Lost and Found In Nature

It’s time to invite some long time residents back home. The trees. The native species. The ones that are effectively absent from the most cities. Bringing them back isn’t just for the trees’ sake.

Some of these trees will de-stress you, halting your cortisol production, helping you get back to true self – White Pine, E. Hemlock, Black Spruce – whatever is native in your neighbourhood. These trees, along with other conifers like cedars and spruce, produce essential wood oils called phytoncides. These oils emit the beautiful smell of pine, stop our cortisol production, thereby halting stress hormones that often flood our systems, causing us to worry and often get sick.

Other trees we need back here will quickly re-build our plummeting wildlife diversity, pulling us out of the greatest mass extinction in 65 million years, and here they are: the oaks – Chinquapin, Dwarf Chinquapin, and Swamp White, Black, Shumard, and Pin Oak. Surprisingly absent in the neighbourhood are also Black Cherry, Shagbark, Shellbark and Bitternut Hickories, as well as the stately American Beech. Yes, these hardwoods need your help and in return, they are the magnets for bringing back biodiversity – the wide variety of animals, such as butterflies, gorgeous moths, birds and beyond. Non-native trees don’t do this.

I’ve written this post because of my observations in many towns and cities. Often you see trees from Norway (maples, spruce), parts of the US to the south (Black Locust), cultivar varieties of native trees (Honey Locust, Callery Pear), or trees from Asia (Ginko, Lilac, etc.)  Yes, we do have native maples often in cities like Sugar and Silver. Whoop, whoop. But seldom do we get in our parks and along our streets the trees that you can find in a one of the few remaining diverse woodlots out in the country.

In my neighbourhood, Wortley Village, in London, Ontario, Canada, measuring at least 2 x 2 km or about 250 acres, I have paid attention as I drive, walk, jog, or roller blade. There are two American Beech trees, maybe 10 Red Oaks, and 3 hickories of any species in this area. While I could have missed a couple, there should be hundreds of each.

These native species, the oaks, beech, hickories and lone cherry are greatly under-represented to say the least. While most of cities and towns buy trees from nurseries that don’t stock these trees, it isn’t too hard to go out of our way a bit to find, buy and plant them. Time is up. We need to act in the absence of convenience.

The top reasons I hear not to plant these (native) trees: 1. I don’t have any room and it’s too shady (in older neighbourhoods). 2. These trees are too messy. 3. They cost too much. 4. I don’t know where to find these native trees? 5. They’ll attract squirrels. 6. I’m on my cell phone.

Here are some responses: 1. You can plant trees really close together. They’ll grow tall, like they do in a dense forest, and find the light they need. If you still feel in the dark, contact a local ecology group for a list of native trees that love shade. 2. Most things in life are messy. Some of us/things are more so than others. When you weigh the benefits, a little extra effort and energy spent cleaning up acorns or leaves isn’t so bad – being outside, getting free exercise, maybe becoming a little more social with your neighbours. 3. These trees don’t cost more than non-native trees. Groups like conservation authorities have cheap native tree sales.…you can find great deals. 4. Native trees are becoming more and more available. They are sold at more and more nurseries every year…seek and you shall find. 5. With more diverse native trees and acceptance of predators like Red-tailed Hawks, Sharp-shinned Hawks and Coyotes in the city, we gradually will have fewer squirrels. But no promises on this one, at least in the short term…let’s admire the squirrels are boast in the fact that at least we aren’t driving this species to extinction! 6. Get off your cell phone. Unplug and recharge your mind, body and spirit by planting a tree!

Community building, healthy air, more resilient human health and climate systems, boosted urban ecology, and recovery of endangered species…all by planting these under-represented trees. It’s not hard to give a little more space for nature in the city. Recovering nature helps us to get a hand out of the big hole we have been digging in the ‘more the human world’ for decades.

Some great resources: Douglas Tallamy’s book, “Bringing Nature Home;” …native plant nurseries in S. Ontario, great for finding many of the trees mentioned above, St. Williams Nursery and Ecology Centre near Long Point and Native Trees and Plants Nursery, near Amhurstburg, ON (http://nativetreesandplants.com/). Just do an online search in your area to find out a good source for native trees.