To anyone local looking for help having your property planted, check out this program that my aunt used to have our place planted today. By using this program, its success will continue. We are so thankful!
Today new life was brought to our home. It only took two hours for the flat empty fields to be planted with 2000 tiny, baby trees. Last year, the lovely gal in charge, came to survey the property and sample the soil to determine which trees were best suited for the land. So today, most were Spruce and Black Walnut, with some Oak and Sugar Maple in the mix (Hoorah!)
The crew was wonderful, really involving the kids in the experience, and it gave us some outdoor entertainment for the afternoon.
I really admired the planters, for their strength, endurance, and their ability to cope with the elements; I found myself fantasizing about becoming a tree planter myself, just for a minute. I could do this, I found myself thinking
That was, until I considered the mosquitoes, saw the sunburns, and heard tales about ‘boot burn’ on the backs of legs. Seriously, these people are worthy…
Forever changing the landscape of this place leaves me feeling a little bit sentimental. Someday our grandchildren won’t know that there were once flat fields filled with Queen Anne’s Lace. They won’t quite understand the story that I’ll tell them about their aunt being stuck in that apple tree while the bull raged at its base. The blackberries won’t be able to grow in the shade of tall spruce trees, and the small plants that live now will not survive on a forest floor. It’s bitter sweet, but mostly sweet. Someday, there will be tall tall trees here, lining the lane. There will be coloured leaves covering the path to the house in the fall and maple syrup to be made in the spring. There will privacy and freedom and shade from the hot summer sun. There will be clean air and soil that doesn’t erode quickly and easily. There will be wildlife available to whomever lives in this wonderful house, and those critters will live right outside the doors in those trees right there. It may be the only patch of trees in sight by that time.
We live in a time and place where trees have little value. They are merely an obstacle in the way of gold, the kind that grows from a genetically altered seed. Bunches of trees are plucked by a giant, ruthless claw and placed in large piles, bigger than houses, and saved for the day and time that it seems fit to burn. Generally there is a year between the piles being built and the actually burning, so by that time, there is plenty of wildlife occupying those tree stacks. They’ll find a new home people always say. You know what? A bird doesn’t just find a new home. A bird dies. That’s it.
When the land behind us was cleared, the trees ripped by their roots and stacked stories high, we heard the change. The birds shrieked for days. The wind blew differently, more intense, and that porcupine that we saw crawling in and out of the mounds?He didn’t make it. Papa Bear found him, in a heap. It’s happening all around us. Today, as the trees were being planted, we could hear our neighbours, up to some tree dismantling of their own. I’ve been a part of many problems. I don’t always made the right choices. Sometimes, I don’t recycle. I always create unearthly waste. I take extra trips to the store, I burn fossil fuels, and I like to use spray paint. But sometimes, sometimes it’s nice to not be part of the problem; it’s nice to be a part of the cure. I can only hope our kids caught that lesson.
xo
HayMama
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