it's arbor day

This is an all-too-common sight that makes me very sad: hedge rows cut down in the name of better fencing or clear electrical lines. Such rows of stumps, many of which were mighty oaks, stretch along roads all over the Ozarks. Not that we are hurting for trees in southern Missouri—the Mark Twain National Forest covers some 1.5 million acres in our neck of the woods. Makes up for some of the carbon credits I'm burning getting to town. But still. There is something about a very ancient oak.