Happy Arbor Day: Please Quit Cutting Down Fucking Trees

Last fall, a neighbor in the back of my house cut down a 100-foot-tall tree in their yard. The process took a whole week; a 10-person crew with chainsaws, bucket trucks, and two flatbed trucks used to haul away the trunk. It was a big job.

I don’t know why my neighbor cut the tree, but I do know that they have been systematically removing large trees from their property for the past few years. So, it’s hard to think that they are all dying and needing removal.

By now, we’ve all heard about deforestation, but did you know that 12-15 hectares of forest are lost yearly, the equivalent of 36 football fields per minute? Forests cover about 30 percent of the world’s land area but could completely vanish in a hundred years at the current rate of deforestation.

The effects of deforestation are commonly documented: It’s terrible for the environment, it’s bad for the animals, and it drives climate change, to name a few.

Many people hear about deforestation and immediately think of the Amazon rainforests, with good reason.

• The Amazon Rainforest covers over a billion acres, encompassing Brazil, Venezuela, Colombia, and the Eastern Andean region of Ecuador and Peru. If Amazonia were a country, it would be the ninth largest in the world.

• Often described as the “Lungs of our Planet,” the Amazon Rainforest provides the essential environmental world service of continuously recycling carbon dioxide into oxygen. More than 20 percent of the world’s oxygen is produced in the Amazon Rainforest.

• Experts estimate that we lose 137 plant, animal, and insect species daily due to rainforest deforestation. That equates to 50,000 species a year.

When I think of deforestation, I think of my neighbors.

I remember back to when I bought my house. The backyard had two old-growth trees of its own and was also surrounded by trees so dense that you never saw any neighbors. These trees created a canopy that provided my yard with deep, dark, delicious shade for those hot summer days. And, most importantly, they provided homes for more animal species than I can name on two hands.

Standing under the canopy for the first time, looking up into the trees as I stood directly underneath them, I felt so connected. I watched squirrels run from tree branch to tree branch, woodpeckers picking the ants out of the bark, with nuthatches following closely behind. Red-tailed hawks sat majestically in the tree tops, comfortable in their position of power.

I watched life happening in those trees, and it was beautiful.

These days, there are only a few trees left surrounding my house.

The privacy I enjoyed from living amongst trees is gone. My neighbors’ back porches are now completely visible, along with their yards and windows. The shade garden I planted under the canopy of trees to encourage bird visitors now burns in the afternoon sun, slowly dying without the leaves’ protection. Dust and particulate matter from my neighbors’ overly used lawnmowers and weed trimmers now floats into my backyard. Noise, car fumes, and scents from heavily perfumed commercial laundry soap now permeate the yard.

But the protection the trees provided me is nothing compared to the protection they gave to the animals who lived among them. That protection is gone now as well.

With each tree removal comes a disturbance in this small backyard ecosystem.

The squirrels who use the same trails to run from tree to tree are now vulnerable to the ever-watchful eyes and talons of the red-tailed hawks. Birds who’ve nested in the trees must now move to a new, unfamiliar tree, leaving them also vulnerable to predators. And that’s if they find a suitable tree in the same area. Some don’t. Some can’t. Spotted owls, for instance, need old-growth forests to survive. Not to mention what losing trees has done to the animals who feasted on the insects in, on, and under them.

Also importantly, although I can’t tell, I know there’s less oxygen out there, too.

Knowing this breaks my heart.

Today is Arbor Day, a holiday devoted to encouraging people to plant and care for trees. It originated in Nebraska on April 10, 1872, but many countries now observe a similar holiday.

Arbor Day is a lot like Earth Day, a holiday to celebrate something we should be doing anyway.

Every day, every single one should be Earth Day.

Every day, every single one, we should be protecting the trees in our neighborhoods, our forests, and our planet. We need them, the world needs them, and the animals who depend on them for their existence need them.

Happy Arbor Day, please plant a fucking tree.