On Wednesday morning, I left the house to go to the zoo with Carter when I intentionally stopped to see how much Spring foliage had progressed. By the time we returned home for the afternoon nap, the forsythia shrubs were in flamingly full yellow bloom!
This reminds me of how fragile and how complex nature truly is...
After recently completing an article on green options for decking materials for DeckWorld Magazine, I made a connection between this forsythia shrub and the Amazon rainforests about which I warned readers to preserve.
According to the Rainforest Alliance, "United States National Cancer Institute has identified 3,000 plants that are active against cancer cells. Seventy percent of these plants are found in the rainforest."
Watching the delicacy of the forsythia in its ability to bloom at a specific hour, I am reminded that all of nature is indeed fragile. Not only is it fragile, but we depend on its ability to endure.
One of the points I made in the article was that woods from rainforest locales as well as other areas such as Indonesia should be avoided because the fragility of their native ecosystems are dependent upon their existence.
The Rainforestweb site states, “Logging damages up to half the area to get at just a few trees, eliminating up to 50% of the canopy and bulldozing roads and skid trails through pristine old growth forests. Ipê occurs in densities of only one or two trees per acre and only a tiny fraction of the entire tree yields four-side-clear 2x4s (as little as 5 board feet!).”
Home Depot's EcoOptions website has incredibly good resources for alternate wood options as well as other eco-friendly tips and advice for the home.
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