Sunday Post: Trees, Our Most Natural Resource

All of our natural resources are important and we must do what we can to preserve and renew them, always. Trees are the easiest natural resource to renew. A couple of seedlings can spark a forest.

Trees and plants produce our very life’s breath by changing the carbon monoxide we exhale into the oxygen we breathe. They furnish the shade and habitat for many living organisms.

Many trees provide food for human consumption. Here in Virginia where I live apple and peach trees fill the orchards providing not only food but a bustling economy especially during harvest season. The apple orchards in late April flower into a beautiful landscape that has spawned its own industry we call The Apple Blossom Festival. It’s very similar to another fruit tree festival right down the road in Washington DC called The Cherry blossom festival only slightly smaller and our trees actually bare fruit.

Animals also gather food from trees. I have three walnut trees in my yard and I can’t imagine what life would be like for the squirrels without them.

Trees have another important use, as timber. Wood is a common building material, and numerous products contain wood. From an economic standpoint, trees are the lifeblood behind the logging industry, the furniture industry and a host of others that create their products using wood.

For so long trees were important to us because they were used to make paper. All the letters ever written, books, magazines, and term papers were written on paper. Today we rely on our computers and other technology so much it’s hard to fathom the role the manufacturing of paper once had in industry. And although it’s still plays a major role in the global economy we will never see the days prior to 2004 when the digital age officially began in earnest.

In the area where I live many folks burn wood in wood stoves to heat their homes. A romantic fire in the fire place is nice but a cord of cut, split, and stacked wood is a rewardingly hard day’s work that will keep a family warm for a month or more depending on the severity of our winter.

So you see trees are a valuable resource for food, industry, and the economy. But to most of us regular folks who work to get to the weekend trees are fun and beautiful. We use them to landscape our yards, picnic and read under, climb, swing from, and maybe even build a fort for our kids. Trees make up our mountains and our forests for hiking or driving along a tree lined road. Or if you are a wannabe photographer like me you are drawn to their beauty. Whether it’s the blossoms in spring, the full green of summer, the vibrant colors of autumns, or the silhouettes of winter trees; they provide me with inspiration to share. And so I shall…

Which side of the road are you on?

Who Lives Here?

Apple Orchard after Harvest

Looking into the maple

Shenandoah County

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Looking for food or OCD?

Washington DC

Locust Trees blooming

Apple Tree

Winter tree tops

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Sunrise

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Red Delicious

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The Morning Mist

Plums

Road Closed

Follow the Yellow Tree Lined Road

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Autumn in Full Force

Sky Lights

Hear the babbling brook?

Into the Light of Green

Around the bend…

White bark

The roots that grab you!

Autumn in The George Washington National forest

Silhouettes against the sky

Different from Virginia trees

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Weight of the Apples

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Grey bark speaks

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Weeping Willow

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Siamese

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Still Lake

Pear blossoms

Cedars

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Barns and Trees

Autumn begins it’s work on one side of this tree

Skyline Drive