Less Plastic, More Trees, Please!

I Love Big Bags and I Cannot Lie

Bring reusable shopping bags when heading to the store. Whether you are grocery shopping or heading out with friends to splurge on clothes, take your own bags with you. Many stores have totes and reusable bags for a few dollars by the checkout lines and these are more durable, hold more objects, and last much longer than the flimsy plastic and paper bags we get from supermarkets, which are not biodegradable. Additionally, reusable shopping bags are a great way to “go green” and help the environment by using less plastic and cutting down less trees.

Some of my favorite neighbors have 4 legs

I live in a very nice town adjacent to Berkeley, California that is very urban but I have a big ol backyard, which I LOVE. (It is the reason I live here.) I have raccoons, a family of squirrels and a pair of deer who seem to love the yard as much as I do but I think they really like the apple trees. One of the older trees bears a huge amount of apples every fall, much more than my boyfriend and I can cook or eat, not to mention our friends, my coworkers, the door and squirrels. So we bag up the extra apples and take them to a place where deer congregate at the edge of the woods a few blocks away. Every time I deliver a new bag, I see lots of deer tracks and can see my four legged forest friends enjoyed their
“apple a day.” So, before you just compost the excess bounty of your garden or fruit, trees, take a look around and see who else might appreciate a neighborly gesture.

Hugged a tree lately?

Trees Are the Lungs of Our Planet

Have you heard about the amazingly ambitious goal of The Nature Conservancy to plant a BILLON trees and restore the forest of the world? From the rainforests in South America to China and even in the Arctic Circle, this hardy group of tree huggers is doing their darndest to recreate the woodlands and rainforests everywhere they can.  I urge you to look at the map to see how far they are getting; it is impressive and gives me so much hope about our future.

I grew up in a deeply forested state, West Virginia and was taught from a child to know and love trees. When I visited last time and drove all around to see relatives in far flung counties, I noticed huge swaths of brown amongst the green and asked what the heck was going on that seemed to be killing trees. That is how I learned about “acid rain,” an unfortunate by-product of coalmining, logging and too many chemical plants. On our 300-acre farm, no trees are cut, only planted so we are doing our part. In the settled of the great prairies and western states, trees were felled to “clean the land.” That is, in part, being rectified by a special effort to protect trees in the “last frontier.” Check out www.americanforest.org to see how you can help. Oh, and start in your own yard. Got room for a couple of trees? Start digging and planting and know you will enjoy years of beauty and leave behind a legacy for generations to come from your own efforts.

With each passing day, as I read in news about 2014 being the hottest year in recorded history, I feel it is incumbent upon each and every one of us to do everything we can to cool down, slow down and give back to the planet.