Oaky D'Oak, we're planting Oaks!

For Earth Day (April 22) and Arbor Day (April 30), TLC is planting oaks with people throughout McHenry County. These little trees will be Mighty Oaks one day, but it could be 20 years before we're sitting under their shade!

So, what's up with that? What's the point of planting a tree if it is going to take that long to turn into a "real" tree?

Well, for those readers who have been checking out this blog for the last couple of years, you already know the answer, but let's review - for old time's sake!

McHenry County was once 40% covered in oak-hickory woods and savannas. Today, nearly 90% of those woods have been lost. Many were cleared in the earliest days of settlement for farming or building homes, barns & fences, or even to provide fuel to heat homes. In fact, during the first 40 years following settlement, 50% of the oaks were cut down. Over the following 130 years, another 38% were sacrificed - primarily for development.

So, isn't one tree as good as another?

No, Oaks are better. They really are in many ways.

Oaks have acorns. Acorns are a valuable food source for a diversity of wildlife ranging from deer to blue jays. Native people would make biscuits from acorn flour because they were potent sources of energy.

Insects love oaks, and more insects use oaks for at least some part of their lifecycles than any other type of tree. And a diversity of insects translates directly into a diversity of birds! So, even if one doesn't appreciate insects, most folks do like birds.

Oaks are McHenry County's heritage. Not maples, not willows, not cottonwoods. Oaks. Quercus. Macrocarpa (bur), Rubra (red), Bicolor (swamp white), Alba (white). And if we play our cards right -- if we all do what we can to restore, protect and regenerate our local oaks -- oaks will be our future too!

Remember, the Greeks said: A society grows great when old men & women plant [oaks] whose shade they know they shall never sit in. Let's make McHenry County a great society!!