JUNE 5, 2021 – Yesterday I planted more trees. Seven balsam to be exact. The entire operation was complicated. It started with the nursery that grows trees from seeds to seedlings. Move on to the media by wh ich the nursery markets its products and add the systems by which those products are processed, packaged, and distributed.
Next comes the consumer—moi. With a planting bar, a bucket of water, and an all-important paint stick—oh, yes, plus the package of balsam seedlings—I ventured into Björnholm Tregården (The Tree Garden). Earlier, I’d staked out planting locations. The flags were visible, but soon an explosion of foliage obscured the brightly colored markers.
Then—the actual plantings. 1. Scrape detritus—decaying leaves, sticks—off soil surface and trim encroaching vegetation; 2. Jam planting bar into soil; jam it again, but deeper, and pull on four-foot-long handle to create a wedge opening; 3. Gently pull one seedling from the bunch; 4. Pull paint stick out of back pocket and tease roots as far as possible down into the opening; 5. Carefully raise seedling to straighten out roots so that seedling collar sits just below grade; 6. Fill opening with water; 7. Jam planting bar into soil six inches away from opening and push handle toward seedling, closing opening; 8. With foot, tamp down soil around seedling; 9. Repeat foregoing steps six times.
As I hiked through the woods that border the tree garden, bar in one hand, empty pail in the other, paint stick in my back pocket, I looked around at the thousands of trees—a wide spectrum of sizes and species but all having germinated and grown without the aid of a human hand (or planting bar, water pail, and paint stick). I pondered the contrast between nature’s way and my way.
And yet, I thought, aren’t I part of nature? Isn’t my miniscule contribution to the woods part of a wider system of life on earth? Long past anything else I do in life, those trees—and the hundreds of others I’ve planted, bud-capped in the fall (against the deer), and cultivated (constant clipping, pruning of surrounding foliage)—will benefit, not degrade, the planet.
I think there’s a lesson in all of this. Each of us working alone is that seedling amidst a forest. In aggregate, we can determine outcomes. Conversely, planting seven seedlings, however minor the contribution to the world’s inventory of trees, is vastly more effective than destroying trees.
The foregoing maxim, however, is fraught. What of all the lumber I’ve purchased? How often have I considered or worried about the trees that were cut and processed so I can leave Home Depot with a carload of 2 x 4s? About as often as I’ve thought about the connection between buying/consuming animal protein and the ugly, destructive processes associated with raising, then slaughtering and butchering animals. More to the disturbing point—what’s my full penance for having sold the logging rights to the area of “the tree garden,” ironically, to provide a kitty for preservation of broader acreage? How big is my life’s carbon footprint?
All remedies start with awareness.
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© 2021 by Eric Nilsson
