Gifts From Trees

We have many reasons to appreciate our California forests. Maybe you have enjoyed hiking in the forest or hope to visit a forest on a camping trip with your family this year. Maybe you are lucky to live in a forest and you regularly venture out for a bike ride, to gather firewood or just to enjoy some time spent in the shade of a tree.

Download Gifts From Trees, a simple lesson to help students relate items in their daily lives to forests.

Trees provide us with beauty, oxygen, clean air and are even part of the water cycle. They provide habitat for animals and people. Trees are a renewable, recyclable and biodegradable resource. Here are a few examples of things that you can thank a tree for:

Tree Part	Description	Items
Leaves	Like solar panels that gather energy from the sun to make food for the tree. Tiny holes in the leaves called stomata take in carbon dioxide. Xylem cells transport water from the roots to the leaves. Water and carbon dioxide combine in the photosynthesis process to make glucose (food for tree) and oxygen.	Oxygen
Wood Fiber (from chips & sawdust)	Wood fiber (cellulose) is fed into a digester with chemicals, heat and pressure to separate the cellulose fibers from the lignin (the glue that holds the cellulose fibers together). The result is pulp, which is bleached, spread out on screens, pressed between rollers and sent through dryers to make paper.	Paper - news paper, books, disposable diapers, cardboard, magazines, toilet paper, paper towels, confetti, telephone books, posters, grocery bags, milk cartons, price tags, egg cartons, coffee filters, etc.
	Purified Cellulose	Rayon clothing, curtains, carpet, linoleum and tire cord
		Cellophane & plastic packaging
		Sausage casings
		Powdered cellulose as a thickener for toothpaste, ice cream, cough syrup, anti-clumping agent in parmesan cheese, binder for vitamin tablets
		Cellulose fibers are added to heat molded plastics & plastics that are very stretchy to make them strong: toothbrushes, ice cube trays, saran warp, hair brushes, football helmets, etc.
		Cosmetics & Paint - cellulose is a thickener for lipstick & shampoo, nail polish (contains nitrocellulose to make it shiny), nitrocellulose used in making rocket propellants & explosives
Tree Chemicals	Resins (sap), Oils, Gums - most are obtained as byproducts of the paper making process	Imitation vanilla extract, chewing gum, maple syrup Glycerol ester of wood rosin - citrus flavoring for soda pop Pine oil, turpentine, adhesives for bandages, tape and glue Cleaning products Medicine for high blood pressure and Parkinson's disease Cement additive Wax for candles and crayons Paint, varnish, shaving cream Torula yeast is a yeast grown in wood sugars that are extracted in pulping. This is a high protein yeast used in baby food, cereal and commercial baked goods
	Oil	Fragrances - approximately 60 percent of perfumes in the world market contain cedar wood oil form the cedar tree Pine-sol - cleaner active ingredient is pine oil Vicks Vapo Rub contains oil from the leaves and/or wood of the camphor tree (Cinnamomum camphora) native to eastern Asia.
		Rubber from latex of the rubber tree, Hevea brasileinsis (native to Brazil)
Fruits, Nuts & Spices		Bay leaves, nutmeg, cloves, allspice - all dried fruits or flowers of various trees Pine nuts (pinyon pine), apples, pears, plums, peaches, persimmons, cherries, oranges, lemons, grapefruits, pecans, walnuts, almond, cashews, olives, chocolate from the seeds of the cacao tree - native to Africa and South America. (Bananas are not from trees - banana plants are among the largest plants lacking a woody stem).
Bark	When oak bark is harvested for cork it does not kill the tree. The inner bark which transports the food is left intact and the tree forms a new cork layer. A tree 50 years old produces approx. 100 pounds of cork; one that is 80 or more can produce 500 pounds. Cork can be harvested every nine years after the tree reaches maturity.	Cork - used in bottle stoppers, shoe soles, floor and wall coverings, centers of baseballs & bulletin boards (from bark of cork oak (Quercus suber) native to Spain and Portugal.
		Root beer flavoring - originally came form sassafras oil form the root bark of the sassafras tree native to eastern US. cinnamon spice made from the inner bark of Cinnamomum zeylanicum, Native to Sri Lanka
	Bark removed from logs at sawmill	Landscaping bark, mulch, fuel for making electricity
Solid Wood		Lumber for homes, fencing, pencils (Approximately ¼ of the pencils in the world are made from incense-cedar (Calocedrus decurrens, native to southern Oregon and northern California.), guitars, heels for shoes, kitchen cabinets, inner core for snowboards & skateboards, pianos, drumsticks, flooring, popsicle sticks, furniture, charcoal briquettes for barbeques, water filters and artist's charcoal, firewood for heating homes, campfires and Christmas trees

Information Source: What's a Tree Done For You Lately? Some common products we get from trees and how they are made
Scott Leavengood, Oregon State University Extension Service
http://owic.oregonstate.edu/teachers.php

Photos courtesy of www.everystockphoto.com