by Crede Calhoun chief guide for Camp Earth and owner of Windrush Online Art Gallery.

Trees are not only beautiful but also very beneficial to our world. Every tree is a unique thing and you could search the whole world over and never find two trees that are identical. Like us they are unique individuals. Without trees the world would be an impossible place to live.

Here are a few facts about trees:

»In the summertime, one young tree keeps the air as cool as 10 air conditioners going 20 hours a day.

»Young trees are our best air purifiers. One acre of young trees uses 5-6 tons of carbon dioxide a year- that's 10,000-20,000 pounds of the gas that people breathe out. That same acre gives us 4 tons of fresh oxygen to breathe (8,000 pounds).

»Around the world, forests provide homes for almost half of all living things.

»Most of our houses and and most of the world's buildings are built from trees.

»Trees give us paper for books, and lots of things we use everyday.

»Trees give us food, apples, peaches, oranges, pears, mangos, walnuts, pecans, cherries and many more kinds of food. Can you name a few more foods we get from trees?

»Trees improve water quality by slowing run-off from rain and filtering water that protects watersheds and aquifers.

»The worlds tallest tree is a coast redwood n California, measuring more than 360 feet tall!

»The world's oldest tree is the Bristlecone Pine that grows in the United States and can reach an age of 4,600 years.

»A trees growth rings can provide precise information about the environment during a trees life span. Tree rings can tell us what years were dry or wet and even if their was a volcanic eruption that year.

»If an oak tree produces 10,000 acorns only one will likely sprout into an oak sapling.

»Every Sunday, the United States wastes nearly 90% of the recyclable newspapers. This wastes about 500,000 trees!

»Everyday Americans buy 62 million newspapers and throw out 44 million. That's the equivalent of dumping 500,000 trees into a landfill every week.

»American's throw away enough office and writing paper annually to build a wall 12 feet high stretching from Los Angeles to New York City.

»If everyone in the U.S. recycled just 1/10 of their newsprint, we would save the estimated equivalent of about 25 million trees a year.

»One ton of recycled paper uses: 64% less energy, 50% less water, 74% less air pollution, saves 17 trees and creates 5 times more jobs than one ton of paper products from virgin wood pulp.

»Trees are the longest living and largest living organisms on Earth.

»Maryland has about 160 species of trees.

photo by Crede Calhoun

The beautiful virgin forest at Swallow Falls State Park is a wonder to behold (pictured above). It was protected and given to the State by the original land owner who recognized the value and beauty of this amazing forest ecosystem.  Unfortunately the eastern hemlock trees are being killed by a pest. This 50-75 acre tract of 300+ years old trees is in danger of dying out (as are all eastern hemlocks). Hemlock woolly adelgid (Adelges tsugae Armand), is a small aphid-like insect that feeds on several species of hendock (Tsuga spp.) in Asia, its homeland, and in North America where it was introduced. Populations of this pest can not be managed in the hemlock forests of eastern North America at this time. Hemlock forests in the southern Appalachia are already being wiped out and it is headed our way.

Links to Tree Facts ~ Tree Identification Guides

Maryland List of Champion Trees

Use this website to help you identify trees

Map of active forest fires in the United States

How to plant a tree

Rainforest Facts
We are losing Earth's greatest biological treasures just as we are beginning to appreciate their true value. Rainforests once covered 14% of the earth's land surface; now they cover a mere 6% and experts estimate that the last remaining rainforests could be consumed in less than 40 years.

Trees take thousands of years to adapt to a specific climate. If global warming is too rapid and the trees cannot adapt to the heat there is a real danger of massive tree die off. Heat resistant species probably will be unable to reforest the landscape fast enough and major problems are possible. We all must work to lessen the effects of global warming and help our wonderful trees stay safe.