Trees are amazing. Their shade cools us in the summer. In the winter, they buffer harsh winds. They bear a multitude of tasty fruits and nuts, often in extravagant abundance. We harvest wood and paper products to build our houses, to create books, newspapers and tissues. All the while, trees produce oxygen, remove carbon dioxide, build soil and reduce water pollution.

Trees even make us well when we are sick. Aspirin is derived from the willow, the cancer fighting drug Taxol® comes from yews, and many other medications come from trees.

Imagine a massive white oak with widely outspread branches witnessing the corner of a mid-western farmer’s field, dense spruce forests of New England, or a multicolored autumn landscape of mixed forests. What would these places be without their unique trees?

This book will help you learn to distinguish a red oak from a sugar maple.
We hope that this book stimulates your interest and concern for trees. They give us so much and they desperately need our attention.