"Rooted securely in the earth, trees reach toward the heavens.  All across the planet, trees--in a wonderful profusion of form and function--literally hold the world together.  Their leaves receive the Sun's energy for the benefit of all terrestrial creatures and transpire torrents of water vapor into the atmosphere.  Their branches and trunks provide shelter, food, and habitat for mammals, birds, amphibians, insects, and other plants.  And their roots anchor the mysterious underworld of rock and soil.  Trees are among Earth's longest-lived organisms; their lives span periods of time that extend far beyond our existence, experience, and memory.  Trees are remarkable beings.  Yet they stand like extras in life's drama, always there as backdrops to the ever-changing action around them, so familiar and omnipresent that we barely take notice of them."

~ David Suzuki, introduction to Tree / A Life Story, Art by Robert Bateman, Greystone Books, 2004.
 

 

"This solitary tree!~ a living thing
Produced too slowly ever to decay;
Of form and aspect too magnificent
     To be destroyed."

~ William Wordsworth