For a virtual arbor week, lets us take time to consider a good book which we recommend! Can there be a good tree book?
The best tree book for identification of trees is Trees in Canada by John Laird Farrar. This is like David Allen Sibley or Roger Tory Peterson Field Guides to learning about birds. What Sibley and Peterson provide for learning about birds, Farrar takes to the tree level.
A great book to learn about enjoying trees is “My Life My Trees” by Richard St. Barbe Baker. This is just one of the many books in which Baker extolls the wonders of trees. St. Barbe tells us of his woodland rebirth, when he “had entered the temple of the woods” and became absolutely captivated with trees for the rest of his life journey.
A book, in turn, about Richard St. Barbe Baker is Man of the Trees, Richard St. Barbe Baker, The First Global Conservationist by Paul Hanley, forward by HRH The Prince of Wales, and introduction by Jane Goodall.
The Saskatoon Tree Tour booklet produced by SOS Elms Coalition tells of the great trees in and around Saskatoon and introduces the work of the newly re-named SOS Trees Coalition.
Horticulturist Sara Williams, inducted into the Saskatchewan Agriculture Hall of Fame, co-authored Growing Fruit in Northern Gardens and Williams has written Best Trees and Shrubs for the Prairies; Creating the Prairie Xeriscape and Gardening Naturally.
There is also the 2020 Green Vision Booklet put out by the newly created non profit charity, Friends of the Saskatoon Afforestation Areas Inc., to support Richard St. Barbe Baker Afforestation Area and George Genereux Urban Regional Park here in Saskatoon.
And when capturing the essence of trees, there is also the famous poem about trees by Joyce Kilmer.
To help celebrate Arbor Week and Arbor Day May 22, please consider supporting the Green Vision to protect the forest to support these healthy recreation and natural greenspaces. Thanks
Trees
I think that I shall never see
A poem lovely as a tree.
A tree whose hungry mouth is prest
Against the earth's sweet flowing breast;
A tree that looks at God all day,
And lifts her leafy arms to pray;
A tree that may in Summer wear
A nest of robins in her hair;
Upon whose bosom snow has lain;
Who intimately lives with rain.
Poems are made by fools like me,
But only God can make a tree.~by Joyce Kilmer
If you have another great tree book which has been inadvertently missed from this short list, please comment, as it would be great to read yet another fantastic book about trees!
To top it all off for today, there is another Free Arbor Week Coloring Page pdf for download!
“Besides water, trees provide pure air. They are the great filtering machines for the human organism. They improve and transform the air in a way which is most favorable and most acceptable to the lungs of man.”…. “According to ancient mythology, trees were the first living things on earth. This is borne out by scientific reasoning which shows that it is through them that the air we breathe can give life to humanity. Through countless ages trees have been drawing carbonic acid gas from the atmosphere, absorbing and incorporating the carbon, assimilating it; then when they die, bequeathing to soil their carboniferous remains. The consequence has been that eventually the atmospheric oxygen was left sufficiently pure for the requirements of birds and mammals which have replaced the flying reptiles and monstrous amphibians that were able to endure the heavy air of primeval swamps and jungles.” ~Richard St. Barbe Baker– from Trees and Life Selected writings of Richard St. Barbe Baker
Related articles:
Books by Richard St. Barbe Baker
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:
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 SW 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
Facebook Group Page: Users of the George Genereux Urban Regional Park
Facebook group page : Users of the St Barbe Baker Afforestation Area
You Tube Richard St. Barbe Baker Afforestation Area
You Tube George Genereux Urban Regional Park
Please help protect / enhance /commemorate your afforestation areas, please contact the Friends of the Saskatoon Afforestation Areas Inc. (e-mail / e-transfers)
1./ Learn.
2./ Experience
3./ Do Something: ***
“The best time to plant a tree is twenty years ago. The second best time is now.”
― Chinese proverb
Trees are sanctuaries. Whoever knows how to speak to them, whoever knows how to listen to them, can learn the truth. They do not preach learning and precepts, they preach, undeterred by particulars, the ancient law of life….
So the tree rustles in the evening, when we stand uneasy before our own childish thoughts: Trees have long thoughts, long-breathing and restful, just as they have longer lives than ours. They are wiser than we are, as long as we do not listen to them. But when we have learned how to listen to trees, then the brevity and the quickness and the childlike hastiness of our thoughts achieve an incomparable joy. Whoever has learned how to listen to trees no longer wants to be a tree. He wants to be nothing except what he is. That is home. That is happiness.”
―
“Even if I knew that tomorrow the world would go to pieces, I would still plant my apple tree.” ― Martin Luther
Richard St. Barbe Baker Afforestation Area. George Genereux Urban Regional Park. 