Comments on: Planting trees

By: stonehead

stonehead — Sat, 30 Dec 2006 21:32:02 +0000

I should have added a third reason, but my brain isn’t working today. A traditional coppice would have had oaks as standards (side-pruned) over ash, hazel and the like. The ash and hazel would be cropped on 10-20 year cycles with the oak felled at 130-150 years/

That fits nicely with seventh generation thinking, too.

By: hedgewizard

hedgewizard — Sat, 30 Dec 2006 20:34:26 +0000

Amen to that - just wondered why seven generations in particularly. It seems that Society has difficulty looking ahead even twenty years. Hoorah for planting trees.

By: stonehead

stonehead — Sat, 30 Dec 2006 18:30:23 +0000

Two main reasons.

In the first, it draws on the Gayaneshakgowa, the Great Law of Peace of the Hau de no sau nee, the Six Nations Iroquois Confederacy. The Gayaneshakgowa says that “in our every deliberation we must consider the impact of our decisions on the next seven generations”.

It’s about realising that we as present-day individuals are ephemeral in the greater order of things and so we have a responsibility to consider how what we do now will affect things for those generations to come.

It’s also about realising that we are only temporarily entrusted with the environment about us and if we allow ourselves to be selfish, greedy and self-indulgent in our exploitation of nature, then we will bring harm on those who follow.

My second reason is that I’m a keen family historian. If I look back at each generation, I can see how they built the future for me. They may or may not have fully considered their actions at the time, but I still feel that I owe it to those who’ve gone before to consider my own actions as a way of building the future for those who come after me.

It works for me.

By: Mel

Mel — Sat, 30 Dec 2006 16:55:07 +0000

Even if your kids aren’t living there when the trees mature, somebody will, and with luck they’ll appreciate your thinking ahead and resolve to do the same themselves.

I’d like to say a big thank you to whoever planted the cherry and damson trees in our garden. I had the last frozen cherry pie the other day and it was a delicious taste of summer.

By: hedgewizard

hedgewizard — Sat, 30 Dec 2006 16:41:18 +0000

Seven generations? Why seven?

By: stonehead

stonehead — Sat, 30 Dec 2006 14:48:47 +0000

We should try to guide our actions now based on how the effects of those actions will impact on the following seven generations (about 150 years).

The oaks should be standing tall by then, nature and man permitting!

By: hedgewizard

hedgewizard — Sat, 30 Dec 2006 12:03:17 +0000

That’s great to see - thinking that far ahead. Drowsing (briefly) in bed with OH this morning we were appreciating a 200-year-old holme oak in a neighbouring property and reflecting that people don’t plant for the future any more because there isn’t a realistic expectation that their kids will live in the same place. It’s nice to see some of us are trying to buck the trend.