By Don C. Collasius, Fairhaven Tree Warden
Happy New Year from the Fairhaven Tree Department. I hope the new year is good to you.
As the new year is on us, I reflect on what the last year had brought and what this one, I hope, has in store. Our to date tree planting count is 282 trees. We reached our goal of planting just over 100 this year in part thanks to your generous financial support and the support of some local businesses: Howe Allen Real Estate, Koopmans Lumber, Eversource, Harvey, and Bask. Thank you so much.
If you watch the news or read it, it is hard to not see the turmoil many people deal with on a daily basis. I’m a bit of a history buff. I got it from my dad. Lately I came across a box of books in the town hall basement that were town yearly reports from pretty far back. The covers were brittle and the pages darkened frsom time but they were very readable and I found myself drawn to the Tree Wardens’ annual reports. A few things really struck me.
First off it was common to blanket the town with DDT numerous times a year, sometimes three, including swaths of private land. This was to fight off numerous pests such as Elm beetles and moths. History has shown that really didn’t work, urban foresters have not successfully stopped a pest or pathogen in the last few hundred years.
Second, in 1945, we had not yet won WWII and it was still raging, the Tree warden had planted 354 trees that year and had 200 more to go. Think about that. At a time when the whole world was dealing with a conflict on a scale never seen before the people of this town between the shortages and frozen wages and rationing, they managed to plant 5 times more trees than I did last year. At first, I was a little surprised by this, but when I started reflecting on it, I think I made some sense of it.
Aside from the obvious benifits of trees why put in that much effort? Well, what else could folks left at home to deal with all the hardships and missed loved ones do to make the world a better place? What could they do to promote hope? I think they planted trees because it gave them hope. The folks of that generation were truly optimists and would by sheer will and determination create a better world than what the Depression and WWII gave them.
Look around you. There is so much good and beautiful around us to be thankful for. And there are so many things we can’t control to any large degree. But what we can do is be optimists and grab a shovel, or your wallet and plant a tree. If it gives you half the sense of hope, and pride, and joy it gives me, you may just be overwhelmed.
You can volunteer or donate by reaching out to the Tree Department at 40 Center St Fairhaven MA, 02719 or email me at dcollasius@fairhaven-ma.gov
Thanks so much for the opportunity to serve,
Don C. Collasius, Fairhaven Tree Warden
PS: Stand by for the kick off of the Junior Deputy Tree Wardens program for kids coming soon.
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