Plant a tree: Here's why

All the way back to my days as a college student in the early 1970s, I pondered Americans’ love affair with the lawn – the greenest, purest, most dandelion-free turf that money (and lots of chemicals) could produce. Earning my tuition by mowing turf farms (a k a city parks) for the city of Pocatello, Idaho, just helped solidify my mental picture of it all.

In two-plus years of living in an on-base house on Robins Air Force Base, Ga., 1980-82) I finally formulated a more pleasing-to-the-eye scene: Urban trees as places liked by fellow creatures of Earth. In the case of that residential duplex, the Georgia wildlife the live oak tree attracted was enough to generate page after page of notes in an early field notebook that still has a prominent place in my home library.

Field naturalists are big note takers, recording a lot more than just the day’s high and low temperatures, but also signs of Wild Nature like the first day of swelling buds, the first early-spring appearance outside its winter burrow of the local woodchuck, and new signs of the spread of kudzu, the non-native vine that ate the South.

By planting trees native to our region of the continent (and the list of plants native to Pennsylvania alone is exhaustive), the homeowner can take pride in accomplishing many objectives.

Trees in the home yard do these things and a whole lot more:

- Trees release oxygen and absorb carbon dioxide to freshen the air.

- They trap dust and dirt, and remove pollution particles from the air.

- Trees increase property values. (Read a Wall Street Journal article about this at http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052702303722604579113230353966564)

- They provide shade in the summer, protection from wind in the winter.

- Trees give us leaves to make the best compost.

- Trees provide habitat for birds.

-        Trees make your neighborhood a more beautiful place.

-        Trees whose spring flowers show off for humans also offer food to native pollinators.

-        Neighborhoods and homes that are barren are known to have a greater incidence of violence in and out of the home than their greener counterparts. Trees and landscaping help reduce the level of fear.

The organization Tree People (treepeople.org) notes on its Web site: “Average temperatures in Los Angeles have risen 6 degrees F in the last 50 years as tree coverage has declined and the number of heat-absorbing roads and buildings has increased.
“Trees cool the city by up to 10 degrees, by shading our homes and streets, breaking up urban ‘heat islands’ and releasing water vapor into the air through their leaves.”
Most importantly in this age of Earth’s changing climate, trees do this: “Global warming is the result of excess greenhouse gases, created by burning fossil fuels and destroying tropical rainforests. Heat from the sun, reflected back from the earth, is trapped in this thickening layer of gases, causing global temperatures to rise.
“Carbon dioxide (CO2) is a major greenhouse gas. Trees absorb CO2, removing and storing the carbon while releasing the oxygen back into the air. In one year, an acre of mature trees absorbs the amount of CO2 produced when you drive your car 26,000 miles.”
You can read, and ponder, the top 22 benefits of trees at www.treepeople.org/top-22-benefits-trees
So this spring, let’s plant a tree, or, better yet, a whole bunch of trees. You can learn about Pennsylvania’s native trees from the state Department of Conservation and Natural Resources at www.dcnr.state.pa.us/cs/groups/public/documents/document/dcnr_003489.pdf

Watching the natural world on Champlain Bikeway

It took me a while to get back on my wheels – my Trek-brand hybrid bicycle – but I have done it. And I am proud of myself. Most anyone would be after sustaining a traumatic brain injury – while bicycling – and recuperating/recovering to the point of resuming something that formerly was a big part of his day.

After five straight days of on again/off again rain, Tuesday brought the northern New England sun back. So, bicycle went on the car’s rooftop travel rack and off I went to a favorite starting point for cycling on the Champlain Bikeway.

The bikeway (http://www.champlainbikeways.org) is a network of bicycle-ready trails – some of them set-aside bicycle lanes on highways – that circles big Lake Champlain, a focus of life in western Vermont/the eastern Adirondacks of New York State.

My starting point yesterday was Airport Park in the town of Colchester.  Bicycle off the car rack, water bottle in its cage on the bicycle frame, I headed north, first through a residential area and then onto a bridge built solely for cyclists and walkers crossing the Winooski River’s mouth at Lake Champlain. A gentle uphill ride for a moment is about the biggest terrain challenge for bicyclists on this section. Then it’s back to a pancake-flat trail.

Crossing the Winooski River (I see this Lake Champlain tributary every day as I live only a quarter-mile from its passage under Vermont highway 2A and the town of Essex Junction on its north side.

Once across the bikeway bridge, the native, natural side of Vermont in the form of a riparian forest grows along the bikeway – lakeside and upland side. Little yellowish signs tell passersby that this natural area – “open space” in the parlance of municipal zoning gurus – was preserved by action of the Winooski Valley Park District.

According to its Web site (www.wvpd.org): “The Winooski Valley Park District is a public, non-profit organization created in 1972 through cooperation between its seven member communities. It is funded by the member communities, membership dues, grants, and tax-deductible private donations. The Park District's goals are to acquire and manage open space, wildlife habitat, and natural areas while encouraging the areas' natural diversity and ecology.

“The Park District's member communities are: Burlington, Colchester, Essex, Jericho, South Burlington, Williston, and Winooski. The support these towns provide is instrumental to the Park District's capability to maintain parks and open space in these towns for the enjoyment of community members and visitors.”

It’s hard for this former Pennsylvanian to fathom the notion of such a level of cooperation between just two Pennsylvania municipalities, much less seven.

Back on the trail, I pedal, then coast, then repeat the motions. I encounter other lone riders and the occasional boyfriend/girlfriend couple. Oh, and roller bladders, too.

Almost from the moment I enter the riparian woods, with gentle wavelets rushing ashore on the lake to my right, I hear birdsong – lots of it, in fact. And it reminds me of the many times I rose before dawn to conduct Breeding Bird Survey routes in Lebanon and Tioga counties, Pa.

It’s hard to collect field notes while cycling, save for the occasional rest stop, so l let my memory do the note-taking. I heard the following bird species (identifying only six by sight alone): Double-crested cormorant, mallard, Canada goose, pied-billed grebe, downy woodpecker, hairy woodpecker, red-bellied woodpecker, northern flicker, American crow, common raven, blue jay, common grackle, red-eyed vireo, blue-headed vireo, warbling vireo, yellow warbler, black-and-white warbler, American redstart, red-breasted nuthatch, white-breasted nuthatch, American goldfinch and least flycatcher.

I’m sure I missed some species. A more careful and easy-going survey would reveal many others.

The central point here, though, is this: Protected, open-space, natural land is critical to keeping this avian diversity. And the presence of the bikeway and its natural surroundings also heightens the value of the nearby human residential community.

I’m now on a section of trail created through the reuse of an old, abandoned railroad bed. Up ahead is the Burlington Waterfront, a focal point for people taking a break from downtown Burlington that’s just a couple of blocks up the hill from the King Street ferry dock.

I know when I’ve entered the busy waterfront neighborhood when I approach a sign that declares the area is open only to bicyclists and pedestrians. That’s as it should be. For its people traveling about on foot and by bicycle who notice the world about them, not just what comes and goes in the flash of a second from the car window.

Birds, bees and aquatic life threatened by gross underestimate of toxicity of world's most widely used pesticide

Well, talk about looking the other way. As if colony collapse disorder isn't enough. This report from American Bird Conservancy has all the sad details.

Precedent-setting verdict could reduce bird collisions in Canada

When reading about the ongoing toll of migratory birds dying when colliding with buildings, I am always reminded of the many avian victims I have found over the years, themselves killed when colliding with buildings. Like the Wood Thrush I found on a downtown Hazleton, Pa., sidewalk one fall. This article notes how a court verdict in Canada could help birds.