My favourite quotes.

The trees are God's great alphabet:
With them He writes in shining green
Across the world His thoughts serene.
~Leonora Speyer

God has cared for these trees, saved them from drought, disease, avalanches, and a thousand tempests and floods.  But he cannot save them from fools.  ~John Muir


If trees could scream, would we be so cavalier about cutting them down?  We might, if they screamed all the time, for no good reason.  ~Jack Handey


The groves were God's first temples.  ~William Cullen Bryant, "A Forest Hymn"

For in the true nature of things, if we rightly consider, every green tree is far more glorious than if it were made of gold and silver.  ~Martin Luther

The best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago.  The next best time is now. 
The true meaning of life is to plant trees, under whose shade you do not expect to sit.  ~Nelson Henderson

As the poet said, "only God can make a tree" - probably because it's so hard to figure out how to get the bark on.  ~Woody Allen


I think that I shall never see
A poem lovely as a tree.
A tree whose hungry mouth is prest
Against the earth's sweet flowing breast;
A tree that looks at God all day
And lifts her leafy arms to pray;
A tree that may in Summer wear
A nest of robins in her hair;
Upon whose bosom snow has lain;
Who intimately lives with rain.
Poems are made by fools like me,
But only God can make a tree.
~Joyce Kilmer, "Trees," 1914

On what land do you plant trees?

Planting is done only in protected areas like private lands, schools, colleges, factories
and residential areas.

Advantages of tree.

1. Trees prevent or reduce soil erosion and water pollution. Help recharge ground
water and sustain stream flow. In Tsunami affected areas, green belts create the
following condition in near by villages:
• Reduce seawater incursion.
• Recharge the under water table.
• Prevent soil erosion at times of floods and heavy rain.
• Act as a wind barrier at times of cyclones.
• Act as a medium of energy absorption and reduce the impact / eliminate at
times of disasters like Tsunami.
• Act as an air conditioner of hot air blowing during hot summers.
• Regenerate the lost flora and fauna
2. Trees planted as windbreaks around homes can be shields against wind.
Windbreaks create a more favorable micro-climate for cropland by reducing wind and
heat stress on the crop, while at the same time preventing topsoil loss and reducing
soil moisture losses.
3. In today’s polluted environment, trees act as carbon sinks and thus alleviating the
"Greenhouse Effect".
Planting 100 million trees could reduce the amount of carbon by an estimated 18
million tons per year. 1 acre of new forest will sequester about 2.5 tons of carbon
annually. Trees can absorb CO2 at the rate of 13 pounds/tree/year. Trees reach their
most productive stage of carbon storage at about 10 years. For every ton of new wood
that grows, about 1.5 tons of CO2 are removed from the air and 1.07 tons of lifegiving
oxygen are produced.
4. Trees add beauty and grace to any community setting. They make life more
enjoyable, peaceful, relaxing, and offer a rich inheritance for future generations
5. Trees also provide food and sustenance not only for the human race but for the
entire eco-system.
6. Finally, many people enjoy planting and caring for trees simply because they like to
see them grow.

Tree planting procedure.

1. The planting location should be at least 6 feet away from the edge of the
Road/Fence/Compound wall. Multiple row plating is preferable. The space
between each row is 4’. The adjacent row planting location will be Zigzag
with respect to the previous or succeeding row.
2. The tree should not be placed below an electric line.
3. The location of the pit should not be where water logging takes place.
4. The tree should be planted either in protected area or in a place which is easy
reachable for people to water and protect.
5. Watering and replanting should be scheduled and suitably monitored.
6. A minimum gap of 7 feet and maximum gap of 9 feet to be maintained
between trees.
7. The seedling should not be planted in the shade of another grown tree.
Methodology of tree planting:
1. Pit preparation:
• For red soil and clay soil, the dimensions of the pit are 2’x2’x2’
• For sandy soil or loose soil the dimensions are 1.5’x1.5’x1.5’.
• The dug out pit should be refilled with a mixture of compost and dug out top
soil.
• The compost should be evenly mixed with the soil.
• Green bio mass (leaves) or non-composted material should not be put into the
pit.
2. Planting:
• The plastic cover should be removed carefully using blade or knife such that
the clump of soil is not broken. This decides or ensures 70% survival of the
plant.
• If roots are grown out of the packet, it needs to be carefully cut before
planting.
• The entire soil clump, holding the plant should be place below ground level.
• After closing the pit, do not compress or harden the pit by stamping on it or by
other means.
• Create a basin around the pit for better watering.
• Mulch the tree seedling after plantation with bio mass (leaves or dried plant material )

Why invest in our plantations ?

 Although many of us have interest in managing our own plantation of Sandalwood to get a lucrative income the limitations we face prevent us from doing so.  Major limitations are the land, technology and time. We have found most of our investors are living in urban areas where you hardly find enough space for cultivation. Even if you live in a rural area where space is in abundance, you will find that continuous attention is needed in Sandalwood cultivation than in many other plantations to get good results. This is because sandalwood is a semi-root parasitic tree and requires host plants (can parasitize over 300 species including itself) for its nitrogen (N) , phosphorous (P) and potassium (K) and other requirements. They send their roots to other plants and make root nodes to suck nutrients. Sandalwood is light-demanding plant and can be easily suppressed by faster-growing host species. As such in addition to managing the main plant we have to look after the management of the host plant cultivation too.
We in our Sandalwood project take much care and attention in feeding, pest and decease controlling, irrigating and protecting our Sandalwood and host plants. We maintain several buffer stocks in different locations to supply additional trees in case of a damage to the trees by man made or natural disaster like cyclone or bush fire.

Why Plant Trees In Irrigation Areas?

There are a number of benefits that can come from planting trees. Some of these relate specifically to irrigation. Others are more general, but apply to irrigation areas as much as they do to dryland areas.

Reducing and intercepting groundwater recharge

While all irrigated soils are subject to recharge (i.e. water filtering through the soil profile to add to groundwater), specific sites have potentially much greater recharge capabilities. These areas include:
Distinctive landforms
These landforms can be recognised on a regional or farm level and are identified below:
(i) Prior stream formations - soils of these formations are usually of a high permeability with a high recharge potential. They usually have species such as yellow box (Eucalyptus melliodora) and Murray pine (Callitris columellaris) growing on them.
(ii) Ancestral rivers - these are localised depressions showing the course of ancient rivers. Because they are lower than the surrounding country and generally consist of coarse sediment they can be significant sites in terms of groundwater accessions.
(iii) Poorly drained areas and depressions - the size of these may vary greatly. They are especially significant to small farms and may be either localised recharge or discharge sites.
(iv) Specific high water table areas - areas where watertables are approaching the soil surface. Any watertable within 2 m of the soil surface is considered serious.
In these areas trees and associated natural vegetation often die when high watertables are present.
                                  
Man-made structures
Recharge is even more likely when irrigation structures such as channels or drains are associated with some of the landforms outlined above. This is especially the case when structures have been built on or adjacent to hill slopes, on the lighter textured soils of prior streams or over the courses of ancestral rivers.
It has been estimated that 5% of all water diverted for irrigation purposes in NSW is lost as seepage. It is also estimated that 25% of all groundwater accessions can be attributed to seepage from irrigation structures
Another problem arising from both district and farm irrigation structures can be the obstruction of natural flows of water in an area. This can lead to areas that were previously quite well-drained becoming waterlogged, eventually leading to shallow groundwater levels. The problem also extends to roads and other man-made structures.
All of these areas, both natural and man-made, provide potential sites for the use of trees to intercept underground flows of water.
Targeting specific channel seepage or poorly drained sites for tree planting will have greater benefits in minimising groundwater recharge than planting for general groundwater control.

Lowering of watertables

Tree plantations established in the right place can act as groundwater pumps, lowering the watertable directly below them and in the surrounding area. The size of the area that they draw water from is largely determined by the permeability of the soil .

Re-using drainage water

Instead of letting excess water leave the farm as drainage or by seeping through the soil profile to the watertable, it can be used to irrigate a tree plantation grown for timber or fodder production. Trees can use substantial amounts of water, up to 300 litres/tree/day.
This does not necessarily mean that 300 litres of water should be applied to every tree each day. The actual amount of water that each tree uses depends on climatic conditions, their stage of growth and their species.
If drainage outfalls cannot handle extreme cases of excess drainage (e.g. extended periods of heavy rainfall, or a thunderstorm immediately after watering), it may be possible to divert this water to a tree plantation as a temporary measure.
This at least provides an opportunity for the trees, with deeper roots, to use more of the water and may help to reduce groundwater accessions. If this is to work, on-farm surface drainage has to be well-planned and flexible.
Using drainage water to irrigate tree plantings is becoming common practice in the Sunraysia area of north-western Victoria.

Rehabilitating saline ground

When areas are already badly degraded, trees and other vegetation can be used in conjunction with other techniques to slowly return them to productive use, although probably not to the previous enterprise.
Examples of these techniques are surface and sub-surface drainage (including groundwater pumping) and fencing off affected areas to stop further damage.
This t

Providing shade and shelter

By using windbreaks designed to reduce stock, pasture and crop stress, productivity can be improved. Protecting animals and plants from the weather lets them devote more of their energy to production rather than to just staying alive. The more intensive the enterprise the more noticeable this is.
To achieve these gains, a minimum of 5% of the farm area should be under strategically designed windbreaks (Kent, 1984).

Producing extra fodder

Tree fodder crops can be grown that will provide nutritional benefit to livestock. Examples of this are saltbush, tree lucerne, allocasuarina, the casuarinas and some species of acacias.

Improving the environment

By planting local species, some of the natural character of the landscape is retained. This helps to maintain the level of diversity of wildlife in an area. One of the benefits that may result from doing this is the preservation of viable populations of insect-eating birds to protect crops and pastures.
Natural vegetation areas can be more effective if they are linked, using corridors of trees of suitable width. These provide pathways for wildlife to follow.It may not always be possible to use native trees. Where watertables are saline and are close to the surface, some species will not survive.

Providing extra income

Planting fast growing species for timber production can be another source of income. Choosing species that are already known to the market and have a wide variety of uses make it easier to market the product when it is mature. Possible uses include firewood, sawn-wood, and fence posts.
Some species can also be grown for their non-wood value. Examples of non-wood products are eucalyptus and melaleuca oil, charcoal, honey and native flowers. At times when the returns from other enterprises are down, a tree crop could provide a much needed cash return. If this is not the case, the trees can be left growing until they are needed or when prices are high. The timing of the harvest can be very flexible.
To make sure that there is a regular source of income from the plantation, the trees should be planted and harvested on a rotational basis, particularly if they are being grown for wood products. This would provide a number of plantations at different stages of growth.

Increasing property and aesthetic values

Trees can improve a property's appearance, making it more attractive to a potential purchaser. Trees improve the working environment, and generally make the property more pleasant to live on.

Summary

Trees can be used in a number of ways. These range from lifting productivity by improving the quality of the environment to providing a direct cash return from the sale of tree products.
Uses of trees in irrigation areas include reducing the amount of water seeping through to the watertable and lowering already high watertables in specific localised areas.
Tree planting is not the only solution for high watertable and salinity management. To be effective, tree planting needs to be used in conjunction with improved soil, water and crop management.

 

The Benefits of tree planting in Irrigation areas.

Trees were once seen as a hindrance to agricultural production and development, particularly in intensive irrigation areas. It was felt that they occupied productive land, competed with crops and pastures for moisture, as well as making machinery operation more difficult.
This has resulted in the clearing of most of the areas of native forest in farming areas in Australia.
The deeper root zone of the natural vegetation meant that more water was available to and used by the roots of trees and shrubs and less seeped through to the watertable. Replacing trees with shallower rooted pastures and crops has led to an imbalance in the amount of water entering the soil and the amount leaving it through evapotranspiration.
This has meant that watertable levels have risen substantially over the years. Salinisation and waterlogging of productive areas has often followed.
Irrigation has been introduced to large areas of southern NSW . This has made the groundwater problem even worse, as more water is added to the watertable through poor irrigation management and a lack of adequate drainage in many areas.
Well planned tree planting is now widely recognised as a partial means of restoring an environmental balance, especially when used along with other land management techniques.
This document, the first in a series of three about tree planting in irrigation areas, aims to show the importance of planting trees in irrigation areas, and will outline the benefits that can result from this.
It should be emphasised that tree planting, particularly for high watertable and salinity management, cannot be viewed in isolation. To be effective, tree planting needs to be used in conjunction with other management practices, including improved soil, water and crop management.

Tree planting.

Tree planting is the process of transplanting tree seedlings, generally for forestry, land reclamation, or landscaping purposes. It differs from the transplantation of larger trees in arboriculture, and from the lower cost but slower and less reliable distribution of tree seeds.

In silviculture the activity is known as reforestation, or afforestation, depending on whether the area being planted has or has not recently been forested. It involves planting seedlings over an area of land where the forest has been harvested or damaged by fire or disease or insects. Tree planting is carried out in many different parts of the world, and strategies may differ widely across nations and regions and among individual reforestation companies. Tree planting is grounded in forest science, and if performed properly can result in the successful regeneration of a deforested area. Reforestation is the commercial logging industry's answer to the large-scale destruction of old growth forests, but a planted forest rarely replicates the biodiversity and complexity of a natural forest.
Because trees remove carbon dioxide from the air as they grow, tree planting can be used as a geoengineering technique to remove CO₂ from the atmosphere.

The importance of trees.

Trees are the largest and longest living organisms on earth. To grow tall the tree has become a miracle of engineering and a complex chemical factory. It is able to take water and salts out of the earth and lift them up to the leaves, sometimes over 400 ft above. By means of photosynthesis the leaves combine the water and salts with carbon dioxide from the air to produce the nutrients which feed the tree. In this process, as well as wood, trees create many chemicals, seeds and fruit of great utility to man. Trees also remove carbon dioxide, the main greenhouse gas, from the air.
Trees are of continued importance to the environment. Tropical rain forests have of particular significance; although they now occupy less than 6 per cent of the land surface of the earth they probable sustain more than half of the biological species on the planet.
Notwithstanding the debt we owe to trees, their emotive power, and their importance to other forms of life, the forested area of the earth is steadily being depleted. This is leading to the degradation of the environment and the extinction of many species. There is now a real danger that in the not very distant future man will destroy a large proportion of the present population of species on earth, create an uninhabitable environment, and then die out himself. If this happens it will not be the first time that a large proportion of the species on the earth have been extinguished.

Tree of life.

The concept of a tree of life as a many-branched tree illustrating the idea that all life on earth is related has been used in science, religion, philosophy, mythology, and other areas. A tree of life is variously;

1. a motif in various world theologies, mythologies, and philosophies;
2. a metaphor for the livelihood of the spirit.
3. a mystical concept alluding to the interconnectedness of all life on our planet; and
4. a metaphor for common descent in the evolutionary sense.

According to the Encyclopædia Britannica, the tree of knowledge, connecting to heaven and the underworld, and the tree of life, connecting all forms of creation, are both forms of the world tree or cosmic tree.^[1] According to some scholars, the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, portrayed in various religions and philosophies, are the same tree.^[2]

What is tree ?

A tree is a perennial woody plant. It is most often defined as a woody plant that has many secondary branches supported clear of the ground on a single main stem or trunk with clear apical dominance.^[1] A minimum height specification at maturity is cited by some authors, varying from 3 m^[2] to 6 m;^[3] some authors set a minimum of 10 cm trunk diameter (30 cm girth).^[4] Woody plants that do not meet these definitions by having multiple stems and/or small size are called shrubs. Compared with most other plants, trees are long-lived, some reaching several thousand years old and growing to up to 115 m (379 ft) high.^[5]
Trees are an important component of the natural landscape because of their prevention of erosion and the provision of a weather-sheltered ecosystem in and under their foliage. They also play an important role in producing oxygen and reducing carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, as well as moderating ground temperatures. They are also elements in landscaping and agriculture, both for their aesthetic appeal and their orchard crops (such as apples). Wood from trees is a building material, as well as a primary energy source in many developing countries. Trees also play a role in many of the world's mythologies