It’s crazy how happy that little red leaf makes me. It’s hanging on the little Sunset Maple I bought about a week ago. It’s the only backyard tree on my side of the street.
When we decided to move to this neighbourhood, we chose our lot and house from sketches and projections of the future neighbourhood. Distant future. While picking bathroom tile and kitchen pot lights, we gave no thought to life without trees. We should have. I really miss the trees from my old neighbourhood.
A few years back in Oakville Ontario, Joyce Burnell heard that a 250 year old white Oak tree was going to be cut down to make way for a road. She decided to try to save it. Maybe because she was 86 at the time and understood that there is beauty in age, something worth celebrating not casting aside.
She was told by city council that if she could raise the $343,000 to divert the road the tree could be saved. Through corporate donations, fundraisers, benefit concerts, and Burnell’s complete dedication to the cause, she succeeded.
It’s not unusual for a save-the-tree story to pop up on the nightly news from time to time. People like trees. In fact, William Sullivan, associate professor at the University of Illinois, who studies the effects of nature on human functioning, has found that we actually need trees.
He says that over the course of our evolution, an empty landscape would be cause to feel anxious. Having a tree provides shade and shelter, a gauge for distances, and a landmark for feeling oriented in our surroundings. His studies have shown that trees still create a sense of calm and relieve mental fatigue, in a way that nothing else does. He says that regular contact with trees can strengthen communities and even increase our satisfaction with our lives.
But there is an interesting twist to the Joyce Burnell story that leaves me wondering if the trees benefit from our presence as well.
Not long after she saved the tree, it began to produce seeds, after years and years of not doing so. It was, after all, 250 years old. Likely long past the tree equivalent of a hot flash.
Those seeds were collected and nurtured by a conservation association. Last spring Joyce Burnell died at age 90. This fall, 500 little trees, offspring of the tree she saved, will be available to plant.
Maybe when I sit by my maple, the calm, happy energy, flows both ways.
Kim R.
What a lovely story. Thanks for sharing this Kim.
Lovely story Kim. Nothing like a tree to sit next to, under or near for reading a good book.
This story and post made me happy. Thanks, Kim!
Thanks Sandra, Jeanne and Vicky, I appreciate you dropping by to read!