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Seems more fitting now than ever to discuss the planting of trees. For those whom have been affected by fires in Texas and California or those who have incurred damage from floods in Louisiana, Vermont and NY—nature has uprooted many lives, homes, animals and of course, trees.
Whether trees have been torn down by bad weather or by other natural causes, it will soon be the time to replant. Trees offer us shade, better air to breathe, shelter for animals and even bare fruit.
Some of the most inspiring trees I have had the honor of standing next to were giant Redwoods which are 400-800 years old in Muir Woods near San Francisco. Their grandeur was a humbling experience and presents Mother Nature at its best. Not everyone has a Muir Woods in their backyard or even a backyard at all, for that matter, but we can help others plant a tree to help improve a neighborhood near by or one around the globe with many goals in mind.
The Arbor Day Foundation is an organization that has been helping people reclaim their neighborhoods in areas like Joplin, Mississippi. Check out http://www.arborday.org.
The Jewish National Fund plants trees in Israel and in the US and will be commemorating 9/11 in Israel. You can log on at http://www.jnf.org
The UN’s campaign to plant a billion trees in a single year was launched at the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Nairobi, Kenya, in November 2006. The Plant for the Planet: Billion Tree Campaign is intended to encourage people and organizations everywhere to take small but practical steps to reduce global warming, http://www.unep.org/billiontreecampaign/
If you are stumped at what to buy your friend or family as a gift, plant a tree in their honor or as a remembrance to someone they have lost.
My father nurtured a mimosa tree for many years in the front yard of our house, but a bad winter created irreparable damage so we had to plant a new sapling where the older tree stood. Years later we moved and my brother took the tree with him to give it a new home and honor my father.
A society grows great when old men plant trees whose shade they know they shall never sit in.”
— Greek proverb
