Growing up in South Carolina, I was always surrounded by trees. Behind our house was “the woods” where I would slip away to play, build a fort with fallen branches, and create my adventures inside those woods. From there I lived in Kentucky, Tennessee, Virginia, and Germany. Each of these places had plenty of trees for me to see and appreciate, until we moved to El Paso, Texas.
While we loved being in El Paso, one of the aspects that our family had to adjust to was the absence of trees. There are trees in El Paso, however, they are clumped in different areas around the city and there are no forests in the county. Once we got used to the desert landscape, we truly enjoyed the experience of being in the desert. The difference is, though, is that before we travelled to EL Paso, I took trees for granted.
On this Arbor Day, 29April 2016, I want to encourage you to not take your trees for granted. We get used to them being around and we think that they will always be there. That is not necessarily the case. With clear cutting and no replenishment and unmanaged landscape development, our wooded areas could one day be endanger. We are called to be good stewards of our resources and trees are a very important one. It is important that each of us take on the responsibility to look out for our trees and forest land for our future.