Column: Trees and people have a mutually beneficial connection
Trees are our companions every season, especially in Fall. Everyone likes trees no matter their political affiliation. In Ohio, we know our favorite tree — the buckeye. Fall is beautiful in Ohio with so many trees — conifers and deciduous. Go out for a run or a walk in the woods or a park. Go to Hocking Hills or Cuyahoga Valley National Park and see the fall colors. Check out the Ohio Department of Natural Resources website: https://ohiodnr.gov/go-and-do/see-the-sights/fall-color
One of the most important characteristics of trees are they are alive and give us life. Of course, ever since we were little we knew that…. From Dr. Suess' "The Lorax," we learned the famous refrain: “I am the Lorax. I speak for the trees.” Watching The Wizard of Oz, we learned that those trees, while alive, are slightly cranky.
When we were little, we learned about our favorite arborist: John Chapman (1774-1845), aka Johnny Appleseed, who brought apple trees to most of the Big 10 states and Canada. Johnny became a legend because of his generosity and his dedication to conservation.
In school, we learn a lot about trees. My high-school biology teacher gave us “tree finder” books and we were directed to wander the woods and report back on the trees by using the book. My biology teacher noted on the blackboard: "C6 H12 O6 Forever!!" This is the chemical formula for sugar, a product of photosynthesis.
Additionally, trees are featured in music. The Beatles sang about “tangerine trees” in “Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds” and Louis Armstrong sees “trees of green” and “skies of blue” in “What a Wonderful World.” U2's inspired work "The Joshua Tree" features “One Tree Hill.” And a line from the Canadian band Rush is perhaps a good one for our times: “For the maples want more sunlight. And the oaks ignore their pleas.”
Later in life, when our sons were in high school, I convinced my family to wander the woods and determine the make and type of certain trees with the tree-finder booklet. After 10 minutes, my oldest son said, “Dad there is an app for this? It takes about 20 seconds to figure out the type of tree!” Sadly, I put my tree-finder booklet aside and was happy to walk the woods with my family and use an app to determine the tree kind.
Recently, I rediscovered my youth, thanks to the Ohio Division of Wildlife's website where you can download the Trees of Ohio Field Guide. According to the Division of Wildlife: “Forests in Ohio are diverse, with 99 different tree species documented. This field guide covers 69 of the species you are most likely to encounter across Ohio.” Additionally, Ohio State University Extension offers the a publication called Leaf Identification Key to Eighty-Eight Ohio Trees.
Walking with the 99, 88, or 69 kinds of trees will have you agreeing with the esteemed U.S. Supreme Court Justice William O. Douglas, who was like the Lorax, who advocated that trees, just like people, have standing when he wrote: “(W)e (should) fashion a federal rule that allow(s) environmental issues to be litigated in federal courts in the name of (a grove of trees) about to be despoiled, defaced, or invaded by roads and bulldozers and where injury is the subject of public outrage. Contemporary public concern for protecting nature’s ecological equilibrium should lead to the conferral of standing upon environmental objects to sue for their own preservation….” Perhaps the court should revisit this question.
Now is the time to get out and check out the trees. It will inspire you to read "The Secret Life of Trees: The Astonishing Science of What Trees Feel and How They Communicate" by German forester Peter Wohlleben. It reveals how trees communicate across the ages and to each other. Additionally, it will provide inspiration to be a kindred spirit, much like in the Robert Frost poem "Nothing Gold Can Stay."
"Nature’s first green is gold,
Her hardest hue to hold.
Her early leaf’s a flower;
But only so an hour.
Then leaf subsides to leaf.
So Eden sank to grief,
So dawn goes down to day.
Nothing gold can stay."
Stu Harris and his family enjoy biking and hiking across Ohio. Stu is an attorney and serves on the Dublin School Board. Thank you to Phil Hess, high school biology teacher, for the inspiration and tree finder.