I like trees because they seem more resigned to the way they have to live than other things do.
Willa Cather (1873-1947)
When I was a young lad my father bought me a pocket knife. Almost a rite of passage, I think every young man gets a pocket knife at one point or another in his young life, and it is one of the most thrilling acquisitions imaginable. Like the hammer that makes everything look like a nail, when one has a pocket knife everything looks like it should be carved.
Please note that this does not include sisters or dogs or much of anything frankly that people care about. One thing that does seem to be available is trees. In fact in some cultures I gather it is customary for young men who are in love to carve their initials, along with those of their beloved, into a tree. I was a bit young for a beloved but I had plenty of trees about, living in the countryside, and so I found a tree and savagely carved my initials in it.
When I was finished with that I felt that the knife probably needed further testing, so I kept on going and gradually made my way all the way around the tree. One of the neighbors noticed me busy at this work and came over to me in utter dismay. “Do you know you just killed that tree?!” I had no idea. I was (I know I’ve used this excuse before) just a kid.
He explained that the tree needed bark at least partially around the trunk to survive and to move food down to the roots and other parts of the tree. An important part of the circulatory system of a tree is found in its bark. I thought it was just a protection, a shield against the world, and indeed it is. However it is more than that.
Xylem (what most call wood) in the center of the tree uses capillary action to bring water up from the roots to all the parts of the tree so that it can be used by the leaves for photosynthesis. Phloem in the inner bark transports the nutrients from the leaves down to the other parts of the tree. Between them, xylem and phloem (I love that name) are the circulatory system of the tree.
I did not know that then, but I watched that tree die in horror. I was a tree murderer! I had to walk past my victim on the way to the bus stop.
Since that time I have gone to forestry school (West Virginia University, Class of ’79 or as some of us prefer, Ancient Pagans) and learned much more about it. The practice is called girdling, and is sometimes used by lazy but patient folks who want to clear land with minimal effort. It is easier to control than fire.
I learned in forestry school that in between the bark (phloem) and the section of the tree we normally think of as wood (xylem) there is a layer called cambium. That cambium, like our own stem cells, is where cells split and grow rapidly. It is the growing layer of the tree just underneath the bark. Cells that go inward, building up the rings of the tree that we can count to determine age, become xylem. Cells moving outward become phloem. After performing their nutrient transport work, they gradually die and become the protective layer we call bark.
My son (and illustrator) Eric created this helpful diagram.
In truth, there is a primary and secondary xylem/phloem system with meristematic tissues and further complications, but for that maybe you should go to forestry schools, as they know the details.
If you REALLY want to explore something fascinating, check out apical meristems! But don’t forget to come back sometime for the rest of the story.
Removing or damaging the phloem and cambium all the way around the tree causes a slow death. When a rascal takes a pocket knife and carves his way through the phloem, he has become an executioner. When a cord from a hammock cuts through the bark and grinds its way around the tree, two trees can be executed at once. In addition, some trees have thinner, more delicate bark than others.
When I was a beginning Scoutmaster, I joined the Troop at summer camp. I was busy slinging up my clothes at one point when one of the mothers came over to me and pointed out how dangerous the clothes line could be to the trees. I wasn’t putting a LOT of weight on that clothes line, and I wasn’t planning to leave it up for a very long time, but ‘scuses, ‘scuses she was absolutely right.
She then showed me a cool trick. Take small sticks and place them vertically under the cord at intervals around the trunk. The wear and tear on the tree takes place in thin vertical strips and leaves plenty of phloem unaffected and available for the tree to continue to feed itself. It still damages the bark somewhat, but it is not a life-threatening situation. I thanked her, and later that week our Scoutmaster awarded me the hammock merit badge for adapting the technique to my hammock straps. No, there is no hammock merit badge – but he pulled out some colored markers and made me the very first one on the spot.
You can see below that if you pick your sticks well, they can actually be hooked over the rope to stay in place. The ones on right and left have this feature.
Ever since then I have been considering her suggestion, which is part of a wilderness, and scouting, standard of “Leave No Trace.” It could be used to make my one-inch webbing straps even safer for the trees that I wrapped them around. I decided that if these were rings that stayed on the strap and could be shifted to move the protection about, it would be far more convenient. Thus Homers were born!
If there is any problem with Homers, they do start to shred and microlitter. I try to clean up shreds, but may have to resort to something not swiped from my kids.
I would like to see my hammock brethren and sistren, at the very least, using this stick trick (or Homers) to prevent injury to trees – and reduce the reasonable concerns about tree ànd hammock interactions at parks and public spaces.
I spoke with a minister once. I told him I was a Pantheistic Agnostic. He thought for a bit. ” I understand Agnostic, but Pantheistic? You think God lives in rocks or trees?”
I replied “Do you think if he wanted to, he couldn’t?”
Hammock slingers are the “original” tree huggers!
I am the Lorax. I speak for the trees.
God bless Dr. Seuss, aka Ted Geisel
Mi Mayan Hamaca 