The Weekly Tree Report
4/14/25, Delayed!
Like the gift that keeps on giving, another delayed blog post. You can expect blog posts at least once every month at this rate. But don't worry, with exam season upcoming for me, you can expect even less blog posts! Also, I need to work on advertising my blog. But either way, let's have some fun.
Augusta National's Loblolly Pines
Very few people know I watch golf. I'm not a golf die-hard nor a patron, but I do love me some good putts on the green. This week, I had the luxury to watch the Master's Tournament on CBS, and as I watched, I saw the gorgeous scenery, and it got me interested.
You see, the entirety of the course is full of these tall pine trees. Now, from a TV, it is very difficult to tell what kind of pine tree it is, but you know for a certain its a pine tree because of its bark structure and its needles and what not. I could also tell that it definitely wasn't a Monterrey Pine or an Italian Stone Pine, or any pine that has structure more close to an oak tree because all the trees were straight up. And by golly, they were gorgeous. There's a reason they call the Master's Tournament the best golf tournament after all, as the whole venue looks pristine. You hardly find a place as clean as that anywhere in the world, with its vibrant fairways and greens that is jarringly different to most American places around the world. It's like you stuck a golf course into a mystical forest; its incredulous and the amount of people who would die for access to the Master's Tournament is higher than you'd expect. I mean, ticket resale prices to attend and spectate can reach ten thousand dollars!
Yet, the pines seemed to strike me the most. Beyond the luxury of the course itself, the beautiful groves of tall, idyllic pines and the greenery around was amazing. The pines were large and tall and were deep green, similar to the color of the grass at Augusta. And after a little bit of research, it turns out that 90% of the pines at Augusta are the beautiful and gorgeous loblolly pines.
Of course, these trees are cared for along with the grass. It's interesting to note how the pines have succumbed to natural forces, though. Recently, as most people have heard, Hurricane Helene struck through Georgia, leading to numerous pine failures at Augusta National. As a result, there seems to be a thinning of the trees, especially noticed on Hole 10 by players and astute patrons.
But regardless, oh how I'd love to attend the Master's Tournament. I heard its a lottery system, though, so my chances are zilch.
Lion Tailing
If only people looked up in the trees for any bit of second would they be concerned with what I am about to talk about. One of the biggest issues that I've noticed in trees and how people work trees is a topic known as lion tailing, hence the title of this section.
So, what is lion tailing? Take a tree branch. There are always sub-branches that grow throughout the sides of the branch, and then there is always a bit of foliage at the end. What lion tailing is, or what it does, is you take away every other sub-branch and just leave the tuff of foliage at the very end, causing the branch to grow longer and longer rather than grow girthier and stronger.
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This leads to numerous failures in the future, as lion tailing is usually a repeated process that doesn't just happen once. The problem is, and you will learn this in physics, with all the weight at the end of the branch, the center of mass of said branch is much further away, creating more torque and leading to the branch potentially ripping apart from the tree, which is never good. Once lion tailing occurs, there is no easy solution to fix it as well. Because it is a repeated process over years and years of work, it is often irreversible and requires extreme measures, like harsh cutting, in order to prevent the collapse of the branch.
Please, and I so desperately beg. Do not, never ever, do this to your trees. You wouldn't even do this to a fruit tree, I promise you. If you want to top a fruit tree, so be it. But don't lion tail any tree because you will lead to its early demise. Once a branch tears from the trunk, that's it. There is no cure for long term decay and weakness, and when a branch tears, not only is it unsightly, but you will probably lose the tree you cherish sooner than you'd expect. Rot is real.
Texas Summers
As a long time resident of Texas, I've come to recognize the dangers of Texas Summers. They're, simply put, not good for a tree. Any tree. I remember a few years ago when there was a drought in the midst of summer. Now, as a human being, I didn't really feel the effects of the drought. Maybe the air conditioning bill went up that summer, but besides that, nothing major. However, trees do not have the luxury of being indoors; not because they aren't welcome, but because they are far too large to sleep in a hotel suite.
The major thing is this: lots of heat and no water is a recipe for disaster for a tree. This can lead to the branches becoming stiff or leading to tip dieback. Also, the drying of a tree can lead to more failures throughout the tree, as the tree stiffens up and added stress leads to branches falling. Flexibility is a huge factor when it comes to trees and their stability, and when that is taken away, the tree may fall over and die as well.
Everyone knows that trees need water too. While gardeners and avid homeowners will know to water the plants in their garden to ensure their survival in the hottest months, not every tree can be accounted for. While there are 8 billion of us, there are many more trees on the planet. And trees come in all sorts of sizes, from big to small and from wide to tall. Summer in Texas kills trees like one can't imagine; there simply isn't enough water for them to conduct photosynthesis and they succumb and die. Of course, this means that the strongest specimens will survive, but it also prevents biodiversity. Now, this problem is hard to notice; I mean, most of the trees you see naturally are cared for by some sort of private entity. But the ones in the forest are the trees that feel the most heat and suffer the most damage.
Protect the Forests, but WHY?
Everyone and their mother has heard about global warming. It's all over the news, its taught in classrooms, and you will always find some rampant unsettling activist yelling about it with a sign in hand. People are concerned with one thing in particular: too hot, and trees will die. And they're right. We really should protect the forests, but not for the reasons you'd think.
Many people believe we are planting trees to give more oxygen back to the world, but truthfully, through scientific studies, trees don't contribute much to the amount of oxygen in our world. While they do use carbon dioxide to produce oxygen, they are not the main contributor. That would be algae instead. Also, planting trees doesn't actually solve the big-picture problem. Simply put, you can plant a tree anywhere on the planet, but what really matters are the forests.
Biodiversity. A word that many people have heard, and a word people definitely understand, but not a lot of people know how to conserve biodiversity. Everyone knows how important biodiversity is. For example, the drama with bees: people around the globe are becoming more aware and more concerned with the decline of bees. Bees pollinate plants and fruiting bodies that gives us a ton of the food we need to survive. Without these pollinators, we would lose a ton of food, lose numerous sections in the food economy, and cause a massive calamity for human kind. Yet, everything interacts with one another, and when something is lost, a domino effect occurs. It's why change is such an unsettling thing for our world. In a vacuum, losing a species of beetle or a type of tree may not seem consequential, but when we lose that species, we lose it for good, forever tipping the balance of our natural world. And Mother Nature will always respond when we do wrong. Always.
So what's the problem with forests? We know we're losing them, but can't we replant a bunch of trees and call it a day? Not quite. I wish it were that easy. Simply put, forests have something known as chaos. In the grandest forests untouched by man, there are nursing logs fallen throughout, moss growing everywhere, vines, and tall trees and small trees and different types of trees. This leads to birds resting where old growth trees' tops fall off, animals taking shelter under hollowed logs, and so on and so forth. Just like a domino effect, when plants can grow and grow old and die, so too can animals. And these conditions of chaos diverge natural forests from man-made forests.
Mr. Beast can plant as many trees as he wishes, but we cannot get attached to trees. Because when we get attached to trees, we often make decisions that are short-sighted. The thing we desperately need is forests, not just trees. We need biodiversity, not just trees. And to make a forest is something that takes centuries of repetitive growth and dieback. When a failure happens in a forest, no one is to intervene; you have to let nature take its course. Think Chernobyl. The second mankind left control to nature, biodiversity thrived and forests and animals returned. And there are ways to create forests from man-made forests; pull the trees down and make them fail! It sounds counterintuitive, but to create chaos from structure, you have to do radical things.
Case in point, if you ever stumble across a man-made forest (which are often used for lumber), you will notice that there are no birds chirping and barely an animal in sight. There is too much structure and not enough regions for birds or animals to take hold anywhere. A wild animal will not survive where there are no trees to protect them from cover. A bird, due to the way the trees are grown, will not be able to perch along the branches of a tree. Because the forest is controlled by man, there is no uniqueness in the forest to grow diversity. Animals simply won't come. By uprooting the trees and leaving them, new plants will be able to grow where there once was no available sunlight, leading to more animals coming and, over time, rejuvenating a man-made forest to a true forest. It's a long and arduous process, but if we want to preserve the species we have on our planet, we should most definitely find a way to make more forests.
Finale
I want to thank anyone who reads it in full, and takes consideration in the points I try to make. I hope we all strive to make the world a better place. And like Eminem, guess who's back? Not me, but its my inconsistency! Life is certainly getting harder for us all, no one can be sure of what's happening. But if you trust yourself and you know what you want, just go for it. Never live a life of regrets, but live a life reading my amazing blog. Thank you.
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