The tallest tree in the world, Hyperion, surpasses even famous landmarks like the Statue of Liberty and the Big Ben.
Standing at a staggering height of 115.55 m (379.1 ft), this giant redwood in Redwood National Park, California is as tall as a 35-story building.
Hyperion is estimated to be 700 to 800 years old and contain 530 m³ (18,600 cu ft) of wood.
Credit: Massimo (x)
YOU ARE NATURE
There is a reason why walking amongst nature is most people’s best advice when depression strikes.
Because walking in nature is a return to ‘home’.
You are not a lover of nature, or a fan of nature, you ARE nature.
You are as much nature as the trees in your garden and the bees on your picnic.
You were designed to live your days out in the wild with your fellow creatures and plants but progress, humanity, had different plans for us all.
And so we exist day-to-day, in our homes, but never ‘home’.
The quickest route back to self, to inner peace, is bare feet on grass, arms around trees, head in the clouds and heart in a forest.
Put your weary bones in water, whenever you can, smell each flower you see and crumble dirt between your tired-of-typing fingers.
You are nature, go home once in a while.
It will bring you much you didn’t even know you were missing.
🌿
Donna Ashworth
This poem is from my newest book ‘Wild Hope’ (currently on its 6th week in the Sunday Times Bestsellers list, thank you all so very kindly)
🇬🇧UK: https://amzn.eu/d/2j0Nquu
🇺🇸US: https://a.co/d/h6FEaTv
Art by Josephine Klerks, “Among Moss and Stars”
http://www.josephineklerks.com
Upgrader fb posts.
Going Green fb post.
✨ত✨ত✨ত✨ 𝓢𝔀𝓮𝓮𝓽 𝓓𝓻𝓮𝓪𝓶𝓼! ✨ত✨ত✨ত✨
Meet me at midnight in the forest of my dreams, we’ll make a fire and count the stars that shimmer above the trees.
✨ Christy Ann Martine
From ‘The Hobbit Hole at Arch Inn’ fb page.
You are comprised of:
84 minerals,
23 Elements,
and 8 gallons of water
Spread across 38 trillion cells.
You have been built up from nothing by the spare parts of the Earth you have consumed, according to a set of instructions hidden in a double helix and small enough to be carried by a sperm. You are recycled butterflies, plants, rocks, streams, firewood, wolf fur, and shark teeth, broken down to their smallest parts and rebuilt into our planet’s most complex living thing.
You are not living on Earth. You are Earth.
Celebrating you and our magnificent planet on Earth Day 2024.
Beautiful quote by Aubrey Marcus
Exquisite painting by Lobsang Melendez Ahuanari
The 22nd April is Yggdrasil Day
On this day we realize the great significance that the World Tree plays in our culture, heritage, and native spirituality. It is from the World Tree that we came, and it shelters and nurtures the Asatru today, and will offer refuge to the Folk come Ragnarok. Trees are the lungs as well as the soul of Midgard. Plant a tree today, nurture it, and protect it. In this act the Folk must abide.
Yggdrasil has always played an important role in the lifes of the Northern people of Europe. We have all came from nature and we will all return to it one day, so at this day we honour the forces of nature and we will always remember how important is to protect the world we live in, the trees are the lungs of our world just has it is Yggdrasil in the Nordic comology, it is the shelter that gives us peace and protection, it is the spiritual path of the Gods and of our ancestors, the way which leads to the other worlds, and so as nature gives us these gifts, in turn we must honor it, and because a gift calls for a gift, in turn we must give to nature our protection, our care and our respect. In this day you should plant a tree, you should become the protector of those who have given you shelter, fight against the evils that are corrupting our natural world.
Yggdrasil is the cosmic World tree, and Ash tree, that binds this world to the others, to the world of the gods, of the spirits and ancestors, it is the symbol of our union with nature.
Ash Tree – Fraxinus Excelsior also known as guardian tree in all of Europe, with the exception of the Mediterranean region, this tree can live as long as three hundred years, its leaves appear after its flowers and this strange detail led this tree to be know as the “Venus of the woods”. Its roots penetrate deeply into the ground causing difficulty to other kinds of vegetation to grow in there. Due to the hardness of its wood, it has been widely used for the manufacture of lances and tool handles. Thus it is possible that the name of this tree in English, derives from the Anglo-Saxon word Asec, which means “Ritual Spear.”
The Druids from the celtic culture once used the wood of these trees, to make their rods and staffs.
Traditionally the yule log (At the winter solstice) is of ash tree, this is because it is one of the few woods that can burn immediately, even though it is still green, and offers an excellent and long-lasting illumination.
The Icelandic word Aske, which has similarities with Ash, means “fire with large flame.” This tree is also sacred to the gods Thor and Odin.^
In Nordic mythology, it was an ash tree known as Yggdrasil, the cosmic tree that symbolizes the center of the world, that Odin hung for nine days and nine nights in trance, received the sacred knowledge of runes, the Elder Futhark.
IKEA is sourcing woods from some of Europe’s last old-growth forests
Popular products include the INGOLF chairs and SNIGLAR baby cribs
IKEA furniture is destroying some of Europe’s last remaining ancient forests, according to a Greenpeace investigation.
Furniture manufacturers for the Swedish brand are sourcing wood from some of Europe’s last old-growth forests in the Romanian Carpathians, including in protected areas, their report has found.
This area is home to the largest European populations of brown bears, wolves and lynxes, as well as more than a third of all European plant species, and has survived unchanged since the end of the ice age.
But the investigation found that seven manufacturers producing IKEA’s all-time favourite products are linked to the destruction of these forests.
This includes the popular INGOLF chairs, and SNIGLAR baby cribs and beds for children
At least 30 different products from these suppliers were found in IKEA stores in 13 countries including France, Germany and the UK.
Investigation teams followed the supply chain by analysing permits and satellite imagery of logging sites in the forests in Romania to wood depots and furniture manufacturers, to where those products end up – on the shelves of IKEA stores.
Several manufacturers were found to be sourcing wood from high conservation value forests.
Based on publicly available information, IKEA is the biggest customer of products manufactured by most of those companies, implying a high likelihood that the problematic wood is ending up in IKEA furniture, Greenpeace said.
Robert Cyglicki, Biodiversity Campaign Director at Greenpeace Central and Eastern Europe, said: ‘Our nature heritage must not be turned into hangers or pieces of furniture.
‘Old forests are vital to the planet’s health and must be immediately protected. IKEA must live up to its own sustainability promises and clean up its supply chain from old-growth forest destruction.’
A spokesman for IKEA said: ‘We are currently going through the Greenpeace report in detail. We welcome a transparent dialogue and look forward to discussing the matter further once we have had a chance to read the full report.
‘We take information about the risk of violation of internal and external forestry requirements very seriously. Illegal wood and bad forestry practices have no place in the IKEA value chain.
Robert Cyglicki, Biodiversity Campaign Director at Greenpeace Central and Eastern Europe, said: ‘Our nature heritage must not be turned into hangers or pieces of furniture.
‘Old forests are vital to the planet’s health and must be immediately protected. IKEA must live up to its own sustainability promises and clean up its supply chain from old-growth forest destruction.’
A spokesman for IKEA said: ‘We are currently going through the Greenpeace report in detail. We welcome a transparent dialogue and look forward to discussing the matter further once we have had a chance to read the full report.
‘Any indication of this is immediately investigated. If we discover irregularities, we take immediate action, including terminating business relationships.’
In 2020, the NGO Earthsight found IKEA and others to be selling furniture made from wood illegally felled during “silent periods” in the forests of the Ukrainian Carpathians. The wood in question was certified by the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) despite its sourcing.
In 2021, the NGO Earthsight alleged the use of illegally logged wood from protected forests in Siberia and the Russian Far East.
EARTHSIGHT’S KEY FINDINGS
* Ikea, the world’s biggest furniture retailer, has for years sold children’s furniture made from wood linked to vast illegal logging in protected forests in Russia, an Earthsight investigation has found. It is one of a number of western firms linked to the case.
* The brand’s popular Sundvik children’s range – which includes chairs, tables, beds and wardrobes – and Flisat doll’s house are among the items likely tainted with illegal wood. Earthsight estimates that shoppers have been purchasing an Ikea product containing the suspect Russian lumber somewhere on earth every two minutes.
* Using undercover meetings, visits to logging sites, satellite imagery analysis and scrutiny of official documents, court records and customs data, we traced wood furniture on sale in Ikea stores around the world to forests in remote Siberia. They’re controlled by companies owned by one of Russia’s top-50 wealthiest politicians, Evgeny Bakurov.
* Our year-long investigation found that Bakurov’s businesses broke numerous forestry and environmental laws. Illegal deals helped them harvest 2.16 million cubic metres of wood in protected forests over the last decade. Piled high, the logs produced would rival the Great Pyramid of Giza.
* Loggers felled millions of trees on the false pretext they were dead, dying, diseased or damaged – what’s known as sanitary felling. Sick trees are often used as an excuse to flout Russia’s logging laws.
* Bakurov’s pine was certified by the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC), the leading global scheme for sustainable wood products, and shipped to an Indonesian manufacturer which supplies Ikea stores in countries including the US, UK, Germany, France and other European countries. Bakurov also supplied the retail giant through middlemen in Russia and China.
Bakurov’s tainted wood is also in many other supply chains heading to Europe and the US, aside from Ikea’s. A majority of the EU’s imports from eastern Russia are potentially contaminated.
* Earthsight holds FSC largely responsible for the logging abuses linked to Ikea and other retailers we connected to the scandal. They rely on the green label and its competitor PEFC to ensure their supplies are sustainable and legally sourced. Our findings provide further proof that this trust is wildly misplaced.
* FSC audits did not mention the rampant illegal logging documented by Earthsight and Russian authorities. Instead, high-risk wood continued to be sold in Ikea stores year after year.
* The findings show that governments in the US and Europe must enforce timber import laws more rigorously to address their roles in driving global deforestation.
* Ikea, which denies wrongdoing, announced a temporary ban on sanitary felled wood from Siberia and the Russian Far East after Earthsight got in touch. The retailer insists Bakurov’s wood was “legally harvested” – but recently dropped his companies as suppliers, citing unspecified “practices of concern”.
Somehow the sense of loss at the wanton felling of the Sycamore Gap tree is more profound in the spring. Certainly, that is how it feels to visitors here, particularly those laying daffodils and rosary beads at the spot where it once stood.
For it was at this time of year when the mighty sentinel beside Hadrian’s Wall in Northumberland was always at its resplendent best, with its glossy emerald leaves.
‘When the tree was in its glory, it felt a very special place, kind of mystical,’ says hiker Dee McGonagle, who like many others felt its destruction as a bereavement. Above, the drizzly grey sky suddenly brightens, making the void left by the famous landmark appear more conspicuous.
But beside memories, the mystery of what happened here in the middle of that stormy night last September dominates thoughts.
Six months on, the question remains unanswered: Who took a chainsaw to the 150-year-old tree, this great symbol of the North East, and why? And why have the police yet to bring someone before a court?
In truth, the investigation has quietly gathered pace and Northumbria Police are hopeful of pressing charges soon. Two men in their 30s remain on bail.
County councillor John Riddle recently asked a senior officer about progress and says he was told it was likely that a recommendation would be made to the Crown Prosecution Service.
He said: ‘I was pleasantly surprised because, like many others, I wondered if we’d ever get to the bottom of this.’
Something else which may surprise, says a source close to the investigation, is that the suspects are not local but come from neighbouring Cumbria. According to a source: ‘The theory is that whoever is responsible wasn’t motivated by grievance but acted out of sheer childishness.’
One early theory was that the tree was felled as a social media prank.
While there is no CCTV anywhere near the spot, it is understood that police know the feller’s route to the tree – the trail from Steel Rigg car park which follows Hadrian’s Wall on a rocky rollercoaster over hills and open moorland.
Mobile phone triangulation could, it is thought, feature in any prosecution but it is unclear to what extent, if any, DNA from the tree will play a part.
Samples would yield genetic material that could then be matched with sawdust found on the clothing or machinery of any potential suspects.
But the time lapsed since the crime would appear to indicate a paucity of forensic clues.
Three years ago, tree DNA was used as evidence in the US to convict the leader of a gang of illegal loggers who cut down prized maple trees in a Washington forest.
Few in this part of Northumberland believe the mystery of Sycamore Gap will be solved quite so easily however. Still, they were heartened to learn last month that fresh shoots have emerged from the tree’s rescued seeds and from twigs taken to a ‘high-security greenhouse’ in Devon the day after it was destroyed.
Back at Sycamore Gap there is similar hope. ‘This tree stump is still alive,’ warns a sign. ‘If we leave it alone, it might sprout new growth.’
Giant 100ft tribute to fallen Sycamore Gap tree is etched onto sand to mark six months since iconic plant was felled in horrific act of vandalism
A giant 100ft tribute to the felled Sycamore Gap tree has been carved into a beach in Northumberland to mark six months since the iconic plant was chopped down by vandals.
Retired doctor and beach artist Claire Eason led a team of ten volunteers who spent six hours painstakingly etching precise lines in the sand of Bamburgh beach.
The group used garden rakes to carve the intricate design which shows the iconic tree standing proudly along Hadrian’s Wall with a carved root scene underneath.
The 11-man team arrived on the beach at dawn to begin their six-hour project and persevered despite poor weather to create the stunning artwork.
Claire, 59, said she had been inspired to start the project after feeling a ‘personal shock’ at the terrible act of destruction on September 28 last year.
The project was led by the BBC’s The One Show and completed on February 13 but the tribute has only now been revealed.
The 59-year-old said: ‘When the tree came down a lot of us had a personal shock. That prompted me to create a design. ‘The idea is that it was quite a graphic boulder design as we had a lot of volunteers who hadn’t done anything before and it made it easier.
‘After that we had an idea of doing something more inclusive than me with a community.
‘Underneath there is a route system that embraces huge boulders which shows whatever happens next for the tree, where it will sprout again.
‘It’s a suggestion of Hadrian’s wall, nothing too detailed, just bold and graphic. I gave the volunteers free control over the boulder design.
‘There were ten people. The day did change a lot because of the weather, they turned up without any hesitation. ‘It was for The One Show and it was produced by a local company called Signpost Productions.
‘We arrived at dawn on the beach and the film crew were there. The light was beautiful. There’s a lot of repetition for filming.
‘The whole thing took a good six hours. The extra hour was waiting for the tide to come in.’
Retired doctor Claire created the design on a computer before using a giant grid system to accurately transfer the artwork to the sand.
She carved the tree herself while the team of volunteers carved the boulder and root section.
She said: ‘I didn’t want to over complicate the design as the result needs to be crisp. It’s an inclusive design.
‘Everyone rakes in a slightly different way so they all do different lines. It was 100ft long by 50ft wide. It’s definitely one of the biggest.
‘It was to tie in with the anniversary and it also happens to be in spring which is a time of renewal.’
Reference ~ several articles from The Daily Mail from 7/4/24.
This oak tree was more than 40 years old when Mozart was 8 years old.
This tree was 50 years old when the first steam engine was patented.
This tree was 180 years old when the Wright brothers flew the first powered airplane.
When he was over 300 years old, he was sacrificed for the construction of roads (between the cities of Leamington and Kenilworth, England).
They took away his right to life without asking him.
Man is an insatiable, arrogant and soulless monster. As if the world belonged only to us.
There are no words to say…
Tree Weaver 