Respect Your Elders

I dropped the acorn when it came to National Tree Day earlier this week. I won't lie awake at night over this faux pas, but I am partial to trees. We actually moved a tree from Bowmanville to Belleville (with permission.) It was a scrawny little excuse for a seedling given to us as a supposedly heirloom lilac by a nursery owner who was dubious about it making it through the winter. It is now two metres tall and seems to be adapting to a new location

The bible is full of trees and a core Jewish text in terms of human destruction of the natural world is the following from Deuteronomy 20:

If you besiege a town for a long time, making war against it in order to take it, you must not destroy its trees by wielding an axe against them. Although you may take food from them, you must not cut them down. Are trees in the field human beings that they should come under siege from you?

There is also a Jewish New Year of the trees called Tu Bishvat which has become an environmental awareness day for some.

It's interesting that we have a National Tree Day in a country that flourished by cutting trees down for nearly three centuries. There were massive white pines for the masts of the British navy, while pulp and paper mills provided newsprint and fine papers.

I like that someone has entitled a seminar on caring for older trees Respect Your Elders because many species live longer than humans and some are the oldest and largest living things on the planet.

I know I've asked before, but what are your relationships with trees? Are you looking forward to the Fall colours?