A live oak tree in Live Oak, California; Wikimedia

by Julia Sneden

This morning our local paper printed a letter from an angry reader concerning a developer's plans to bulldoze yet another wooded area into oblivion. I happen to know the area referred to, because there's a small path through it that is just large enough and smooth enough for my mother's wheelchair. She particularly loves to be taken for a stroll in those woods, because getting out and away from people and pavement isn't easy when you're 95 and infirm.

I remember that once when we had paused beside a little creek that meanders through the trees and falls down a small slope, she looked into the gully and said:  "My, that is a bosky dell!"

"Bosky?" I asked.

"Bosky," my mother the English teacher said firmly. "It means covered with trees and shrubs. Thickly grown.  And a dell is a..."

"I know," I said, falling easily into our mother/teacher, daughter/pupil mode even though I am 66 years old. "A dell is a small valley or hollow, usually secluded."

"Good girl," she said, and we walked on. Readers of this column know that I am not a fan of sprawl (see Dante in the City). I find myself wondering how long it will take people to realize that when we take out trees, we take out the oxygen producers that keep us alive. Humans inhale oxygen and exhale carbon dioxide. Trees inhale carbon dioxide and exhale oxygen. It's that simple.

Read the rest of Julia's column: http://www.seniorwomen.com/news/index.php/the-bosky-dell-mid-beechy-umbrage-bosky-dell-tis-there-the-ringdove-loves-to-dwell

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