Margaret Cheasebro

I felt so sad to see the devastating fires on Maui and the Big Island of Hawaii on television news reports this week. When my son and I visited the Big Island in January 2023, we loved seeing the beautiful trees, bushes and huge, colorful flowers. I hated to see some of that lush foliage, historic buildings, and people's houses and businesses go up in flames.

One place we visited was Waipi'o, a sacred place where seeds of important and sacred plants are carefully guarded and preserved by private citizens. In that way, the plants, which are not only beautiful but often have medicinal value, will remain available for future generations. If fires or other catastrophes threaten these plants, the seeds will allow the plants to reproduce for centuries to come.

I loved Waipi'o, near the Kohala Mountains on Highway 240 off the Hamakua Coast. Trees overlooked a view of the coast and the lava shaped hills that plunged into the water. It felt like a sacred place where private citizens spent their time preserving so many seeds of important plants for future Hawaiian citizens.

Waipi'o played a major role in saving the life of an important king, Kamehameha, when he was an infant born around 1758. Threats from warring chiefs and the foretelling of events at the time Kamehameha was born led loyalists to take the future king to Waipi'o Valley, where he was kept in seclusion and raised by attendants loyal to him. When he was five years old, he came out of seclusion and was trained as a warrior under the watchful eye of his uncle, King Kalani'opu'u.

In 1791, Kamehameha led a great canoe battle that was fought in the ocean off of Waipi'o and neighboring Waimanu Valley. With the help of fellow fighters, he defeated the enemy, who fled to Maui. The Battle of the Red Mouth Guns, as it became known, was the first recorded naval battle in Hawaiian history. By the early 1800s, Kamehameha had successfully united all the Hawaiian Islands under his rule. He died in 1819.

His leadership and warrior skills saw to it that all the Hawaiian Islands remained united as they are today. It is my belief that the beautiful, valiant spirit of the Hawaiian people will help them rebuild from the destructive fires and allow their land to continue to thrive.

There are many beautiful trees in my neighborhood. One of them grows at the corner of my street and a cross street. It is a stately Ponderosa Pine. It stands alone in one section of the front yard, holding a special and valued place.

I have come across Ponderosa Pines in other places as well. I think they are quite beautiful and elegant. One ponderosa in Spokane, Washington that I saw in 2012 made a big impression on me. Every once in a while, when I walk through an area that has several trees, I feel a connection with one of them. That happened with the ponderosa in Spokane. As I walked by it, I felt a sudden sense of joy. It was as though the tree were delighted to see me. Sounds weird, I know, but these things sometimes happen to me, and they create wonderful memories.

It felt so good to stand near the tree that I spent a good 15 minutes there. In some intangible way, it felt that I was being rejuvenated by the tree. Trying to put words to the experience is next to impossible. How do you explain feeling like your body just got a remarkable tune-up?

When I walked by the Ponderosa Pine in my neighborhood recently, I felt no special connection with it. I was just curious about what kind of tree it was. Using my amazing Picture This app, I learned it was a ponderosa. It reminded me of the gift I received from the Ponderosa Pine in Spokane eleven years ago.

It isn't easy to talk about experiences like this. Some people think such a possibility is ridiculous. Others get a far away look in their eyes as though they too remember an experience they had with a tree.

What makes an encounter with one tree so special while there's no such experience with other trees of that species? I don't know. I just know that when such a joyful encounter does occur, it is special beyond words.

You may wonder how anyone could believe such a thing is possible. I suggest that, if you're so inclined, you remain open to the possibility. It might result in an experience that lifts you from deep sadness, or it may simply add joy and delight to your life.

The tallest tree in Asia has been found by a research team from Peking University.

A Smithsonian article written by Sarah Kuta and published on June 20, 2023 said the tree is 335 feet tall. It was found in May in Tibet, now known as the Tibet Autonomous Region of China. It has a diameter of 9.6 feet, according to the state-run Chinese publication, the People's Daily Online.

It is probably a Himalayan cypress, whose scientific name is Cupressus torulosa. Or it might be a Tibetan cypress, scientific name Cupressus gigantea.

The Peking University research team found it in the Yarlung Zangbo Grand Canyon Nature Reserve, which is the deepest on-land canyon on the planet according to a June 22, 2023 Newsweek article written by Jess Thomson. The gorge is 19,714 feet deep in some places. Its average depth is 16,000 feet.

The tree has a straight trunk that tapers as it nears the top. It is taller than the Statue of Liberty, which stands 305 feet tall, said Lydia Smith. She wrote a June 21, 2023 article for Live Science about the find.

It may be the second tallest known tree in the world. The tallest one discovered so far is a 381-foot tall coastal redwood in California's Redwood National Park. Its nickname is Hyperion. The redwood was discovered in 2006. Though people used to be able to follow established trails to see Hyperion, it is now off limits to visitors. That's because tourists kept veering off the established trails to get closer to it. As a result, the delicate forest eco system was damaged.

It's hard to imagine how anyone could measure the height of a 335-foot tall tree. Lydia Smith explained the process in her Live Science article. The research team from Peking University used drones, a 3D laser scanner and lidar technology to get the job done. Lidar technology uses light beams to provide accurate dimensions. When they combined all that information, they confirmed that the cypress is the tallest tree so far discovered in Asia.

The tree has supporting roots that are not completely buried underground, according to Guo Quinhua, a professor at Peking University's Institute of Remote Sensing. He said the tree's complex branching system helps endangered plants and animals by providing ideal microclimates and habitats for them.

I took my dog for a walk in the neighborhood late this afternoon. It was a short walk, because dark clouds around us looked like rain, and thunder shook the air.

Wind blew tree branches around, though not hard enough to break them. We headed home when I felt occasional raindrops touch my arms and face. By the time we got back home, the wind was whipping tree branches harder.

Now, as I sit at my computer writing this blog, my dog just ran in from outside. Her back is wet, and raindrops are spattering my window. I am glad we shortened our walk, which will be longer on a day with better weather.

As I watched tree branches blowing in the wind, I thought about Peter Wohlleben, who wrote the amazing book, The Hidden Life of Trees. In the bestseller, he wrote about how wonderful trees are, how much more incredible they are than many people realize. He said if we are going to save the world's forests, we must recognize how impressive trees are. They have an innate ability to adapt, they are intelligent, and they communicate with other trees and help them heal.

While a student in forestry school, he learned that trees were just an economic commodity. That's what he believed until he joined a German forestry agency and managed a community forest. He began to understand how incredible trees are, and he no longer agreed with what he had been taught in school about clear-cutting, chemical use and mechanical harvesting. Those methods focused on short-term profits but took no thought for sustainability. He believed there were tree-friendly ways to manage forests so that trees could thrive.

When a local mayor hired Wohlleben to manage that same community forest in an eco-friendly way, he demonstrated how it could be done well and profitably. He did not use insecticides or heavy machinery. Trees that needed to be harvested were taken down by hand, and horses hauled the trees out.

He gave people the opportunity to participate in a living gravestone project. They could pay to have their ashes interred at the base of an ancient tree. They paid the commercial value of the tree for the privilege of having their ashes placed there.

As I watched the wind blow through tree branches and the rain make designs on my window, I thought about how much better my front and back yards are to have trees in them. Not only are they beautiful, but they make me feel calmer when I'm around them. Peter Wohlleben said that trees communicate with other trees and help them heal. Sometimes I think that, in their own way, trees also communicate peace and calmness to us and help us heal.

If you want to have a better mental outlook, take a walk among trees. Or, better yet, plant a few in your yard.

Dan Lambe, CEO of the Arbor Day Foundation, which educates people about trees, said that scientific studies in the United States and around the world document the importance of trees.

In an article he wrote for Treehugger, Lambe said a study in Germany concluded that people who live within 100 meters, or 328 feet, of a tree could reduce their need for antidepressant drugs. A study in Denmark showed that children who lived near lots of green space were less likely to develop psychiatric disorders later than children who lived in areas with little green space.

If you feel sad or depressed, take a walk in a wooded area. Being surrounded by trees can help to lift your mood. Trees are important for our mental health.

May is a good time to focus on the importance of mental health, because May is National Mental Health Month. It was established in 1949 to help people be more aware of how important mental health and wellness is to us. It is also a time to celebrate recovery from mental illness.

Many people silently struggle with mental health issues. Counselors, psychotherapists, and psychiatrists offer wonderful help for people who deal with mental health problems. But another, and perhaps less thought about, therapy is spending time among trees.

Stand or sit near a tree or walk on a pathway through a lot of trees. Focus on the trees. Try to describe how they look. Notice what kinds of birds are in the trees. Do you see squirrels scampering among the branches? Touch the bark of different trees. Some feel smooth, while others are rough or scaly.

After you have walked among the trees for a while, notice if you feel any different. Has your mood lifted, even a little bit? Make time in your daily schedule to spend time around trees. Even ten minutes will help. After a few weeks, you may discover that you feel less stressed, a little happier, more optimistic.

Trees are nice to have around, but they are more than that. They are essential for our health.

This week a friend showed me an app that identifies trees, birds, weeds, insects and several other things, among them allergen identification, tree ring identity, and plants that are toxic to pets.

What a find! It's called Picture This, and I have never been so excited about an app. Many times, I have seen a tree that I couldn't identify. With this app, I take a picture of the tree, and in a few seconds it identifies it.

Just this afternoon, I took a picture of a tree in my front yard that I have been calling a spruce. Now I know it is a white spruce, or Picea Glauca. A lovely spreading tree in my neighbor's yard across the street has always intrigued me. I had no idea what it was until I took a picture of it with my new Picture This app. It is a white mulberry, or Morusalba.

My next door neighbor has a beautiful tree that I have always enjoyed seeing. Now I know it is called an oriental arborvitae, or Platycladus Orientalis.

I am grateful that my friend, a ping pong buddy, told me about this amazing app. We were playing ping pong at a local church Tuesday morning because the city recreation center where we usually play was being painted. During a short break, I looked outside one of the glass side doors and saw a bush I did not recognize. I asked my friend if he knew what it was.

He didn't, but he said he could find out. He opened the Picture This app on his cell phone and snapped a photo of the bush. In just a second or two the app identified the bush as a weeping forsythia. I was hooked! I downloaded the app, which has a seven-day free trial. The annual charge is $29.99, and it is worth every penny to me.

I am ecstatic! If I could turn cartwheels, I would be turning them in glorious glee. I have only run across one tree that the app couldn't identify. It is an unusual looking tree that grows in my next door neighbor's yard. When I took a picture of the tall, gracefully shaped tree, the app told me the connection was not good enough to identify it. I may take a picture of the tree again sometime tomorrow to see if the app can identify it then.

Now I have an easy-to-use tool in the palm of my hand that identifies trees for me. I am giddy with delight! I am totally mesmerized by an app that one or more people developed to do what I have been wanting for so long!! Many thanks to those creative, innovative people who have come up with the perfect product for me.

By the last week in April, the weather finally warmed enough here in the northwest corner of New Mexico that there was little chance of frost. So a couple of days ago, I planted my garden space in a corner of my back yard. It's big enough for a variety of vegetables but not so big that it's too hard to weed.

I love spending time in the garden, because I am so focused on digging a space for each starter plant or seed that I don't think about anything else. After I dig a hole, I add a little soil enhancer and some water. Then I carefully plant the vegetable or seed and cover it up before adding more water.

I have tomatoes, sweet red peppers, sweet peas, green beans, basil, cilantro, cucumbers, curly kale, romaine lettuce, a green lettuce whose name I can't remember, butternut squash, and cantaloupe growing in my garden. I have also planted some marigolds, because they help to repel squash bugs. I will add russet potatoes in about a week.

There will be weeding, watering, and waiting for the plants to mature so I can savor their taste. I look forward to the wonderful tossed salads I can make with vegetables from my own little garden. I can hardly wait to sample the butternut squash and cantaloupe! When the sweet peas and green beans are ready to pick, I sometimes pop them in my mouth and relish their delightful taste.

A lilac bush in the corner of the garden added color to my garden planting efforts. Its purple blossoms had just opened. Lilacs are beautiful for such a short time that I felt fortunate to have their fragrant scent surround me. It helped to make the gardening experience even more enjoyable.

While I was planting my garden, I also had time to notice the two spruce trees in my yard and the elm tree in my neighbor's yard. New leaves are sprouting on the elm, and lots of pine cones have fallen around the spruce trees. I don't take as much time to notice those trees when I'm not working in my garden.

If you get a chance to plant your own garden this spring, I hope you have a wonderful time doing it. There is something invigorating about being outside and working with the soil. And there is the anticipation of watching your garden grow until the delicious vegetables are big enough to pick and eat!

Where I live in northwest New Mexico, I don't see southern live oak trees. They grow in southern states and have their own special look. Their trunks lounge along the ground, then lift into the air, creating a maze of designs. Some are draped with moss.

Thanks to the April/May 2023 issue of Smithsonian Magazine, I learned some interesting things about these trees whose artistic limbs beckon children to climb them.

According to the article written by Shannon Sims, the southern live oaks are very strong. When hurricanes uproot some trees, people have safely ridden out the storms by clinging to oak limbs. The trees' deep roots hold fast to the ground.

Not only are the trees strong, but they can live a very long time. Some of them are more than a thousand years old. They are also a food source. The trees' acorns have been ground into meal as far back as during pre-Columbian America.

The U.S. Navy has used southern live oaks to build ship hulls because the wood is so sturdy. Way back in 1797, the Navy launched the USS Constitution. It's still afloat today. During the War of 1812, it earned the nickname "Old Ironsides" because its hull withstood attacks from British cannons.

The trees are especially good at absorbing carbon, which helps to combat climate change. The more carbon that trees can absorb, the less stays in the atmosphere. That helps to keep the earth from warming quite so fast.

The Louisiana Garden Club Federation has an organization called the Live Oak Society. There is only one human member. Her name is Coleen Perilloux Landry. She helps to protect the trees from being cut down when just a trim would be enough to satisfy the needs of, for example, utility companies. The president of the society is a 1,200-year-old oak with a trunk more than ten feet around.

You can see southern live oaks in other states too, among them Virginia, Texas, Arizona and South Carolina. One of the most famous live oaks is called Angel Oak. It's on Johns Island in South Carolina and is estimated to be more than 400 years old.

Southern live oaks provide shelter for many interesting woodland creatures. Two of them are the barking tree frog and the ferruginous pygmy owl. The owls like to build nests in holes that woodpeckers left in the trees. Barking tree frogs have fingers and toes that create a lot of suction, so they can jump around in the trees like acrobats.

Arbor Day is approaching. It's a day in which the Arbor Day Foundation encourages people to plant, nurture and celebrate trees. Arbor Day Foundation CEO Dan Lambe points out many positive aspects of trees.

Trees help to transform the communities in which they grow. Many people say they feel calmer and happier around trees.

"Trees are the most scalable and cost-effective tool in the fight against climate change," Lambe said in an article he wrote for Treehugger News on March 23. "Trees clean the air and vacuum up carbon. They foster biodiversity and support critical habitats."

Many animals and insects call trees home. Among them are lemurs, butterflies, bats, bears, frogs, birds and squirrels.

Trees help to make neighborhoods cooler and more comfortable in warm weather. That means people don't have to spend quite as much money keeping their homes cool in the summer.

Trees also help to improve many people's blood pressure. Their mental health improves and their creativity blossoms when they're around trees.

If trees grow near streams, rivers and irrigation ditches, they help to clean and filter the water. They play so many important roles in helping us to be healthier and happier.

In many parts of the United States, Arbor Day is celebrated the last Friday of April. However, some states schedule Arbor Day at a time that better coincides with local planting times. For example, in Hawaii it's celebrated on the first Friday in November. Alaska celebrates it the third Monday in May. In New Mexico, Arbor Day is the second Friday in March. To find out when Arbor Day is in your state, visit https://www.almanac.com/content/arbor-day-history-facts-date/.

Lambe says the Arbor Day Foundation is the largest nonprofit membership organization dedicated to planting trees. Arbor Day is a great day for anyone who cares about trees to plant, nurture and celebrate them. After all, they do so much to help us.

An interesting national historical park on the Big Island of Hawaii is one that's not easy to pronounce. I found it to be a place so relaxing that it makes you want to stay longer.

Pu'uhonua o Honaunau National Historical Park provides a sense of peace, calm, and comfort to residents and park visitors. Historically, it was a place of refuge for ancient Hawaiians who had broken a sacred law, found themselves on the losing side of a war, or were in other extraordinary circumstances, all of which required a death sentence.

They could get a second chance at life if they made it to the place of refuge before they were caught – and if the kahuna pule, the Hawaiian priest, absolved them. Some people managed to reach the site. Others didn't, and they paid with their lives. Those who reached the place of refuge couldn't just walk away and resume their old behaviors. They had to examine their lives, decide how they were going to change their ways, and demonstrate that they truly had turned over a new leaf.

There used to be several places of refuge in Hawaii, but they are all gone now except for the one at Pu'uhonua o Honaunau National Historical Park. It is located off of Highway 160 on the South Kona Coast along the lava flats at the edge of the Pacific Ocean.

There are many trees, including palms, in the national historical park. One of the trees we saw was a hala tree, which grew out of lava. Its durable hala leaves were plaited into canoe sails, mats and baskets. The leaves also were used for thatching roofs. It produced large fruit, which was eaten fresh. Parts of the fruit were sometimes made into small brushes for decorating barkcloth with plant dyes.

A volunteer at the park gave a talk in the auditorium about what the place of refuge means to her and her people. She said it gave people a chance to reevaluate their lives, to make better choices, to dedicate themselves to a healthy purpose. At the end of her talk, she used her beautiful contralto voice to sing a song in Hawaiian about the place of refuge. Though I couldn't understand the words, it was clear that the song held deep meaning for her.

When I think about Pu'uhonua o Honaunau National Historical Park, I remember its peacefulness, its calming effect. If I ever get a chance to return to the Big Island of Hawaii, I would like to spend more time there, soaking in the healing atmosphere of the place and of its trees.

To learn more about the park, visit this website: Puʻuhonua o Hōnaunau National Historical Park (U.S. National Park Service) (nps.gov).