Youth or Cash?
Question: if you were offered the option of receiving $10,000 or to be 7 years younger, which would you choose?
I don’t need to know your answer. But the proposition is real. A 2015 Ontario Health study of 31,000 Torontonians matched data to a massive database of more than 500,000 urban trees. The results showed that the addition of 10 trees on a given city block were associated with a health boost equivalent to increasing income by $10,000 or being seven years younger.
I will take the years. With four grand children and a new one on the way, God willing, I could use them.
Here are my 10 trees. Take them, plant them and, for generations, please enjoy them.
Perhaps this is what was meant by the old saying, “plant a tree, not for yourself but for your grandchildren,” or words to that effect.
World Planting Day.
On March 20th, we experience the vernal or spring equinox. At about 5 a.m., the Earth’s equator is directly in line with the geometric centre of the sun. Each day that passes after the 20th is a bit longer here in Canada. The sun a bit stronger (though, not necessarily warmer).
The equinox is not something that we can change. I like that about it. We tend to botch up a lot of the stuff we can control, but this one is out of our hands.
The following day, March 21st, is World Planting Day. Link. On this day, we celebrate the act of planting. Think about what that means to you and, if you live in the deep freeze of, say, Winnipeg, it might mean that you can plan on planting outdoors someday, just not for a while.
That same day is International Day of Forests, link, by UN proclamation 2012. We acknowledge that over 13 million hectares (32 million acres) of forests are lost each year. That is about the size of England. And yes, the trees are lost “at the hand of man”. Nature has nothing much to do with it. Also, at the hand of man, we attempt to replace many of those trees here on the Highway of Heroes. It will take a gargantuan effort to replace them all, but we are working on it (more to come on that subject in a future newsletter).
Combined, it seems to me, these celebrations on the same day amount to an excuse to plant more trees.
Here at the Highway of Heroes Tree Campaign, we will be doing just that. Well, we may not be planting on that very day, but we will be planning on planting in the next couple of months; trees in numbers that impress even me. Currently, we have procured over 800,000 trees to plant on the highway right of way, with our partners at the Ministry of Transportation, and off the highway, with our partners at Forests Ontario.
It is an aggressive plan, and one that can be implemented only with dedication on the part of our board and staff, and the generosity of people like you. Canadians who have stepped to the plate of the planting and given your hard-earned cash.
We are mindful of the great need that surrounds us during the pandemic. Our news is full of it every day. Mental illness, addiction, domestic violence, and homelessness are on the rise: the list is long. You have options for your philanthropic dollars. We are grateful.
When you give to plant trees on the Highway of Heroes, you not only support our Canadian troops and honour the memory of our war dead, you plant a better tomorrow.
Our grandchildren may not be able to hang a swing under a tree that is planted on the right of way of the 401 but, many thousands of trees are being planted off the highway within a short driving distance of the highway to honour those who volunteered for service during times of war. Perhaps, one day, your grandkids will lay a blanket under one of them and have a picnic.
If you are looking for reasons to support us, there are many.
And, perhaps, one of the most compelling of these is that future generations of Canadians will be richer and live longer. Who knows, maybe by 7 years.
