pine tree

Ever since we moved in view of massive old trees in a New York City park, and witnessed first-hand the devastation wrought on some of them by Hurricane Sandy, we’ve been obsessed with trees. Sandy woke us up, big time. We’d always enjoyed trees, but seeing the 150 years of rings in a downed oak — the very same oak that  neighborhood people had played chess and baseball, and had picnics under all spring, summer and fall— made us realize the many pleasures trees provide, how long they take to grow, and how much we need them (they provide nearly a third of the world’s oxygen…people heal better when they can see trees…among other things).

So not only have we been collecting ideas for things to do with logs and parts of downed trees, we’ve been tracking the mysteries of living ones. Below check out the world’s oldest tree, Steven Poe‘s beautiful motion control time-lapse film  of giant redwood trees  in northern California (Video link here.),and Elephant Journal’s 5 Simple Steps to Save Some Trees (that just take a few minutes and help A LOT). 

This Bristlecone Pine Tree, known as Methuselah, is 4,841 years old is located in the White Mountains of California, in Inyo National Forest. It’s exact location is kept a secret to protect it ever since someone cut down a 5,000 year old one in the ’70’s.

this bristle cone pine tree is the oldest non-clonal being on Earth

Love trees, here are 5 Simple Steps to Save Some Trees courtesy of Elephant Journal.

1. Opt Out of credit card & insurance mailings.

You can electronically sign up and opt out of credit card mailings for five years, or you can print out a form and mail it in to opt out permanently. I did this several years ago and I never receive credit card or insurance offers.

2. Get off  commercial mailing lists.

Register with Directmail.com and get your name off of commercial mailing lists.

3. Sign up for electronic bill & bank statements.

This will significantly reduce the amount of mail that comes to your house. If you need a copy for your records I recommend either saving a PDF version, or printing out just the statement you need. There is always excess paper in a mailed version of a bill; this allows you to only print the paper you need.

4. Break up with the yellow pages.

With widespread use of online yellow pages, who really uses the yellow pages anymore? So unless you need them as a booster chair, it’s likely that they don’t warrant all the paper waste. Say goodbye to the yellow pages.

5. Kick the catalog habit.

Do you really need or want all those catalogs? It’s likely you order online anyway, so why not get the paper copy out of your life?

You can sign up for the free service, Catalog Choice, to add you to a no-send list for catalog spam. Also, call the company that is sending the catalog and ask them to stop. I have done this many times.

via Cara De Silva

Related posts: hurricane sandy: strange beauty amidst destruction
giuseppe penone’s tree + ‘the hidden life within’
maria popova + hermann hesse on what trees teach us
weekend retreat?: a house of giant tree stumps
when nature reminds you to stop what you are doing

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