Save a Tree?

Have you received information from banks and credit card companies and other creditors urging you to “Save a Tree” by allowing them to cut you off from having your bills and statements mailed to you as actual physical documents? Have you been bombarded by the “Go Green” promoters?

Have you ever wondered why? Have you ever felt bewildered by the amount of paper that is wasted in mailings that promote this propaganda? If these companies and banks are so interested in saving trees, why do they send monthly and even weekly mailings trying to entice us to add yet another phone line or to supply answers to inane and often irrelevant questions on customer service surveys regarding customer service that does not actually exist?

What is the real agenda? What is the real motivation?

Have you figured this out yet? It is really very simple if a person has one’s eyes open to more than what is promoted in the propaganda.

But to the real point of this question, does not using paper truly save a tree?

This is a very different question than whether or not recycling is worthwhile. Conservation is not only a good and worthwhile idea, it is godly. It is the way of those who are grateful to God for His wonderful gifts. Making the best use of God’s gifts is the way of those who know God’s love and in turn love God and neighbor.

Sadly, though, very few people know what being a conservationist really means, just as most people really do not understand what being a conservative means.

I am an arborist as part of my vocation. I care for trees. I help people to maintain their trees and shrubs so as to have attractive, safe, and enjoyable properties. This involves pruning for safe and solid structure, pruning to remove disease, pruning for shape and appearance, and sometimes it involves removal of a tree or bush and sometimes also the stump. Some of the woody material can be saved for a lumbermill. Some can be saved for firewood. Some can be pelletized for wood burning stoves and for municipal power plants. (Yes, cities are purchasing pelletized tree waste for economical and environmentally friendly power sources.) Much of the tree and shrub debris can be chipped to be used as mulch. This is conservationism in practice.

This has developed into an enormous industry. For some examples, check out some of the issues of Tree Care Industry Magazine. It is amazing!

Regarding the “Saving a Tree” propaganda, I would like to provide a couple of links to articles that supply very helpful answers, real answers.

EarthAnswers - Are We Running Out of Trees?

How Are Trees Grown for Paper?

The second link is especially worthy of notice in this matter of “saving trees.” This is information that I grew up with. I learned these things from my father and from working with nature and from six years of FFA, and from my undergraduate studies in agricultural and biological sciences. But most people have the perception that has been promoted by the banking and credit industries for their own reasons. Most people receive the bombardment of circulars and catalogs and such and feel badly that “trees are being killed.” They are very surprised when I explain to them that the trees that are being used for paper are actually planted and raised for that very purpose and that if it were not for the paper industry, these trees likely would never be planted at all. Yes the paper and lumber industry, especially in North America, actually leads the way in preserving trees and forests!

I was very glad to find that TAPPI is working to supply this information. It is very helpful to be able to refer people to resources that verify these facts.

From their publication, “How Are Trees Grown for Paper?” here are a few very informative quotes:

How Are Trees Grown for Paper?

Trees are planted and grown specifically to make paper. Trees that are cut down for paper production do not come from our favorite park or wilderness area.

When some people hear about trees being cut for paper, they might think of their favorite oak in the backyard, neighborhood park or wilderness area being cut to pieces. They might think of birds, squirrels and other creatures being robbed of their homes.

The good news is that the production and use of paper are not causing forests to disappear.

The good news is that the production and use of paper are not causing forests to disappear.

Is this what is being taught by the propagandists who teach that allowing them to press us into utilizing electronic communication only is equal to Going Green?

Where do trees for making paper come from?

Most trees used for paper come from forests called managed timberlands. Even though the trees in these timberlands may look like “woods,” they are an agricultural crop - like vegetables on a farm. The trees are grown to be made into products for human use. Not using paper in order to save trees is like not eating salad in order to “save” vegetables.

In fact, many forests might not exist in the first place if trees weren’t planted and harvested by industry. It takes from 10 - 20 years for trees to grow until they are large enough for harvesting. During that time, those trees are part of a community of plants and animals, and their environment space is known as an ecosystem. Trees provide a place to live (or habitat) for many species of plants and animals, and they add oxygen to the earth’s atmosphere.

Isn’t this wonderful news? Why does the government not tell us this? Why does the media not tell us this? Why are we being pressed instead into surrendering our use of paper products to those who want to restrict our communications and especially our financial communications to electronic sources only?

Will we run out of trees if we continue to cut them down for paper?

No. More trees are planted every year than are cut down. This is due in most part to the success of managed timberlands. Whenever trees are harvested, more trees are planted to take their place. Timberlands can be managed to produce trees and forest products forever.

Trees are a renewable resource. As long as we manage timberland and plant trees to replace the ones cut down, trees will continue to grow and grow and grow.

In some ways, this process is similar to growing vegetables in a garden. We plant the vegetables and let them grow until they are mature enough to harvest. When harvest time comes, we collect the vegetables and eat them. Next spring, the process begins again when we plant a new crop. As long as we continue to plant and harvest, the process goes on and on.

More trees are destroyed by fire and insects than are cut down to make paper. And, on an average, when a tree is harvested for making paper, five more are planted in its place.

On an average, when a tree is harvested for making paper, five more are planted in its place!

Were you aware of this wonderful fact? How many people know that using paper products is equal to Going Green and helping to preserve our forests?

Moreover, as I mentioned above, some cities are turning to utilizing tree debris for producing power. This source of power, when used in these high efficiency power plants, is said to be cleaner than natural gas. While I have not checked sources on that fact, it is true that no new carbon dioxide is produced as it is with natural gas. What is produced from using the wood products is the same as would be through the decomposition process, except that electricity is produced for our enjoyment.

Some cities are going a step farther and are processing their trash in this way, thereby significantly reducing the use of landfills. By using sophisticated sorting equipment, much of what would otherwise go to the landfill is being utilized in the production of lower cost energy.

Why are we not hearing of every city doing this? Why do we not hear of the big power companies doing this?

Why do we hear ludicrous scare tactics regarding the dangers of methane production from livestock and humans? In the Seventies, when I was in highschool, my Ag. instructor informed us about a livestock producer who powered the entire operation and his home with power to spare, utilizing the methane produced on the farm. Why do the city sewage treatment plants not use their methane for power? Why is the Nobel Peace Prize awarded to a global tax and spend former vice president who travels the world in a plane that burns more fuel than most neighborhoods, when there are farmers who have been “saving the world” for decades through genuine innovation and conservation practices?

Isn’t it time for people to become tired of the lies that are designed to steal away people’s liberty while certain elitists are becoming wealthy far beyond filthy? Isn’t it time for people to awaken to the way that the globalist agenda of teaching evolution has blinded the populace to what godly stewardship is and where such understanding originates? Those who appreciate God’s creative genius and graciousness are naturally conservation minded. Those who do not appreciate God’s gracious activity in creation are not.

Consider these articles regarding the way that the Nobel Gore responds to his own climate propaganda;

Al Gore’s Energy Use,
How green is Al Gore's $9 million Montecito oceanfront villa?,
Al Gore's House ,
and then there is his Gulf Stream Jet, which you can Google or whatever for yourself.

If Mr. Gore and his hypocritical globalist elite friends were not seeking to dictate what the rest of the world is and is not allowed to do, there would be little cause for objection to their selfish and wasteful lifestyle. Well, there is of course their irresponsible and massive contribution to pollution and waste. But having large and expensive houses and luxury cars and planes for their personal use is not the problem. The problem is first that they do not want to allow anyone else to enjoy such benefits, and secondly that they are deliberately deceiving people and stealing the truth from us all. By this they are actually hindering the things that could have real benefit to us all. But they own the media. They own the resources. They own the Federal Reserve. Through it they own the government and military.

Through this they indoctrinate the children in the schools to accept their false doctrine and world view. Through this they persuade much of the population to “save a tree” while the elite burn the Constitution and even the people themselves.

What can we do?

First we need to realize that it is not in our power to save the world. We cannot save the country. We cannot save the trees. We cannot even save ourselves.

Realizing this changes our perspective from one of complaining and bickering and fighting and despair, to one of reliance upon the one who does have the power to save us and the trees and the country and the world. When we truly acknowledge Him, we begin to look to the things that He tells us that we can do. We can seek first His kingdom and His righteousness through the means through which He gives them. We can teach the truth to our children and loved ones. We can speak the truth in love to all who are willing to hear it. We can give thanks to God for His creation, for His recreation, for His redemption, for His mercy, for His love, for His grace, for His justification, for His sanctification, for His gifts of every kind. We can rejoice in His goodness and love, loving Him above all things and loving our neighbors as ourselves. We can gather for the blessings that He promises through His means of grace. We can live in peace in as much as it is ours to do. We can enjoy the life that God has given us and we can to the best of our ability utilize the gifts that God gives to us for the benefit of all. This we can do, until the day of the Lord’s Advent at the end of this age.

If everyone, or in fact, if even everyone who professes to be Christian, truly heard this and lived in this way, the world would be very different than it now is. After all, even Gore and Obama profess to be Christian. Wow, come to think of it, even Ted Kennedy claimed to be Christian. Just imagine if everyone who makes this claim actually believed it (and the one whom it confesses)!

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Interesting tidbits regarding “Conservative” Christianity

Save a tree?

Did you know that the original/traditional/liturgical use of the Christmas Tree includes making of the dead trunk the cross for Lententide?

Also, did you know that the Ashes for Ash Wednesday are made from the palm branches used in the previous year’s Palm Sunday celebration?

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