Naif in the Forest by Darrell Berger

Wing Tips to Hiking Boots: Musings of a New, Full-Time Poconos Resident 

The tree was dying. A landscaper helping us regrade our driveway said we were killing it. 

When the driveway was originally carved from the mountain, shale and other debris piled high around the trunk of the tree.  It was dying of thirst. She suggested she could carry away the debris and construct a barrier. It was worth doing because it is a beech tree. 

Beech trees have partially hollow trunks, home to small animals, who also eat beechnuts. The hollow trunks make them susceptible to be broken or blown over by high winds. Its wood is very versatile and is used in furniture, tool handles, plywood and railroad ties. Beech has a high heat rate and is also used as charcoal and firewood. It is pliable enough in thin cuttings to be used for drums and baskets. Its thin bark retains scars, making it a good medium for lovers’ initials and other carvers. Beech trees can live 300-400years. 

It was used for writing tablets before paper was invented. The Old Norse word for “beech” was “bok.” That became the name for objects containing writing. In several European languages the word for book and beech are almost identical. I wonder if some people stuck with the beech tablets long after the book appeared, early late adapters? 

Popsicle sticks are made from beechwood. The tree’s utility extends to advertising Beechnut baby food, chewing tobacco, gum and most famously, Budweiser’s “beechwood aging.” It is more precisely “beechwood hastening.” It is a nineteenth century process to hasten fermentation. The faster the fermentation, the more delicate the flavor. Or, the more imperceptible, depending on one’s taste. 

Last summer, after the debris barrier was installed, more leaves budded on what had become an almost barren tree. Now there are so many leaves it was hard to get a photograph of the whole tree. Instead, I have shown the lighter bottom leaves looking toward the darker ones above. It should be spectacular in the fall. Saving and planting trees might be the key to saving the human race. Sometimes, it gets personal.