Trees: Five Fabulous Facts You Need to Know

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Five Fabulous Facts about Trees

Perhaps you remember the old poem about trees that I learned when I was in elementary school, written by Joyce Kilmer, an American writer and poet born in the 19th century and living through World War I. Critics generally did not think much of Kilmer’s work, calling it too simple, yet I and many others remember at least the first two lines of the poem:

“I think that I shall never see,

A poem as lovely as a tree…”

The canopy of trees

Trees offer great beauty. For instance have you ever looked at a tree from this angle?

Even as I think about this poem, I am sitting in my swing, leaning back to look up into the canopy of the maple tree under which the swing sits. Bright green leaves contrast with a spring-blue sky. Black branches and twigs make an intricate pattern. The leaves sway in the wind. A couple of woodpeckers are visiting the two bird feeders that hang on the tree’s branches. All in all, it is a beautiful sight.

I used to work at an electric company. They routinely cut trees so as not to cause power lines running through them to be knocked down during storms. While they were very careful not to damage the trees more than necessary, they gently made fun of people like me, who love trees. Tree huggers, they called us. I accept that moniker with pride. I do, indeed. love trees.

Whatever your view of trees, they are highly useful beings. Here are five facts you need to know about these large plants that grow in so many forms in so many places.

Fact #1: Food and Habitat for Wildlife

Trees provide shelter and food for many animals. In my own yard, I have seen these interactions and more between animals and trees:

  • Birds building nests and eating berries
  • Woodpeckers pecking insects from a tree’s bark
  • Chipmunks and squirrels using a tree branch as a pathway
  • Squirrels planting walnuts and oaks
  • Insects eating leaves
  • Hornets creating a nest to hang from a high branch
  • A dog chewing a branch or lying in the shade

An oak, for example, is a most useful tree. If it is native to the place it’s planted, it can provide food or shelter to over 500 species.

See Seven Reasons to Plant an Oak Tree.

Fact#2: Trees Help Cities Manage Water Quality

Trees are an important part of the earth’s water cycle. They are especially valuable to cities. These facts from the Urban Forestry Network describe a few of the many ways trees enhance the flow of water:

  • Trees catch rainwater that falls through their canopies, lessening the force of storms, slowing water runoff, and reducing topsoil erosion. 100 mature trees catch approximately 100,000 gallons of water every year.
  • For every 5 percent of tree cover added to a community, storm water runoff is reduced by approximately 2 percent.
  • Tree roots remove harmful nutrients and thus improve water quality. As an example, New York City uses the wooded areas upstate to purify its water.
  • As they decay, fallen leaves form an organic layer that allows water to percolate into the soil slowly, thus making the soil a good environment for the microbes that live there.
Fact #3: Trees Help Fight Climate Change

Trees sequester carbon and help fight climate change. According to the North Carolina State University Extension Office, a tree can absorb as much as 48 pounds of carbon dioxide per year and can sequester 1 ton of carbon dioxide by the time it reaches 40 years old.

The Guardian notes that deforestation, particularly of rain forests, contributes in a big way to climate change. Scientists estimate that forest loss accounts for accounts for at least 20 percent of current man-made carbon emissions. It stands to reason that if we could plant many, many more trees or stop cutting the ones that already exist, these actions would likely help shift the current trajectory of climate change!

Fact #4: Trees Provide an Amazing Number of Products

Trees provide humans with over 5,000 useful products. We can all say thank you to trees for products such as these and many more:

  • Wood for building
  • Paper
  • Resin
  • Rubber
  • Fruits, such as apples, pears, plums, peaches, figs, and cherries
  • Nuts, such as cashews, pecans and walnuts

See the list on the Idaho Forest Products Commission website of the products trees provide. You may be amazed!

Fact #5: Trees Provide Beauty and Variety

Trees come in all shapes and sizes and are the largest living organisms on earth. Some examples are the coastal redwoods, which can be over 360 feet tall, and giant sequoia trees that can weigh over 2000 tons. It can take 10 minutes to walk around the crown of a giant banyon tree in Calcutta, while a monkey tree can have a crown of almost 200 feet, which would cover two-thirds of a football field!

While many of us may not ever see these grand trees, we can go outside and look at the more ordinary ones in our yard. Perhaps we can even give them a hug! Here of some of my favorites:

Willow trees are an early sign of spring.

Trees such as a willow with its yellow branches at the end of winter lifts the spirit.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Kids love to climb trees.

Trees not only decorate and improve the landscape, but they provide recreation and exercise for kids — and perhaps even a hiding place!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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