Our World Supplied by Trees

Taiga forest in Alaska. Taiga forests exist in northern 

latitudes and consist mainly of coniferous trees.

Look out the window and consider what you see outside. There’s a good chance a tree is on that list. Trees can be found almost anywhere. They cover huge tracts of land in areas ranging from the equator to arctic regions. How often do you stop and think of everything that trees provide? Take a guess at the number of products derived from one species of a tree or another. Would you say 100? 500? 1000? The actual number is nearer to 5000. That’s right. 5000 products rely on a product derived from a tree. Industries ranging from construction to health care rely on trees.

Peeling bark from a Pacific yew.

When I say health care relies on trees, I don’t mean wooden tongue depressors. Several drugs found their origins in chemicals produced by trees. Aspirin was first isolated from the bark of a willow tree. The cancer drug, Taxol, was found in the bark of the Pacific yew. Quinine, an antimalarial drug, is derived from the bark of the cinchona tree. Eucalyptus oil, used in many cold medicines, is extracted from the leaves of the eucalyptus. I could keep listing more drugs, but I think you get the idea. The amazing thing is this is just a fraction of the possibilities. There are still countless tree species that have yet to be studied for their medicinal properties.

Trees supply our paper. The list of products that use paper is astounding. Books, newspapers, posters, brochures, etc. are all produced from paper. Paper gave us the means before computers to spread information around the world and make it available to the masses. Cardboard is produced in much the same process and is just as useful. And regardless of whether you consider paper environmentally friendly, it does remain a completely renewable resource. Computers, however, are not renewable. Every computer is built out of materials that are finite. Think about that next time you’re trying to save the environment reading the news on your tablet instead of on newsprint.

A log being rough cut into lumber.

How many buildings could we build without a ready supply of wood? Not many. And they’d probably look a lot different. I realize that many large buildings are constructed from other base materials, but houses still rely a great deal on wood. Lumber cut straight out of the tree is used to frame the house. Added to the wood needed for framing is the collection of plywood, particleboard, fiberboard, I-joists, and glulam beams used in other parts of the construction. All of these are made from processed wood parts. Most of it is wood that would be unusable otherwise, and is processed with an adhesive to create these uniform products.

What about all the food we get from trees? I realize we don’t generally eat the wood itself, but trees produce many of our favorite foods. Apples, cherries, pears, oranges, and several other fruits grow on trees. Walnuts, pecans, almonds, and other nuts do as well. These crops represent an important portion of our diets and for those that grow them an important source of income.

Latex flowing out of tree bark into a collection vessel.

Rubber comes from the refined sap of a few species of trees, but the most common tree is the Pará rubber tree. Granted the majority of rubber doesn’t come from trees. Most of it is produced from petroleum. But rubber trees represent a renewable source of rubber. On the other hand removing natural habitat to grow these trees is not a viable option either. Rubber is used for car tires, without it what would we drive on? We use it to put soles on our shoes. Bouncy balls are made out of rubber, and who doesn’t love a bouncy ball?

A view of the Amazon Rainforest.

Obviously this is just a very small sampling of the vast number of products that come from trees. And while I’ve only listed a few I hope these stand out and show the importance of trees in our everyday lives. Without trees what would we have? Not much. Consider the importance of wood in just two items: lumber and paper. Where would our society be without these two things? Would we have advanced to this point without them? My guess is no.

I realize that many products have switched from wood to other materials. Sometimes this is because the other material is better for that use. Other times it’s because the other material is cheaper. But how often is that other product renewable? Unless it’s also a product that grows it’s probably not sustainable. I’m not saying to run out and start cutting down trees because they’re so awesome and can be used for many things. Improperly managed trees will not remain a renewable resource for long. But proper management and utilization of trees can allow us to keep using the plethora of items that are produced from them.

Come back next week for another post.

Josh