More Trees, More Shade, More Cool.

Feet padding on a soft sand track. Off the edge, reeds chunk into plate-glass surfaces of tea-tree black water. Swamp spreads out wide, wide. The wallum, we call it, hip-high across the plain behind the seashore dunes.

 
Our little part of Earth is turning once more towards the sun, the winter solstice passed now. Wedding bush is already stark in white, waiting for the burst that will be spring in just a few weeks.
Late afternoon sun, soft, soft, glowing through the whorls of swamp banksia with their fat flowers thrust upwards. Bottlebrush bright with scarlet.

A flurry of feathers. A flash of white, then yellow on the wing as the honeyeater hovers.
Then the sudden wailing cry.
 "Wee-yar, wee-yar".
Black cockies. Where?
"Wee-yar".
Ah, over there. High in the tea-tree that edges the swamp. All trees standing together, straight. Creamy pale bark. Just standing quiet while cockies wail, no breeze to make leaves whisper.

Makes me think about trees now. Trees make shade. Make cool. Make rain. Make good climate. Make more trees.

Then I'm thinking, you know, back in the eighties, trees were what we were on about. More trees. Stop the cutting. Plant more trees.
I'm thinking more about the trees lately, 'cause all we're hearing about are the disagreements, the arguments, what can and can't be done about climate change, it's happening, it isn't, carbon tax, the economy, blah, blah, consuming air and digital space to the endth of nausea.
But what is being DONE?

Worldwide forgetting. Forgetting the trees. Trees that make shade, make rain, make better climate, make oxygen, suck up carbon dioxide, balance water cycle, make mulch, make compost, make soil, hold soil, make more trees.

Ah but there are some who have never forgotten. Keepers of the Earth.

What if we took matters into our own hands? Trees grow fast in good rainy seasons. It's rainy this year, probably next year too. A good time to plant trees.

What if we started something? What if we planted just one tree? Ah yes, I know, you've probably planted thousands.

But what if we planted one tree and then asked three people to each plant one, and then each of those asked three people to each plant one and pass it on?
What if it went viral?
It could.

Yellow-tailed Black Cockatoo. Image by Rosalie Hall.

We could do this.

While the politicians and journalists are immersed in their swamp bog, we could be DOING something to bring the agenda back to the trees, right at grass roots where it matters.

"Wee-yar. Wee-yar." Three shining black forms lifting from the paperbarks, yellow tails flashing. Off they go!

More trees, more shade. Mmmm.