Have we lost our connection with trees?

[redflex]

Just thinking about my studies,

So my thought was are the Philippines kids really poorer and less educated than UK kids?

In the UK the schools I visited the kids think the woods our for walking and for animals to live. Yet few only have visit them more than a couples of times a year.

Yet in the Philippines the kids see the forest as a source of fruit, meat, shelter charcoal etc. The kids play in the forest catching snakes, climbing trees and making things out of bamboo with very sharpe knives.

What others think?

 

[nameless]

Nail on the head, in the western world most of us have lost our connection with the world. We are always making ourselves independant knowangly or unknowangly, ie in our world we control every little detail right from what temputure we sit at to what food we want to eat almost like were in a bubble. From were i stand i think we see ourselves as kings of the world when really we are just pawns. I'm sure more people will expand on the point i'm trying to make, hope you get it.

Cheers
Scott

 

[wolf]

we are supposed to take care of the earth,not just take

 

[Fallow Way]

I used to dabble in philosophy, I once wrote and was offered a publishing opportunity based on an article basically explaining nature in the context of reality, ie it is reality/truth and we are sorely and irrevocable lessened by our greater distance from it.

What interests me most is something I have found time and time again. My experience of living/working in woodlands is not as lengthy as some, and my academic knowldege is not as indepth as a great many.....but i rarely come across poeple who just feel at home and comfortable there or who have greater appreciation for just what it is. I take the view, you may not know what `salix alba` means and its distribution and whether it is monoecious, adromonecious, gynomonecious or dioecious, but if you know 10 things you can do with it and call it the `spear-leafed tree` you are better off.

 

[British Red]

I couldn't agree more, that lack of knowledge of what a variety of trees are, and what they are useful for, is a sad thing. I guess the subject simply lacks relevance for a lot of people now - what wood burns well and gives heat, what wood makes good furniture, what wood is fine grained etc.

I guess the modern equivalent is "Ikea furniture is made of chipboard..."

I still love knowing though.....saw this fantastic display from a spindle tree this week - hope it cheers you up

 

[RovingArcher]

When only developers and mega corporations enter the woods, who will speak for the trees? When the trees are all gone, who will speak for us?

 

[redflex]

"In the Philippines 27 million poeple live below the poverty line,

of them 20 million rely on the forest for food, shelter or income" FAO of the UN ( http://www.fao.org/forestry/index.jsp )

Yet on my forestry course we are taught the must important threats to woodland and forestry is the lose of the dormouse habitat and the decline of coppice.

 

[pierre girard]

I take the view, you may not know what `salix alba` means and its distribution and whether it is monoecious, adromonecious, gynomonecious or dioecious, but if you know 10 things you can do with it and call it the `spear-leafed tree` you are better off.

All my life I, and everyone else I know, have been using a particular ground plant as "toilet paper." Last year someone told me the name (which I've forgotten - mellon or melton - something like that). We've just always called them "toilet paper leaves" - and we've used them plenty.

PG

 

[nameless]

Tom Brown jr said that people nowadays just want to know the name of a plant and then they move on without really knowing anything about it but its name. Sad eh? I wont pretend to know alot about trees and plants but since with time restrainets etc i am at the mo a bushcrft camper.

I learn by experimenting, Last time i was camping i kept on using any old wood until it was pointed out to me theat i should use this wood instead of the other, in theory i knew that but it had'nt occured to me to do it but from now on i know that the wood which is sticky is easy to light and (scotts pine) and the other slighty harder wood will keep it going, Did i make my point?

Cheers
Scott

 

[BorderReiver]

we are supposed to take care of the earth,not just take

BUT if you take,you must also take care of the resource so that it is available when you need it.

As we no longer use the woods (on the whole),no one notices when they are grubbed up and "developed".Or when they overgrow and start to decay due to neglect.

To get back to the thread,our children know very little about our natural world.

Some inner city children don't know that milk comes from cows;some even think that you can take meat from an animal without killing it!

 

[nameless]

Yeah but they got urban survival skills! Like a member of my family in the 4 years shes left home she hasn't had to cook A xmas dinner or st. stephens day! Sorry for getting of the thread, Are we losing perspective does being in the devolped world make use "richer" than the devopling or rapidly devolping world? i think not i'd throw most things in for a natural way of life....... if theres a pub round the lake!!

Cheers
Scott

 

[philaw]

I agree that it's sad how we've dislocated ourselves from our environment, and British kids not knowing where bread and milk come from is a whole new level of ignorance that we should all try to remedy. The problem is that Britain is just soooooo urbanised that most teachers and parents don't feel completely comfortable in the countryside, and certainly couldn't point out useful plants to their kids. Getting the knowledge back is going to be a very slow process.

I think everybody would benefit from having at least some kind of relationship with their environment, but it's worth remembering that it's not a case of closer to nature equals happier. My new year weekend was spent camping on the beach, and during the trip I came across plenty of very poor people that are very much in touch with their environment: farmers and fisherman that make their living from nature, and [could] make most of what they need using natural materials. They didn't seem to be any happier for it, because they were doing it out of necessity not choice. My experience of Britain and China has been that whilst British people live in the cities and romanticise about the countryside's beauty and tranquility, Chinese people live in the countryside and romanticise about the modernity and high standard of living in the city.

Just some thoughts.

 

[nameless]

A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush!

I suppose its catch 22 :sadwavey: