Trees Are Fascinating

Trees are fascinating PLANTS

By Dan Carlson Michiana Master Gardener

During the summers of my early teen years, my mother would take me to the Morton Arboretum in Lisle, Ill., southwest of Chicago. She would drop me off in the morning with a sack lunch at the far east end and I would spend the rest of the day hiking, exploring and learning about trees, shrubs and wildlife. My mother would pick me up at the west end of the arboretum in time to get home for dinner. Occasionally, one of my fellow Boy Scouts or another friend would join me on my trek.

Later in life I continued to enjoy trees. I helped Boy Scouts with tree identification. My wife and I built our first home on a wooded lot. When we built our second home on what used to be a potato field, we planted almost 500 trees on our property.

The first tree like organism was a fungus found in fossil records. It was the 20 foot tall Prototaxites, living 450 to 350 million years ago.1

The first real tree appears in fossil records 385 million years ago. It was a 26 foot tall Wattieza, a fern like tree that reproduced by spores not seeds.2

During the Jurassic Period, a genus of cone-bearing evergreen trees, now named Wollemia, lived on the supercontinent Gondwana. These ancient trees were long known only from the fossil record and were thought to have been extinct for 150 million years. In 1994, a few survivors of one species were found living in a temperate rainforest at Australia’s Wollemia National Park. That species, Wollemia nobilis, is often described as a living fossil. Only about 80 mature trees are left, plus some 300 seedlings and juveniles. The species is listed as critically endangered by the International Union for Conservation of Nature.

While Wollemia nobilis is the last of its genus, there are other middle Mesozoic trees still alive today. Ginkgo biloba, aka the ginkgo tree, dates back about 200 million years and has been called “the most ancient living tree.”3

THERE ARE ROUGHLY 3 TRILLION TREES ON THE EARTH.

Approximately 15 billion trees are cut down each year. It is estimated that from the time humans appeared, the global forests have decreased by 46%.4 The number of tree species currently known to science is 60,065, representing 20% of all angiosperm and gymnosperm plant species.5 Angiosperm plants, such as apple, produce seed within a flower. Gymnosperm plants, such as conifers, produce seeds without a flower.

Trees are a priceless asset to our wellbeing. Every day, a 40 foot tree takes in 50 gallons of dissolved nutrients from the soil, raises this mixture to its topmost leaves, converts it into 10 pounds of carbohydrates and releases about 60 cubic feet of pure oxygen into the air.6 The average person uses about 13 cubic feet of oxygen per day.7 One tree can support 4.6 people per day. The 3 trillion trees can support 13.8 trillion people. The world’s population is 7.9 billion, increasing about 1% per year.8 Cutting down 15 billion trees each year is a 0.5% decrease. While this seems to be an abundant supply, we share that oxygen with all the other animals and insects and devices that burn fuel like cars, trucks, and furnaces. It is extremely important to our wellbeing that we preserve our trees along with other oxygen producing plants. n

1 “University of Chicago News Office”, April 23, 2007. 2 “Tree Hugger”, 15 Astounding Facts About Trees, Russell McCledon, updated January 14, 2020. 3 ibid 4 “Nature”, September 2, 2015. 5 “Journal of Sustainable Forestry”, Volume 36, 2017, Issue 5, 25th Anniversary Issue, E. Beech, M. Rivers, S. Oldfield & P.P. Smith. 6 Source unknown. 7 “How Stuff Works”, Sherry Kahn, updated May 11, 2021. 8 https://www.worldmeter.info/world-population/.

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There’s more than HVAC and electricity when it comes to HOME UTILITIES

By BethAnne Brink-Cox House and Home Feature Writer

It used to be when you heard the word ‘utilities’ in regards to your household, that meant gas and electric bills. These days utilities can mean any or all of these: water, sewage, electricity, gas, cable, internet, communication and postal, just to name a few.

Phil Sleeseman at Surf Broadband, Elkhart, said, “Surf began in 1999 serving dial-up internet customers as MapleNet. Our business has transitioned from dial-up through fixed wireless and now fiber optic broadband. Broadband is a great equalizer, providing customers access to the same resources as their friends in more urban areas. Fiber optic broadband technology is transformational and will fuel the next level of community transformation through technical innovations.”

Sleeseman further explained, “Surf is becoming a leading fiber optic broadband provider with the goal of transforming the Great Lakes region. We provide fast, reliable internet that is symmetrical–the same upload and download–no data caps or limits, pricing is simple and transparent and service is green and has low latency. There is no contract or setup fee and our service has a pricelock: people who sign up for our service will have the price guaranteed.”

“We’ll be there between noon and…” But Sleeseman said no. “Surf buries a fiber optic cable from our network to the home. The typical home install takes 2 to 3 hours. We have installed systems in more than 41,000 homes in the past 24 months, and plan to be near 80,000 by the end of 2022. The newest thing is ‘cutting the cord.’ Many customers are transitioning from traditional TV service to the internet. Consumers use our fiber optic broadband to save money, oftentimes cutting monthly costs by over 50%. We offer whole home wifi, allowing wifi coverage throughout the home.” The pandemic and quarantining saw a very real need for services not used in your homes before: e-learning, working from home over Zoom or Skype, banking and shopping. Sleeseman agreed. “Surf was able to purchase sufficient materials in advance to make sure we could supply the customers who want our service. The pandemic amplified the need to have affordable, reliable internet access.”

Cottage Watchman Security got its start in the early 80s with monitoring livestock and environmental monitoring. Frank Rhoades started this company, saying “I drug my feet about going into the residential market, but we eventually did. We have grown considerably, and son, Jason, does a much better job than his dad did. The business is still on the family farm.” Home security has changed, Rhoades said. “Nationally speaking, 90% of all break ins used to be through the door, so doorways are the first place to install. We monitor unattended homes during the winter; doors/motion/ furnace failing/water detection in lower levels. We have one home with 30 of those devices, which has saved their wi-fi three times. We watch for burglary, environmental (too cold or hot) smoke (fire detection.) That’s a big deal, monitoring those elements.”

Rhoades continued, “Smartphones bring up multiple camera views; lake owners can look at their boat if there’s been a storm. Newer systems are integrated; remotely controlled arm/disarm or viewing history. It’s NOT all one device. It’s components for each element in one system. Video is an independent system for servicing reasons, because it became more convoluted, harder to troubleshoot.”

So I have an alarm, what happens next? Rhoades answered, “In the old days a siren would run the crook off. Now companies have monitoring services, an alarm goes to a central station and they contact homeowners and police. We have a third party company to do that for us, as most smaller companies do, because of multiple criteria. But one problem is people dropping phone service,and that’s how we used to get it to the central station. We need a dedicated pathway, so now what? Towers have a device that uses a data collector on a cell tower. You can’t use your cell– you have to have that special device. We can send signals via internet, because the moment it hits the cell tower, it goes on the internet.”

Rhoades further explained, “We have sold medical pendants traditionally worked inside the home, now we use things like a mini cell device which goes anywhere you go, utilizing the cell surface. And GPS can know where that person is and send help.” The pandemic has affected Surf. It experienced difficulty getting equipment, especially commercial fire equipment. But Rhoades added, “We’ve been blessed. Our techs are so specialized, it takes two years to get online ready to go. We have taken on some younger workers and let the experienced ones train them while they assist.”

Rhoades said to do your due diligence and check reviews before choosing a service. “If I got two phone calls today, one as a system problem, well, I know my priorities. Until I take care of the customer I have, I don’t deserve the next one.” n

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