You know, we’re really lucky, here in the Lakes Region, to live amongst so much greenery. Recently I saw an aerial view of a section of town and the many houses along a road couldn’t even be seen because of the trees’ canopies.

Like many of our newer residents and readers, I have lived in many places where the trees were few and far between. In some of those places there are arboretums, where trees are labeled. Sort of a living plant museum.

Boston has some trees along some of the streets – or at least, used to, but Boston Common is the expanse of green I recall best from my days there. I also used to walk over to the Fenway frequently when I lived in Back Bay. In New York, I spent many hours in Central Park and later, when I moved to Brooklyn, there were more parks. “There aren’t any trees!” was one of my first impressions of cities. Portland, of course, has Lincoln Park and Deering Oaks Park.

Here in Windham, no matter where you live, I’ll bet you can see some tall trees. Within a few hundred steps of that oft-talked about commercial district, from my second floor apartment, I can see two kinds of pine, sumac, poplar, birch and a whole grove of bamboo!

Old timers (my peer group) complain about the loss of the “stately elms” along Roosevelt Trail and may forget why they are gone – it had nothing to do with development, but the Dutch Elm Disease of years ago.

I really notice the loss of birch trees. They used to be so common when I was growing up, and now if I see a dozen or so together, I almost stop to look. I don’t think we used them up making canoes, but I know there aren’t as many as in years gone past. Due to development, many places where wild berries were free for the picking, have disappeared. There are few fields left where low-bush blueberries grow and it’s hard to justify going past a “no trespassing” sign just for those delicious, sweet blackberries clinging to the edge of the woods.

Keeping the edges of the roads cut back to neaten things up, has resulted in the loss of some elderberry patches, too. Future residents will have to be satisfied buying commercial elderberry wine – if it can be found at all!

But all in all, I think we are blessed to have kept as many trees as we have, but would like to see a site which isn’t entirely cleared before digging a spade of dirt. Leave some of those trees for the shade they provide. Leave the bushes alongside the road – for the buffering they naturally provide. And please, leave the stone walls.

See you next week.