This is about trees. I don’t care if
you’re a tree hugger or if you log for a living, few of us do not need,
appreciate and value our trees. For those of us who homestead, the needs
and values of our trees are clear and simple, right in front of us, part
of our homes, part of our lives every single day. From our trees, we
build our homes, our stock fences, our garden beds. From our trees, we
heat our home, cook our food, dry our clothes near the fire at night.
As homesteaders, our
trees provide for us. As homesteaders, we too, need to consider our
responsibility to the trees if we are to commit to the land. This does
not mean avoiding harvesting our own wood, or refraining from using wood
products. But it does mean responsibly managing our back yard woodlot.
And the easiest way to begin is to plant trees.
Rather than just
taking from our own land, we can give back at the same time. We can plant
trees. Now. What are we waiting for? Trees take longer to grow than
your garden, and we all find time to dig a garden. Yet consider this: the
trees will last longer and will contribute more to those coming after you,
even add more value, both monetarily and intrinsically, to your land than
a few tomato plants.
I look around today
and see many modern would- or could-be homesteads, small subdivision lots,
with a house smack dab in the middle, a garden dug in the back, and
nothing else around except the neighbor’s fence. Do they not consider
their land a homestead? Or do they just not want to commit to and care
for their land?
Yes, you can be a
modern homesteader on 10 acres. Or 5 acres. Even one acre. If, and
that’s the key, if… if you act like a homesteader. Treat your land like a
homesteader would. And you can homestead on .5 acres or even in an
apartment with a sunny window. Time and space are no excuse. The spirit
of the homesteader can come through even in the smallest of spaces. Here,
let’s take a quick look through our country’s history of homesteaders to
find some specifics about the integral relationship between homesteaders
and trees.
In 1862, President
Abraham Lincoln signed into law The Homestead Act. This Act enabled
individuals to file for a quarter section (160 acres) of free land. The
land was theirs at the end of five years if they had build a house on it,
dug a well, cultivated 10 acres, fenced part of the property, and actually
lived there. All this for an $18 filing fee.
Cultivating those 10
acres of land specifically involved breaking the land, or plowing; then
planting. Crops or trees. Trees were the more common and practical
choice for part or all of the fulfillment. Think about it: if you had to
cultivate 10 acres out on the plains, with hand or horse power, would you
plant a 10 acre garden, or would you choose trees? You can imagine why
trees where the choice to cultivate for our original homesteaders.
To further encourage the cultivation of
trees for homesteaders, The Timber Culture Act was passed in 1873, giving
individuals the right to claim 160 acres of additional land by planting
and successfully cultivating 40 acres of trees and attending them for 10
years. Later this requirement was reduced to 10 acres and 8 years of
care. Mind you, this Act was not as successful either for the
encouragement of development by our government, nor for the humble
homesteader. For most settlers in the arid plains, succeeding even at the
reduced levels was a practical impossibility, due to the lack of water.
However, in any case,
we see that the value of trees for the homesteader is nothing new.
Although historically, the cultivation of trees is a part of what define
us as homesteaders, we should not need laws and regulations to point this
out; only common sense.
