Today is Earth Day! According to Earth Day Network, this year’s theme is planting trees. From their website:
Earth Day 2016 — Trees for the Earth.
Over the next five years, as Earth Day moves closer to its 50th anniversary, we’re calling on you to help us achieve one of our most ambitious goals yet —we’re planting 7.8 billion trees and we’re starting now.
Trees will be the first of five major goals we are undertaking in honor of the five-year countdown to our 50th anniversary. On their own and together, these initiatives will make a significant and measurable impact on the Earth and will serve as the foundation of a cleaner, healthier and more sustainable planet for all.
Why Trees?
Trees help combat climate change.
They absorb excess and harmful CO2 from our atmosphere. In fact, in a single year, an acre of mature trees absorbs the same amount of CO2 produced by driving the average car 26,000 miles.
Trees help us breathe clean air.
Trees absorb odors and pollutant gases (nitrogen oxides, ammonia, sulfur dioxide and ozone) and filter particulates out of the air by trapping them on their leaves and bark.
Trees help communities.
Trees help communities achieve long-term economic and environmental sustainability and provide food, energy and income.
Plant a tree. Make a donation. Activate your friends and social networks.
We can do this. #trees4earth
Here in Portland, OR, trees are seriously important. From The City's website:
Trees benefit all Portlanders
Portland's tree code works to:
- Protect trees during development
- Preserve trees as a community asset
- Plant new trees when others are removed, ensuring that the urban forest and its benefits continue to grow
- Educate people about proper tree care and the benefits of trees
- Increase the resiliency of the urban forest in the face of threats such as climate change and tree pests
Given the strict rules about trees here in Portland, we have a local tree-planting non-profit, Friends of Trees, that has some real community presence. You want to remove a tree from your property? You might need permission from the City to do it — and they might also require you to replace it. Friends of Trees are the people to help if this happens.
We were helped by Friends of Trees when we removed a nuisance tree from our median strip, a laburnum or “Golden Chain” tree. Laburnum is not native to Oregon and is toxic in every part — leaves, flowers, bark, and especially the seed pods. (This tree is so toxic, it was even used as the murder weapon in an episode of Inspector Lewis.) We worried about neighborhood children picking up the seed pods. It also gave us asthma. It had to go. The City did make us replace it, however — and Friends of Trees helped us choose something more appropriate and native to the area. I am proud to say our baby cascara tree (also known as bearberry) is doing well in its third year.
That was the last tree we’ve planted. How about you? Please share your tree stories as well as your day, plans for the weekend, your menus! This is an open thread diary.
Kitchen Table Kibitzing is a community series for those who wish to share part of the evening around a virtual kitchen table with kossacks who aren’t throwing pies at one another. So bring your stories, recipes, pics, music, and interesting videos, as well as links to diaries or news stories that you think this community would appreciate. (We’re not doing rox/sux here.) Or just drop by and tell us about your weather. Newcomers may notice that many who post diaries and comments in this series already know one another to some degree, but we welcome guests at our kitchen table, and hope to make some new friends as well.
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