Ridge Historical Society
National Arbor Day 2021
By Carol Flynn
There is an old Chinese proverb that states: “The best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago. The next best time is now.”
Today – Friday, April 30, 2021 – is National Arbor Day. Arbor Day was started for one very specific reason: to encourage people to plant trees.
By now, there shouldn’t be anyone who doesn’t recognize the importance of trees to our environment, from aesthetic to scientific reasons. They beautify, they give us comfort and shade, they give us food and building materials, they are the homes to numerous other species of animals and birds, they clean and cool the air, they stabilize the ground. They respond to pain and injury, they communicate with each other. They are living creatures, not inanimate props along the street.
An enormous oak tree in a yard on the Ridge is pictured here. For scale, the fence is about seven feet tall. The tree was mature when the house was built in the 1870s, and its age is estimated to be around 225 years old. It is nearing the end of its lifespan.
Many of the old-growth oak trees in the Ridge communities are in this situation – within the next fifty years, many, perhaps most, of them will die off.
The trees have been taken for granted for well over a century. A few people in the community have tried hard to educate and encourage people to consider the situation. Now is the time for the community to take action so the wonderful tree canopy that has been enjoyed for generations will not become a historic feature lost to the past.
“We plant trees not for ourselves, but for future generations.” – Caecilius, Pompeian banker, 14 A.D.–79 A.D.
Trees are past, present, and future.