We need only to look out the window or take a walk in the woods to be inspired by the beauty and resilience of trees. We all have our own reasons for loving trees. They improve the landscape and provide shade. But did you know that they stabilize the soil and improve water quality? Some of the benefits of trees may surprise you! Find out more here: Benefit of Trees

Common Facts

• Trees are the largest and longest living organisms on Earth. 

• The different parts of a tree grow at different times throughout the year. Typically, most of the foliage growth happens in the spring, followed by trunk growth in the summer and root growth in the fall and winter

• A large tree can consume 100 gallons of water out of the ground and then discharge it into the air as oxygen and water vapor.

• Trees can communicate and defend themselves against attacking insects by flooding their leaves with phenolic chemicals. They can also share nutrients and form an underground network that connects entire forests. 

• Adding one tree to an open pasture can increase its bird diversity from almost zero species to as high as 80.

• A large oak tree can drop 10,000 acorns in one year, serving as a major food source for more than 100 vertebrate species. 

•  "Planting billions of trees across the world is one of the biggest and cheapest ways of taking CO2 out of the atmosphere to tackle the climate crisis..." Read more about tree planting's "'mind-blowing' potential to tackle climate crisis." 

Literature

Check out this list of 24 Best Books About Nature and Trees for more inspiration!

Our favorite Tree Prayers

When I Am Among the Trees

When I am among the trees, 

especially the willows and the honey locust,

equally the beech, the oaks and the pines,

they give off such hints of gladness.

I would almost say that they save me, and daily.

I am so distant from the hope of myself,

in which I have goodness, and discernment,

and never hurry through the world

but walk slowly, and bow often.

Around me the trees stir in their leaves

and call out, “Stay awhile.”

The light flows from their branches.

And they call again, “It’s simple,” they say,

“and you too have come

into the world to do this, to go easy, to be filled

with light, and to shine.”

Mary Oliver

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*Tree Images Credit to Pamela Paulsrud