November 5, 2020 · 0 Comments
By Doug Skeates
The key to prosperity was presented to me in an old 78 vinal Bing Crosby recording, “Give me land, lots of land ….” when I was in my teens. The basis for all animal life is the productivity of land in the form of plant photosynthesis extracting carbon from the atmosphere in conjunction with sunlight as the power source. Humans cannot survive without food and water which in turn depend on plants and especially trees with huge crowns of foliage. Humanity tends to ignore this in the struggle to acquire wealth. While money allows the human race to purchase what is needed it is not capable of meeting that purpose in itself.
A CIF (Can. Institute of Forestry) meeting on the Ganaraska watershed north of Cobourg was a confirmation of Nature’s ability to provide or rehabilitate the world’s potential of land to serve this purpose. One old-timer at the meeting noted the resurging of the river. What he remembered was a perennial stream which flooded the city almost every spring followed by severe fall drought conditions for the agricultural community. Flooding caused costly damage in the town. The meeting was introduced to volunteer assistance for fish trying to get past the dam to gain access to spawning areas upstream on a river which now ran year-round. Plantations of trees were cause for changing the area’s ecology. A local conservation officer noted that he considered fish were the prime product of newly developed forests today.
New forests on the upper slopes of the Oak Ridges Moraine are a major basis for increased productivity of southern Ontario ecosystems. Tree roots direct a portion of annual precipitation to underground aquifers which maintain ground moisture and surface water systems. Over 300,000 acres of the moraine is now largely forest and southern Ontario’s ecology is productive and prosperous again. Few today have memories of the desert wastelands of region in the early years of the nineteenth century.
Governments around the world are awakening to the dangers of increasing world temperatures. Leaders meeting in Paris for addressing this potential global disaster have pledged to take action to combat the serious situation. China is establishing a billion trees a year to halt the advance of the Gobi Desert, reduce the effect of sandstorms and increase agricultural productivity. African countries are establishing plantations in The Great Green Belt across the Sahel to help control the advance of the Sahara Desert. Many countries have pledged to plant millions of trees.
The obvious answer to the climate change problem is to increase the land’s photosynthetic potential, establishing more forest cover. Much of this can be accomplished by individual effort. It is estimated than even if ten to fifteen Percent of the Canadian population or 500,000 people, each planting one tree, would increase the incidence of trees by about a half million. Individuals can contribute directly or by arranging for another to take action. And at no expense to the taxpayer. Organizations such as service clubs, churches, school classes or other community structures as well as municipalities and aboriginal reserves across the country are able to add considerably to the nation’s environment.
Establishment of new trees is one response to the age-old expression, ‘But I’m only one person, what could I accomplish’. Every tree produces seed resulting in quantities of maple keys or pinecones on the ground. New seedlings can be found on properties having one or more trees. Most property owners have a flower garden where a seedling could be propagated. Growing one or more trees is a grand educational project for young people in a household and subsequent transplanting of an established seedling on one’s own property or on a neighbours’ is no great chore.
The Trees for Shelter project in support of Alliston’s My Sister’s Place has been one local successful community example not only of fundraising but creating both awareness and forest cover. Many residents now enjoy the benefit of established trees on their properties. Local action is one valuable step toward accomplishing the national objective of reducing global warming. Each new tree absorbs a small quantity of atmospheric carbon emissions. Of even greater importance it provides one more example encouraging folk in countries throughout the world to work locally toward reducing a global emergency.