My Thoughts on Trees and How They’ve Changed

Leafless Tree in Winter

I’ve always loved trees. They are just so amazing in many ways. But now that I live in a place where I have to burn firewood in winter, I look at trees differently. I look at a tree like the one pictured and think, “would that be great firewood or what?” Actually, I don’t know what type of tree this is, but probably it would be great firewood. If I had to guess, I’d say oak.
Without leaves, I have trouble telling an oak from a maple. The beech, with it’s smooth bark, and the birch with it’s white, are no-brainers, but the rest of them leave me baffled.
I don’t know how people go out and hook up their maple syrup collecting apparatus in Spring – and can figure out which trees are the maples.
Being a Florida transplant (even though I grew up in the northeast) I have to learn the tree types that grow around me. I have an acre of land now and out back I have a forest, with some trees that are dead or dying and when I have them cut down, I’ll use them to heat my house.
Trees are beautiful, but they were meant to be used and I don’t feel bad cutting down a tree to serve a purpose. It’s helpful to thin the forest and allow other trees to grow larger too. Then again, some trees are too beautiful to cut down.

♦The Chore of Stacking Firewood
♦Make Birds Happy With Homemade Suet

How to Remove a Tree (answers.com)
Halkias: A tale of two maples (vtdigger.org)

One thought on “My Thoughts on Trees and How They’ve Changed”

swisstoons
10/25/2012 at 7:52 am

My older brother developed an interest in trees in 10th grade biology class taught by a particularly good teacher, and would still refer to the thin textbook on that subject from time to time throughout his life. I had the same teacher, Hessel B. Tenhave, 16 years later, but trees never grabbed me. This might explain why my brother aced the class and…well…let’s just say I didn’t. About the only thing I remember from that class is the Latin name for the Red Maple: Acer Rubens. Ohh…another thing I learned is that acorns grow on oak trees. So, if you find acorns beneath a leafless tree in the winter…chances are pretty good it’s an oak. 😀

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