Right Before Your Eyes - Trunk Personalities A young apprentice went to a master of jade to learn all about the stone. The master put a piece of jade in the child's hand and talked all day of philosopy.  The next day, the mast put another piece of jade in his hand and talked all day of religion.  The child, impatient, asked when he would talk about jade, but the master never answered.  Day after day, the child held jade while the master talked of other things.  Finally, one day, the master put a beautiful green stone in the child's hand and the child said immediately, "That's not jade!" Tree identification is an important part of any nature lover's education. Leaf, flower, and fruit characteristics are relatively easy to learn from field guides, but a "feel" for bark is most easily learned from the trees themselves, along the way.

Learning a tree by "feel" rather than by well-defined characteristics has its drawbacks.  Your may know, for instance, that in your area only beeches have smooth, light gray bark and grow among birches and maples.  Half a glance, and you can identify a beech in a winter woods.  But what if part of the picture changes?  What if you're in a woods half a continent away, or in an arboretum or landscaped park?  the leaf might tell you for sure wheather or not you're seeing an old friend;  the trunk may not.  On the other hand, a feel for the ambiguous qualities of a tree family (maple, for instance, or oak) can help you to place an unknown tree in that family with some certainty even if you're far from home.

Other characteristics that help identify a tree are it's branching pattern (see poster) the shape of angle of it's twigs;  the outline of the tree as a whole, if it's growing in the open;  the shape and size of the buds;  and whether some of its dead leaves stay on the branches through part of the winter.   Some of these characteristics can be clearly described in writing, others cannot.   Even photographs offer inadequate representations of many tree characteristics.   As the saying goes, there's no substitute for the experience.  On the other hand, there's no more pleasant route to experience than a walk through the woods in different seasons.  So take your field guides with you, but by all means, go out and enjoy the trees firsthand!

INDIVIDUAL ENVIRONMENTAL ACTION-   businesses sometimes try to capitalize on our envirionmental uneasiness.  Use common sense when you evaluate their claims.  Degradable trash bags, for instance, were a marketing ploy, and do not degrade well in landfills.  In general, look for mechanical, not technological, solutions to environmental problems.  The simpler, more straightforward solutions are most likely the better ones.