For the love of trees

“Planting and growing increasing quantities of trees is the scientific solution to Earth’s environmental dilemma” Dr. Richard St. Barbe Baker

The aim, passion and love aim of Richard St. Barbe Baker was to form  ‘a society of tree lovers working to create a universal tree sense and encourage all to plant, protect and love trees everywhere’.

As you celebrate Valentine’s day, today, February 14, start a tree seedling to be planted out this spring.   A proverb says that “Saint Valentine brings the keys of roots”. Plants and flowers start to grow on this day. It has been celebrated as the day when the first work in the vineyards and in the fields commences. It is also said that birds propose to each other or marry on that day.  To support this Valentine’s Day ritual, Richard St. Barbe Baker has said, “Who plants a tree loves others than himself”

“Who plants a tree loves others than himself” Richard St. Barbe Baker. For the love of trees.

Dorothy Maclean’s book, Call of the Trees, echoes the sentiments of Richard St. Barbe Baker.  “What are the themes of the messages from the Trees?

• The trees speak of love: of Oneness among humans, trees, and all the rest of life.

• Nature is conscious and intelligent, and ready to coöperate with humanity.

• The call is for humans to awaken from their sleep of separation, and to fulfill their

destiny of healing the earth”

 

Richard St. Barbe Baker recounts his first experience immersing him in his lifelong love of trees, “…I seemed to have entered the fairyland of my dreams. I wandered on as in a dream, all sense of time and space lost…buoyed up with an almost ethereal feeling of well-being, as if I had been detached from earth. I became intoxicated with the beauty around me, immersed in the joyousness and exaltation of feeling part of it all… Rays of light pierced the canopy of the forest… I had entered the temple of the woods. I sank to the ground in a state of ecstasy; everything was intensely vivid… The overpowering beauty of it all entered my very being. At that moment my heart brimmed over with a sense of unspeakable thankfulness which has followed me through the years since that woodland rebirth.”

In Choices of Love, by Maclean she relates, “When I first contacted the soul essence of trees, the vital need for large trees on the surface of the Earth was communicated to me.  The same message was repeated again and again wherever and whenever I attuned to, or “listened” to, the trees.

Photo of Richard St. Barbe Baker Courtesy: University of Saskatchewan, University Archives & Special Collections, Richard St. Barbe Baker fonds, MG 71

Richard St. Barbe Baker expounds further, “It is with a spirit of reverence that I approach God’s creation – this beautiful Earth. We may climb mountains or wander through field and forest, intoxicated by loveliness through the changing hours and seasons recorded by the length of shadows cast by the trees – and as we watch the pink, opalescent fingers of the dawn reaching up from beneath the dark horizon, so we wait for the sunrise of our awakening to the realisation of our kinship with the earth and all living things.”

Later, Richard St. Barbe Baker, would state that the poem Terra Incognita by John Masefield, encapsulated his insight;

“Here in the self is all that man can know
Of Beauty, all the wonder, all the power,
All the unearthly colour, all the glow,
Here in the self which withers like a flower;
Here in the self which fades as hours pass,
And droops and dies and rots and is forgotten
Sooner, by ages, than the mirroring glass
In which it sees its glory still unrotten …
Beauty herself, the universal mind,
Eternal April wandering alone;
The God, the Holy Ghost, the atoning Lord,
Here in the flesh, the never yet explored. John Masefield“

And this spiritual experience created for St. Barbe a love for trees powerfully embracing his soul, and inspired Richard St. Barbe Baker’s objective, was which echoed throughout the world; ” to develop a “tree sense” in every citizen and to encourage all to plant, protect, and love their native growth.”

Happy Valentine’s Day!

This day, marks the beginning of spring, and in contemporary times, February 14 is celebrated as the day of love.  What could those who are suspicious bear  against any other on such an auspicious day.

“Valentin – prvi spomladin” (“Valentine — the first spring saint”)~proverb

For directions as to how to drive to “George Genereux” Urban Regional Park

For directions on how to drive to Richard St. Barbe Baker Afforestation Area

For more information:

Blairmore Sector Plan Report; planning for the Richard St. Barbe Baker Afforestation Area,  George Genereux Urban Regional Park and West Swale and areas around them inside of Saskatoon city limits

P4G Saskatoon North Partnership for Growth The P4G consists of the Cities of Saskatoon, Warman, and Martensville, the Town of Osler and the Rural Municipality of Corman Park; planning for areas around the afforestation area and West Swale outside of Saskatoon city limits

Richard St. Barbe Baker Afforestation Area is located in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada north of Cedar Villa Road, within city limits, in the furthest south west area of the city. 52° 06′ 106° 45′
Addresses:
Part SE 23-36-6 – Afforestation Area – 241 Township Road 362-A
Part SE 23-36-6 – SW Off-Leash Recreation Area (Richard St. Barbe Baker Afforestation Area ) – 355 Township Road 362-A
S ½ 22-36-6 Richard St. Barbe Baker Afforestation Area (West of SW OLRA) – 467 Township Road 362-A
NE 21-36-6 “George Genereux” Afforestation Area – 133 Range Road 3063
Wikimapia Map: type in Richard St. Barbe Baker Afforestation Area
Google Maps South West Off Leash area location pin at parking lot
Web page: https://stbarbebaker.wordpress.com
Where is the Richard St. Barbe Baker Afforestation Area? with map
Where is the George Genereux Urban Regional Park (Afforestation Area)? with map

Pinterest richardstbarbeb

Facebook Group Page: Users of the George Genereux Urban Regional Park

Facebook: StBarbeBaker

Facebook group page : Users of the St Barbe Baker Afforestation Area

Facebook: South West OLRA

Twitter: StBarbeBaker

Please help protect / enhance your afforestation areas, please contact the Friends of the Saskatoon Afforestation Areas Inc. (e-mail)

Support the afforestation areas with your donation or membership ($20.00/year).  Please donate by paypal using the e-mail friendsafforestation AT gmail.com, or by using e-transfers  Please and thank you!  Your donation and membership is greatly appreciated.  Members e-mail your contact information to be kept up to date!

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“St. Barbe’s unique capacity to pass on his enthusiasm to others. . . Many foresters all over the world found their vocations as a result of hearing ‘The Man of the Trees’ speak. I certainly did, but his impact has been much wider than that. Through his global lecture tours, St. Barbe has made millions of people aware of the importance of trees and forests to our planet.” Allan Grainger

 

“From the forest and wilderness come the tonics and bark which brace mankind…A town is saved, not more by the righteous men in it than by the woods and swamps that surround it…”
-Henry David Thoreau

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