A tree’s journey
text and photo : Norma A. Hubbard (December 2015)
Owning land changes us, at least I think so. While Ron and I have always been a bit ‘tree-huggy’, there is a distinct change, a sense of responsibility that comes with owning land. When we walk our trails we look at the whole environment, the diversity of nature, the need to care for our land, and to provide habitat for animals. I really understand land stewardship now and part of that extends towards our whole planet – which brings me to a tree’s journey, more specifically, a Christmas tree’s journey.
Over the years we have had mostly natural Christmas trees. We had a brief flirtation with an artificial tree, thinking it was better for the environment. However after weighing the pros and cons, it is actually better to use natural trees – if the trees are cultivated and/or replaced, and recycled for mulch – and there is no denying the beauty of a natural tree. Some years our trees are a bit Charlie Brownish, but like his tree, our trees always end up looking pretty good when decorated with a little love and lots of tinsel!
On our land we have cut the trees that needed to be thinned, but we plant many more than we cut. Each sum- mer we plant a few hundred seedlings, including some balsam fir (Abies balsamea), which is the only native fir in eastern Canada. Many individuals make the mistake of calling these trees spruce, an easy mistake. Balsam fir is one of the preferred evergreens for Christmas trees because of its long-lasting needles after cutting. Balsam firs are cone- bearing seed plants, known as conifers. The seed cones are 4-10 cm. Firs are actually part of the Pine Family and are also known as Canadian balsam, eastern fir, or bracted balsam fir. They are wide-spread in Quebec. Balsam firs are considered small to med-sized trees reaching heights up to 25 m with diameters up to 70 cm. They can live to 150 years. A stand of firs can provide dense coverage for animals – especially in winter.
Our Christmas tree last year was selected because it was on the chopping block, regardless of whether we used it for Christmas or not; it was not growing well under a weeping willow. It was rather ‘fat’ around the bottom and had limited branches on top … hmmm, could we make it work? We decided it was not right just to cut it down, we had to make it a Christmas tree. After trimming and moving a few branches (we drilled holes to add branches trying to shift its weigh) it started to look better. And perhaps it was even more special because it was saved. It was still a bit bottom heavy, but once we added the lights, the decorations, and of course, lots of tinsel to fill in the gaps, we had our fat-bottom Christmas tree!
After Christmas, I took the decorations off of the tree and composted the needles that had fallen off; I spent a few hours meticulously removing the tinsel before placing the tree outside to provide shelter for the birds from the cold of winter. In the spring, we mulched what was left of our tree and gave it back to the earth, thus completing our tree’s journey. Whether you celebrate Christmas or not, please take some time during the white days of winter to enjoy nature’s wonderful gift of evergreen trees.
Source: John Laird Farrar, Trees in Canada (1995).