Blossoms And Pines

FTLComm - Tisdale - May 17, 2001

The blossoms are just beginning to show up now in Tisdale and this huge lilac tree is seen at the top of the page. Soon other fruit trees will make their annual display and fill the air with their scent of spring. But the blossoms are not the only trees to look good at this time of the year. The huge pine tree is in the beginning of its yearly cycle and though a few cones are seen here on the right, below we take a look up into the upper branches of this tree to see the monster cones that develop up there. As I watch the leaves come out this spring I think I appreciate even more the role played by green plants in keeping the oxygen breathers of the planet alive.

Canada and the United States have been asking for dispensation as they have been unwilling or unable to cut back in the emissions of green house gases. Because both countries have sizable areas devoted to trees they want the world to give them a little slack as they claim their trees make up for their pollution of the environment. It sound like a cheap and badly thought out argument to me, the sort of thing that a George W. Bush might come up with but the fact does remain that trees are good things. In order for them to survive they must absorb huge quantities of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, the very waste gas that we breathe out and that is produced when ever we burn something. In turn the trees take in the carbon dioxide put the carbon to work as building material for the components of the tree and discharge oxygen which is a waste product of plant growth.

The weeping willow was photographed this morning as the West wind shock it and blurred it in this image. The making of urban forests has to be one of the major accomplishments of civilisation as we have surrounded our living space with these living life giving marvels. The other day as we were driving from Moose Jaw to Regina it was great to see Ross' trees now almost thirty-five years old standing in neat arrangements along highway one. When premier of Saskatchewan Ross Thatcher would make that drive each morning and though the plains have a special wonder to them Ross thought there should be trees and decreed that the department of highways plant trees along number one highway. It was done and despite the tremendous difficulty of growing across almost a desert they have struggled along and done quite well. The North side of the highway is less developed than the South because the prevailing winter wind deposits much more snow on the South side than the North providing the South side trees with more moisture with which to grow. Ross was a funny guy but few premiers leave anything behind them of importance let along forty-five miles of tree lined highway.