If we understood the need for trees on our planet, we would be out planting for our very lives!

This is a realisation being brought more and more to the fore of my thinking.

All that is wrong in our world today can be traced back to our reckless and insane treatment of the environment.

The cost of economic growth in our world has been paid for by Gaia herself.

And yes, I know I sound passionate and maybe even upset, but, then, I am!

The E.U. and Trees!

I once held out hope that Ireland’s participation in the European Union would create a sense of joined up thinking about the state of our sick environment and how we could start to create instead of continually destroy.

That somehow, policy and directives from Brussels would create enlightenment and lead to the wholesale planting of trees on our monocultured island…but recent discussions with someone in receipt of E.U. grants for tree-planting has led me to be very concerned indeed!

Grant to Plant!
In order to qualify for a specific grant to plant deciduous trees, my friend has to agree to plant 2,600 deciduous trees on 3 acres…and I’ve tweeked these figures…DOWN!
Now for those of you who don’t know what 3 acres looks like, have a closer scan of some of the 500 or so posts put up from Bealtaine Cottage.

Sitting on 3 acres, the cottage is surrounded by trees, planted over the course of the past 7 years.

Somewhere between 500-600 trees have been planted, with plans for a further 100-200 in the future.

Can you identify much room for a further 2,000 or so trees?

I conclude that the E.U. does not have a clue, not even an iota of one!

Monoculture Monsters

The state of tree planting here in Ireland can be summed up as inadequate, with the emphasis on monoculture plantations of Sitka Spruce, planted for harvesting, in long, tight rows, where only a huge machine could possibly access the nightmare of environmental sickness.

These trees are planted for money and regarded only in fiscal terms.

Monoculture is the order of the day because the environment is tied into the “Merchants of Greed,” as John Seymour called them…the institutions now viewed as the great destroyers of our country!

And, This Fear…?

Where does it come from?

What is it that makes so many people frightened of Nature?

Where does this desperation to control Gaia come from?

To see trees reduced to gangly, over-crowned sticks that need staking in order to stand up, is a sad reflection on our lack of understanding of our world and Mother Nature.

Trees don’t need stakes if the WHOLE environment in which they are planted is taken into consideration.

There are no staked trees at Bealtaine other than some of the smaller fruit trees that become heavy with fruit and need supporting during this time.

It is this continual need to dominate Nature and control her that causes humanity to fear the environment.

We must awaken to the possibilities of living with her, or, well, I don’t want to go there!