Why Celebrate Your Favorite Trees this Month?
It seems like there’s a national holiday for just about everything, but we’ve recently discovered one that’s definitely worth celebrating. Have you heard about Love a Tree Day yet?
Trees make our lives better and help us live longer, so who wouldn’t want to celebrate them? Without trees, we wouldn’t have clean air to breathe and fresh water to drink. Since we were young, our teachers have been telling us that trees clean the air. The way they do it is unique. Do you remember how?
Leaves are covered in tiny little pores called stomata that absorb gaseous and particulate toxins. Everything from nitrogen dioxide to soot gets absorbed by the tiny stomas. Trees also do a lot to purify water. When it rains, leaves and branches catch the water and slow its descent to the ground. This gives the soil more time to absorb the moisture, which means that less water runs off into rivers and lakes.
If the rainwater contains pollutants, a tree’s roots can actually filter out some of the contaminants. Without trees, all of the rain would have fallen directly to the ground, the soil would have become oversaturated, and the dirty water would have run off into rivers and lakes, eventually ending up in our drinking water supply.
Trees Need Clean Drinking Water Too
More healthy trees mean less pollution in the air and water. Each tree can do a lot to purify the air and water near it, but eventually, a tree reaches its maximum filtration capacity. Just like us, trees don’t survive well with excessively dirty air and water.
If a tree absorbs water that’s full of chemical runoff from factories and pesticides from agricultural areas, it’ll become sick. Polluted water is a double whammy for plants because it’s toxic and it washes essential nutrients out of the soil.
Without adequate nutrition, trees and other plants are more susceptible to fungal infections, insect infestations, and droughts. To help trees thrive, feed them clean water. Trees are essential for our health, but they’re also vital to our leisure time. If there were fewer trees, we’d miss sitting in their shade, climbing their branches, swinging from tire swings, and watching their birds.
Water Filtrations Systems for Your Home
Trees do a lot to clean our water, but they can’t get all of the pollutants out. And, like trees, humans need to drink a lot of clean water to thrive. Without water, we can get very ill and even die, but not all water is safe to drink. Most of the tap water in the United States is okay to drink, but scientists have tested drinking water and found some alarming things.
They’ve discovered that drinking water can contain some predictable things like chlorine, but it can also have hormones, pesticides, and even trace amounts of prescription drugs. As an aside, never flush anything down the toilet that you don’t want in the drinking water supply.
If you don’t currently have a water filtration system at your home, you should speak with a professional about installing one. Ideally, every home would have a house-wide filtration system so that even the water they use for laundry is purified.
However, that’s not feasible for most families. If you start by filtering just your drinking water, you’ll go a long way in improving the health of you and your family. If you can afford a little more, have your shower water filtered next.
How to Celebrate Love a Tree Day
The best ways to celebrate trees are to plant more of them and to care for the trees that are already in your yard and neighborhood. To save money on your watering, try collecting rainwater in a barrel. It’s often quite clean when it’s collected in a freestanding container.
If you collect rainwater that drips from your roof, you’ll need to filter it before using it for cooking or drinking. If you want to be extra kind to your trees, filter it before watering them as well. They do so much for us, so let’s do something special for them to celebrate Love a Tree Day on May 16.
If you don’t currently have a water filtration system in your home, give us a call. We’d love to speak with you about your options and discuss how clean water can benefit your health.