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Prayer dedicated to Richard St Barbe Baker,
Father of the Trees
"I can imagine a time when a tree was not a tree,
but a distinct individual.
If it is just a tree, one among a whole
forest of trees, it is no great matter to
chop it down.
Nothing
unique is being removed from the world.
But if we see it as a unique
individual, sacred and
irreplaceable, then we would chop it down only with
great circumspection.
We might, as many indigenous peoples do, meditate and pray before
committing an act of such enormity.
It would be an occasion for
solemn ritual.
Only a
very worthy purpose would justify it.
Now, having converted all of
these unique, divine beings into just trees, we
level entire forests with
hardly a second thought." -
Charles
Eisenstein
Richard St
Barbe Baker was born in a country house in South Hampshire, England, on 9
October 1889 and from his earliest days
developed a keen awareness of the
beauty of the forests and creatures therein.
At Cambridge Richard St
Barbe Baker studied forestry and after finishing his degree he was posted to
Kenya as a forester with the
Colonial Office.
Appalled by the continued destruction of the
scrublands in the northern highlands by the
Kikuyu tribesmen Richard
St Barbe Baker convinced the people there to plant trees to replace those they
had removed.
Richard St Barbe Baker instituted a Dance of The
Trees out of which arose the Men of The Trees, the Swahili for which
is 'Watu wa Miti'.
1924 Richard St Barbe
Baker founded Men of The Trees in England and became interested in the
Baha'i faith which he pursued until
death.
1931 Richard St Barbe Baker went to
Palestine at the invitation of
Sir John Chancellor, the Governor, to assist in establishing a tree planting
program.
Richard St Barbe Baker spent some time in
Jerusalem co-ordinating a
meeting of the heads of the Islam,
Hebrew and
Catholic communities to plant
trees under the banner of Men of The Trees.
Richard St Barbe
Baker travelled to
America on a lecture tour, during
which he wrote his first book Men of the Trees.
Seeing the giant
Redwoods he became involved in a move to conserve these trees from further
destruction by launching Save the Redwoods Fund which eventually
delivered twelve thousand acres of redwoods to the State of California as a
reserve.
Richard St Barbe Baker's
friendship with
Franklin D Roosevelt
resulted in the establishment of the Civilian Conservation Corps.
Richard St Barbe
Baker founded the Forestry Association of Great Britain.
1952 Richard St Barbe Baker goes to Europe, addressing
conferences in Germany and Austria and lecturing to university graduates in
Vienna on the importance of tree cover.
Richard St Barbe Baker returned
to New York, campaigning for tree preservation and late in that year led the
first Sahara University Expedition, raising funds by writing Famous
Trees.
1954
Richard St Barbe Baker goes to New Zealand at the invitation of Men of The
Trees there to convince the New Zealand State Forestry Service of
the need for trees in Central Otago.
1955
Richard St Barbe Baker organizes an exhibition in Cambridge called Man Against Nature and a similar
exhibition was staged in Paris.
June 5th, 1982
Richard St Barbe Baker plants his last tree in Saskatoon, Canada, in a ceremony
celebrating World Environment Day.
The inscription on Richard St
Barbe Baker 's grave marker reads:
RICHARD ST. BARBE BAKER, O.B.E.
9 OCTOBER
1889 - 9 JUNE 1982
FOUNDER MEN OF THE TREES
PIONEER OF DESERT
RECLAMATION THROUGH TREE PLANTING
CRUSADER FOR VIRGIN FORESTS WORLDWIDE
"Mother Nature has
provided free devices that remove carbon dioxide from our air using
natural solar power:trees
and forests.
One fast-growing tree can sequester many tons of carbon.
How about planting trees?" - Elan Glasser
True and tree are joined at
the root.
Etymology:
In Old
English, words looked and sounded much more alike than they do now: "tree" was
trow and "true" was trowe.
The first of these comes from the Germanic
noun *trewam; the second, from the adjective *treuwaz.
Both these
Germanic words ultimately go back to an Indo-European root *deru- or *dreu-,
appearing in derivatives referring to wood and firmness.
Truth may be thought of as something
firm; so as well can certain bonds between humans, like trust, another
derivative of the same root.
A slightly different form of the root,
*dru-, appears in the word druid, an
ancient Celtic shaman; his
name is etymologically *dru-wid-, or "strong
seer."
A tree hugger holds truth close to the
heart.
2005
Cherry trees are flowering on
average two weeks earlier than in 1995.
A thousand large lakes in
Siberia have dried up within the last 25 years. Thawing of the perma frost
layer allowed the water from these lakes to seep into the ground. Migratory
birds depending upon the lakes
of Siberia are expected to be negatively impacted.
The Mexican
government reported a suprising reduction of 75% of the Monarch butterfly
population due to adverse weather conditions.
"I've been doing this I
was big enough to carry a bucket. Tapping in January? Never. Never. Never." -
Rex Marsh, a 71 year old a Vermont maple syrup producer, stated
in the spring of 2006 that
he had tapped his 9000 sugar maple trees in January - two years in a
row.
2006
July heat wave in America breaks more than 2,300
daily records and sets 50 all-time records for hottest temperature ever
recorded.
The slight moderation in temperature is being seen in pine
forests of 10 western American states including California, Utah, Colorado, New
Mexico, Wyoming, Idaho, Montana and in British Columbia. Lodgepole pines in
Idaho and Colorado, ancient white-bark pines of Idaho and Montana, pinon pines
in Colorado, firs in Montana and aspen trees throughout the West are dying by
the millions. Beetles have ravaged the drought weakened trees. Temperatures
below zero for several days on end are required to kill the beetle which has
not happened since the 90's.
"Nothing like this has occurred in the last
350 years. Whole landscapes have been affected." - Wayne Shepperd, Forest
Service researcher
"The mountainsides are blanketed with dead trees as
far as the eye can see." - Erik Olsen 11/19/2008
2009
Over a fifth of the aspen trees in Colorado have
died due to global warming.
I saw in Louisiana a
live oak growing,
All alone stood it and the moss hung down from the
branches,
Without any companion it grew there uttering joyous of dark
green,
And its look, rude, unbending, lusty, made me think of
myself,
how it could utter joyous leaves standing alone there without
its friend near,
for I knew I could not.
I broke off a twig with
a certain number of leaves upon it and
I twined around it a little
moss,
I brought it away, and I have placed it in sight in my
room,
It is not needed to remind me as of my own dear friends,
It
remains to me a curious token.
It makes me think of manly
compassion.
The live oak glistens there in Louisiana solitary in a wide
flat space,
uttering
joyous leaves all its life without a friend or lover near,
I know very
well I could not.
Walt
Whitman
legend of the cedar
tree
A long time ago when the Cherokee people were new upon the Earth,
they thought that life would be much better if there was never any night.
They beseeched the Ouga (the Creator) that it might be day all the time and
that there would be no darkness.
The Creator heard their voices and made the night
cease and it was day all the time.
Soon, the forest was thick with
heavy growth.
It became difficult to walk and to find the path.
The people toiled in the gardens many long hours trying
to keep the weeds pulled from among the
corn and other food
plants.
It got hot, very hot, and continued that way day after long
day.
The people began to find it
difficult to sleep and became
short tempered and argued among themselves.
Not many days had passed
before the people realized they had made a mistake and, once again, they
beseeched the Creator.
"Please,"
they prayed, "we have made a mistake in asking that it be day all the time. Now
we think that it should be night all the time."
The
Creator paused at this new request and
thought that perhaps the people may be right as all things are forged in
opposites ... day and night,
life and death,
good and
evil, times of plenty and
times of famine.
The
Creator loved the people and decided to
make it night all the time as they had asked.
The day ceased and
night fell upon the Earth.
Soon, the crops stopped growing and it became very cold.
The
people spent much of their time gathering wood for the fires.
They could not see to hunt meat and with no crops growing it was not
long before the people were cold, weak, and very
hungry.
Many of
the people died.
Those that remained still living gathered once
again to beseech the Creator.
"Help
us Creator," they cried!
"We have
made a terrible mistake. You had made
the day and the night perfect, and as it should be, from
the beginning. We ask that you
forgive us and make the day and night
as it was before."
Once again the Creator listened to the request of the people.
The day and the night became, as the people had asked, as it had been
in the beginning.
Each day was divided between light and
darkness.
The weather became
more pleasant, and the crops began to grow again.
Game was plentiful
and the hunting was good.
The people had plenty to
eat and there was not much
sickness.
The people treated each other with
compassion and
respect.
It was good to be
alive.
The people were grateful and thanked the
Creator for their lives.
The
Creator accepted the
gratitude of the people.
However, during the time of the long days of night, many of the people
had died, and the Creator was sorry that
they had perished because of the night.
The
Creator placed their
spirits in a newly grown tree.
This tree was named a-tsi-na tlu-gv {ah-see-na loo-guh} cedar tree.
When you smell the aroma of the cedar tree or gaze upon it standing in
the forest, remember that if you are Tsalagi, you are looking upon your
ancestor.
Tradition holds that the wood of the cedar tree holds
powerful protective spirits for the Cherokee.
Many
Cherokee carry a small piece
of cedar wood in their medicine bag.
It is also placed above the
entrances to the dwelling to protect against the
entry of evil spirits.
Traditional drums are made from cedar wood.
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