Giving Back | written by: JULIET CAIN, Co-Founder, the Pollinator Pathway / Adviser, The Darien Land Trust
Native tulip trees, known for their tulip-like flowers in springtime | photograph courtesy Jimmy Ma
FOR MANY INDIGENOUS CULTURES, reciprocity is an inextricable component of their relationships. In the context of nature, an appreciation of and gratitude for all of nature’s gifts fosters a corresponding sense of responsibility to nurture and look after them. What’s more, in non-indigenous cultures, as French philosopher Marcel Mauss argued, giving a gift entails a system of accounting, a debt is created which presumes some repayment.
Well, trees give us gifts every single day.
• They clean our air by drawing down and storing carbon dioxide and filtering dangerous particulate matter.
• They provide us the means to breathe by releasing oxygen.
• They reduce our surface temperatures by providing shade and cooling on hot days.
• They help reduce flooding by dispersing and absorbing rainfall and help clean water as it filters through their roots.
• They mitigate erosion by holding soil in place and some even provide us with fruit and nuts – and medicine.
• As if this weren’t enough, trees give us proven physical and mental health benefits and we are beginning to see that exposure to trees and forests also helps improve academic outcomes and decrease crime. They give even more but space is limited!
A landmarked tree on Highland Avenue in Darien | photograph is courtesy Elizabeth Mathus
How on earth can we begin to reciprocate this sort of giving?!
• We can start by giving trees companionship in our yards and in public spaces by planting more trees – native trees that will thrive in the right place with the right help to start them off.
• We can remove invasive plants and shrubs such as Burning Bush, Japanese Barberry and Tree of Heaven, that are crowding out our native understory and forest and provide no sustenance to wildlife.
• We can dig out vines that strangle and harm our trees.
• We can provide water to young trees that might be struggling to stay alive in the heat of summer.
• We can leave the leaves in fall to create shelter for insects and food for birds who depend on trees for a critical part of their habitat and who in turn help the trees reproduce by pollinating and dispersing seeds.
If we recognize the treasures that trees provide, we will treat them as the treasures they themselves are. Let’s celebrate them, tend them, protect them and grow them!
Nominate Your Treasured Tree
Do you have a favorite tree in town, on either public or private property? Please email the exact location, including address, type of tree (if you know it) and a photo if possible to pam@darienmagazinect.com. We will be sharing the information you provide with the Darien Land Trust and others who will review it and compile an inventory of significant trees in town which
we will publish in a future issue.
