Blog by Sister Terri Schell, OP
Director of the Shepherd’s Corner Ecology Center, Blacklick, OH
In our 2022 Chapter Commitments, the Dominican Sisters of Peace committed to treasure and reverence for the Earth in accordance with the teaching of Laudato Si’.
The federal government has targeted tens of millions of acres of U.S. forests for commercial use and regulatory rollbacks. They are moving to rescind the 2001 Roadless Rule on roughly 44 million acres of national forests to allow logging and roadbuilding and fast-tracking environmental reviews by eliminating public comment requirements for environmental reviews. Earlier this month, more than 400 trees were cleared on public land in Washington DC without approval or public comment.
For the next few weeks, we will be emphasizing the importance of old-growth trees to the health of our environment and our community. This week, we’re sharing educational materials from our Shepherd’s Corner Ecology Center in Ohio.
To learn more about the importance of mature forests and trees, visit the Arbor Day Foundation website. If you are inspired to replace trees being uprooted, please consider making a donation.he following blog is a section of a script read to visitors at Shepherd’s Corner Ecology Center. To learn more about the importance of mature forests and trees, visit the Arbor Day Foundation website. If you are inspired to replace trees being uprooted, please consider making a donation.
Shepherd’s Corner is the caregiver of a mature forest on the farthest western section of the land. This forest is almost 80 years old!
With time and care, it has begun to resemble the forests of ancient times, before colonization. Why is this important?
Old-growth forests offer unique habitats that young forests cannot. The big trees block out enough light so that heat-sensitive plants on the forest floor can survive. These floor plants and decaying large trees offer wonderful homes to insects, mammals, and birds.
Old-growth forests are also essential carbon sinks – an ecosystem that captures and stores the carbon that is driving climate change.
Old trees produce more oxygen than young trees do. Take a deep breath in, wherever you are. For one day of production, one mature oak tree can produce nearly half of the oxygen the average person needs in one day.
We say thank you to our tree elders.
To learn more about the ecological ministries of the Dominican Sisters of Peace, visit oppeace.org.
More on Ohio Old-Growth Forests
