“The best time to plant a tree was twenty years ago. The second-best time is now.”
—Proverb
A recent visit to Lithia Park in Ashland, Oregon, reminded me just how extraordinary and varied trees really are.
Stretching along Ashland Creek from downtown into the surrounding canyon, Lithia Park contains an amazing blend of native Southern Oregon trees and unusual species brought from other parts of the world. In a single walk, visitors can pass beneath familiar Douglas firs and ponderosa pines, encounter the peeling red bark of a Pacific madrone, and then discover something as unexpected as a monkey puzzle tree or a dawn redwood.
It felt a little like walking through a living tree museum.
That visit inspired my next Fun Fact Friday series: Meet the Trees.
Each post will introduce a different tree and explore questions such as:
Where does it naturally grow?
How can we recognize it?
How long can it live?
What birds, insects, mammals, and pollinators depend upon it?
How does it contribute to the larger ecosystem?
What unusual history, folklore, or surprises does it hold?
Trees do far more than provide shade and beautiful scenery. They clean the air, store carbon, stabilize soil, cool streams, protect watersheds, and provide food and shelter for countless living creatures. Some support hundreds of species during their lifetimes, and even continue supporting life after they fall.
We often admire trees without realizing how much activity is taking place among their branches, beneath their bark, and around their roots.
Over the coming weeks, we’ll look at some familiar trees and meet a few unusual ones along the way.
I hope this series encourages all of us to slow down, look up, and appreciate the quiet giants growing around us.
Do you have a favorite kind of tree, or one you have always wanted to learn more about? Let me know, and I'll do some research.
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