The one thing I appreciate about living in the City of Tshwane is seeing beautiful trees on my daily commute. I appreciate the fact the Pretoria CBD is not all concrete as it still has some soft green lush spaces. Growing up in the township, trees are frowned upon because they are a “nuisance” when autumn hits and the trees shed their leaves. This means daily cleaning. So, what is the easiest thing to do? Yep, you guessed, it is chopping down the trees. This has unfortunately led to tree-less kasi homes.
Then there is that house, that has that massive tree that provides good shade during those hot kasi days. The tree becomes a shelter for the neighbours gossiping, kids taking a breather after playing in the hot sun or amajita blomming nje observing passers-by. Those few trees are owned by the whole neighbourhood. But these crowds would be dispersed by a Gogo who creeps up on these shade-loving crowds and splash them with water. (I need emojis lol). My Gogo did that. Hahaha. Those are some good kasi memories.
Trees played a vital role in our upbringing, we climbed them, stole fruit from them, and played with our dolls under them. We should love trees. We should protect all the good trees, especially ekasi.
Tree Hugging (Loving Trees) Benefits
Why we should love trees and not chop them down
They Provide Food
This is obvious, many of our fruits are from trees. These days we have limited yard spaces, each family home can plant one tree, and exchange food during harvest time. So, plant that tree that will bear your favourite fruit. If you already have one, don’t chop it down. You can also research what the tree leaves are good for because Mother Nature with cover all bases.
Paper comes from Trees
We use paper and paper products on a daily. I bet if you look around you are bound to spot more than 3 products that come directly from trees. Unfortunately, the cutting down of trees to produce these products contributes to deforestation. Let’s save some trees by recycling our paper and related paper products. My biggest annoyance is the unnecessary cardboard packaging.
Think of most food packaging e.g., cereals, toothpaste, and beauty products. Double packaging is used for marketing purposes and for retail shelves. Once we buy the products, we discard the cardboard almost immediately. This same issue has given rise to package-free shops popping up.
Trees provide oxygen and they clean the air
The one thing we need for survival is the air we breathe; trees produce some of the oxygen we breathe. Trees can absorb and trap pollutants as well, so imagine them as vacuum cleaners that suck up all the bad stuff, we should not be breathing in and provides clean oxygen to breathe in. The more trees we have the less carbon dioxide we have in the air and the cleaner healthier air we have.
A Living Sound Barrier
Have you ever found yourself surrounded by nature and felt at your most peaceful? All external noises seem to disappear. That is because trees are a natural sound barrier. They however will not help if you have a noisy neighbour.
Trees provide shelter for birds
Birds play an important role in the ecosystem. They eat the seeds of the fruit, fly off to another place and poop. Then boom, more plants/trees grow. Just like the bees, they also play a role in cross-pollination. Think twice before chopping down a tree with bird nests.
A shady bunch
With temperatures soaring to new heights, trees provide much-needed cooling. South Africa is already experiencing summer temperatures in Spring, one can only imagine how much more shade we will need when summer lands.
I need everyone who reads this blog to be a tree activist. Plant a tree or protect one, especially in townships.
The layout of your website is amazingly friendly. Very easy to navigate. Well written. Easy to understand. Most importantly, it is very accessible and insightful to the layman.
thank you