the quiet of deer. As the trees come down one by one, the earth shudders, and I cry inside for all our losses.
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Nan Collie, writer of woodswitness.blogspot.com
"my story is one of outdoor study, of forests, with time enough to ponder/meditate, upon the differences between civilized areas, and forests. so when, western people and our organizations, use technological means to deal with insect infestations. i wonder, if this is not an allelopathic, sympton dealing with approach; and that more could be done. ie. trees of the kind, plated in urban areas. a sort of maybe," we are waiting to hear from you forests, about our civilization impulses."
david, i'm simply wondering if insect ravaged forests, may benefit from having (if necessary) bonz
"Merve Wilkinson (chapter 2) died on Aug. 29, 2011. He was able to live in his home until nearly the end. A true caretaker of the earth has moved on. With deep gratitude for the privilege of meeting him. "
Ann Linnea, friend and colleague
"Since information about the Washington forest-canopy research crane is included in Keepers of the Trees, I thought readers would like to know that it was shut down on May 27, 2011.
The Wind River Canopy Crane fell silent May 27, after 16 years of ferrying scientists into the forest canopy of the Wind River Experimental Forest north of Carson, Skamania County, in the Gifford Pinchot National Forest, a casualty of the cost of operating and maintaining the crane and declining interest in canopy research. Please read this article in the Seattle Times for more information:
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2015235172_canopycrane05.html
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Debbie Dix, longtime lover of trees
"Here is an amazing story that appeared in the May 31, 2011 issue of the New York Times written by Liz Robbins: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/31/nyregion/2-enthusiasts-compose-map-of-central-park-trees.html?_r=1
“Every year about 37 million people go to Central Park, and, finding themselves surrounded by 23,000 trees, most do not know their sassafras from their euonymus.
But Ken Chaya and Edward Sibley Barnard are not like most people. Spend two hours walking the oxygen-infused oasis with this pair as quirky as the Quercus prinus (chestnut oak), and it’s as if all of your senses are on steroids. . .
And then you begin to understand the pure wonder that drove these two men to give up two and a half years of their lives to make a map that artfully and painstakingly details 19,933 trees in Central Park. . . “
You'll enjoy reading the whole story and seeing the photos!
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Nancy Fritsche Eagan, a New York lover of trees
"The mission of Elm Watch is to preserve and restore the American elm in our communities. We encourage elm stewardship and promote awareness of the community forest through advocacy, education and direct action.
Elm Watch was formed in 1999 as a volunteer, non-profit citizen organization. We saw the opportunity to apply state-of-the-art preventive technologies to further the preservation of heritage elms. Likewise, advances in plant genetics presented the opportunity to begin reliable restoration of the American elm in our community forests. Through our outreach and public education efforts, we seek to raise awareness of the American elm, and in turn, develop an appreciation for the larger community forest.
These efforts comprise Elm Watch's primary programs. www.elmwatch.org"
Tom Zetterstrom
"You probably have already heard about this, but just in case..
http://earthsky.org/earth/michael-lefskys-map-shows-height-of-trees-in-forests-worldwide
Colorado State University's Dr. Michael Lefskys has created the first-ever map of the height of the world's trees. The taller the trees, the more carbon they hold. This will help scientists figure out where most of the carbon in the world is stored.
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JMcNiel@treesforever.org