Many people go through their daily lives without giving the trees around them much notice, unless perhaps it is a tree that just crashed through their roof or that they ran into.

We have relegated our urban trees to the places we can tolerate them which is often an inhospitable place for a tree to exist. But trees have existed on this planet for a lot longer than human beings have, and in fact we owe our existence to them.

They not only gave us shelter before we knew to build our own, but also food, tools, fire; even the air we breathe and our water. And long since trees have also provided us with the means and material to build, to play music, to make art, and have inspired literature of all kinds and provided the paper it was printed on.

On a more personal level we have grown to know trees intimately. We remember the trees we played in as children, even perhaps confided in as friends, and whose branches we dreamt from. Many people are wed under trees, or buried under trees, and many people have planted trees throughout their lives. Trees are the oldest living things that we will ever know on this planet. They deserve notice, respect, and admiration.