And a Tree Shall Lead Them

As if we needed more reasons to love trees there is a science story out today that not only are trees our only proven hope to sequester atmospheric CO2 it would appear that trees are also able to remove airborne pollutants and convert them to amino acids.

LINK TO ARTICLE

So it would appear that the trees are important to us for a number a reasons. It would make for an interesting social and cultural study to look at populations that have extensive wood supplies and compare them with similar groups that do not. I bet that wooded societies are healthier and happier and probably wealthier. The anthropologists talk to us about Stone Age and Bronze Age societies but there must be a Wooden Age in there somewhere. I would guess that our complex master - slave relationship with our cellulosic neighbours must be an important part of our development.

In our own little corner of the world we have a property here at ABU where the campus sits on a much larger parcel of land that was clear-cut in the early 1970's. That is our best bet for the photo below. Notice that the highway has not been twinned and the old farm property that was here before ABU is still intact. In terms of the clear cut it makes for an interesting comment that the parts that were not clear cut are the high ground between Gorge Road and the Gorge Brook, the Gorge Brook area itself and a boggy area in the North - East sector of the property.

What I like about this early view of the property is that it clearly shows the property borders since I am sure the woodcutters would have cut right to the border with the neighbours. It also clearly shows where the logging roads are and that might be useful for access to the woods today.

If we now look at the 2005 Google Earth view of the ABU property we can see that the scrub forest has covered the property again. Up close it is a nasty tangle of poplar, birch and swamp maple with a seasoning of conifers. But it is treed and starting the natural process of succession from cleared land to conifer forest. What is also clear is the gaping hole in the property that is the surface pit for fill that worked the property from the time of the last clear cut and left about a quarter of the property stripped down below the subsoil leaving an almost Mordor like blasted moonscape of scum, slime and tufts of mis-begotten grass.



Well, it looks like we are going to be here for a while and it is clear that the good Lord gave us trees to save us from ourselves so I think we had better start planting some trees.