Call me a tree hugger if you like, but I love trees. I have a hazy memory of hugging a tree or two during a lost weekend at a music festival some years ago and I am not ashamed of it. At WoodenToyShop we never take trees for granted and work hard to ensure that the wood used to make the wooden toys we sell comes from sustainable sources and plantations. Putting business to one side though, have you ever stopped to think how central to our world and how important trees are?
Of course, to a significant extent our lives are governed by a reliance on fossil fuels formed by ancient woodland hundreds of millions of years ago. We rely heavily on coal, gas and oil for power, transport and the production of important synthetic materials, none of which would be possible without trees, forests, plants and animals that existed long before humans.
Hundreds of years ago, trees were the building blocks of our country. England was largely covered by woodland which provided shelter, fuel and food. Fallen trees were used to build houses; wood was burned to provide warmth and to heat ovens; wild animals roamed the forests and were eaten by those who were able or allowed to catch them; and pigs were let loose in forests where they ate the acorns fallen from mighty oaks. As an island nation, the British came to depend on ships made from its trees for trade and defence.
Nowadays we tend to take a more romantic view of trees. Even though many of us enjoy wood burning stoves and coal fires, most people don’t have such a direct relationship with the trees and the wood around us. I think that, if asked, most of us would say that trees are a good thing, but at the same time we probably don’t give them a second glance as we make our way from A to B. Fruit farmers would disagree of course and the West Country (of which I am a happy inhabitant) would be bereft without its apple trees and cider presses. But most of us are happy to agree that trees are good in an abstract sense, perhaps forgetting that they make a major contribution to creating an aesthetically pleasing landscape and healthy environment to live in.
No trees, no swings.
Which is one of the reasons why we are such fans of wooden toys. We appreciate the fact that they connect us to the natural world around us and give us the opportunity to demonstrate this key relationship to our children. We can explain to children that trees are not just good for climbing (although, oh yes, they are!) and playing, or for providing us with shelter and shade. We can tell them how trees act as the lungs of the earth, breathing in toxic fumes and breathing out the oxygen that gives us life and in so doing cleaning up the air in our cities and our wildernesses. We can show them that trees provide homes and food for humans and animals and that they are a self-replenishing resource that sow the seeds of new life over and over again. Finally we can even proclaim that trees provide us with a material so robust that we can make toys that don’t break when they throw them around the house!
