Assets -1 was important to placing the rest of this in context. My friend's maple is an example of such an asset - it provides services and, to him, has aesthetic value. So, really, does the beaver - he just doesn't know it. And that is the crux of the matter. How do we inculcate this sense of value of invisible processes, and of those silent sentinels of the land which have stood across their own generations passing on carbon at rates and by pathways which we can only imagine? Farmers have spent centuries removing trees from the landscape, an appropriation of environmental processes in order to feed their own families and ours. None of us is innocent. How little hubris we show when we protest at further deforestation, given increasing populations, competing uses of physical space, and systems that demand ever-increasing economies of scale in order to stay in business. We are the asteroid.
You probably realize by now that I think a tree is the prime example of the physical expression of an inter-generational asset. A 50' tree is the outcome of years of metabolic and physiological processes grabbing and storing carbon in the physical form which we label black walnut, oak, Norfolk Island Pine, mahogany. A tree, by definition, given how long it takes to reach its final size, is inter-generational (ours, at least, though I'm not sure about elephants). Embarking, as we have, and my friend Rod Croskery has, on extensive planting of black walnut, has thrust us into thinking about generations and inculcation of values.
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