I Love Trees

I have always loved to be where there were trees. I feel good surrounded by trees. When I want to feel peaceful, besides meditating, trees and being around green helps me feel peaceful. I remember in biology when I learned how trees give us humans oxygen, and we humans give them carbon dioxide, my love for trees grew more.

Now I live in a state where cutting down trees changed the entire state’s economy when leveling the forests was no longer an option. It was a difficult transition for the loggers here. I think the spotted owl became the culprit to stop the logging, but because we stopped logging in many areas in the Northwest, we might have also helped to curb some global warming on the planet.

Here are some facts about trees. There are some good reasons to at least be thankful for trees, even if you don’t go around hugging them.

https://www.ncsu.edu/project/treesofstrength/treefact.htm

In Western Canada, cutting down trees became a huge fight between loggers on one side and native people and environmentalists on the other. The fight began in 1993 over the Great Bear Rain Forest. The Great Bear Rain Forest Agreement was finally signed on February 4, 2016 in British Columbia. The agreement protects 85% of the old growth forest from logging. This fight became known as the “War in the Woods”.
This is a fight we Americans from the USA can learn from. Take a listen. It took more than 20 years to resolve this fight.

http://www.pri.org/stories/2016-08-03/great-bear-rainforest-model-how-save-trees

In the state of Oregon, for example, this fight is still going on to protect the forests here. From the website: Oregon Wild, here is a view of what is still happening now.
http://www.oregonwild.org/forests/forest-protection-and-restoration/common-sense-vision-oregon-forests

Of course, I cannot leave out the fact that trees help mitigate global warming because they soak up carbon monoxide. From more up-to-date studies of global warming, we learn that reforestation and tree planting really work well help our planet with global warming. This article from The Guardian helps to explain more about reforestation.
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2012/nov/29/planting-trees-climate-change

I remember years ago a person who I was taking a course with me was showing a group of us how to hug a tree, and the trees we were hugging were sequoias in Muir Woods outside of San Francisco. (Now it is probably banned, because it became too prevalent.) At the time, I felt very awkward and foolish. I just did NOT get it! I was not an old (or even youngish) hippie, back then (I am now). I do not go around hugging trees now, but I do not consider it foolish at all. You do not have to go to an old growth forest to get the “good” vibrations that a tree or trees give(s) off.

Science Proves Hugging Trees Is Good for Health

Where I was born, we usually had to plant trees because it was so dry. I love my family, but I am not able to live close by because of several reasons. One of them is that there are NOT enough trees around where my family lives and because of drought, many of them are dying. One place I lived, many years ago was Arizona, and I was not particularly happy there at all. Today I’m a happier person because I live in a place that has plenty of evergreens and all kinds of trees. Green trees are part of what I need to make me smile a lot. In that kind of green, I feel immersed in nature and closer to my source.