Deforestation When you see the word, deforestation, you think of the Amazon River Basin in Brazil or the Congo River Basin in Africa, and you’re right on target. These huge, tropical rainforests are sometimes called the lungs of the earth, and make no bones about it, they are extremely important. Their loss would be catastrophic, but they are in grave danger. A few decades back our family went with a church building team from El Dorado First Baptist Church and Three Creeks Baptist Church to central Brazil. The final leg of the journey was flying from the town from Manus, Brazil in a regional carrier. We were flying over dense rainforest all the way to our destination, and I was sitting upfront almost by the co-plot, when I nudged the co-pilot and pointed toward the line of black clouds. “Thunderstorms?” I questioned “Just smoke from cattle ranchers burning the forest,” he replied. Yes, that was several years back, but deforestation is still taking place in Brazil. The recent environment summit in Scotland called for that practice to be eliminated, and Brazil has agreed. However, based on the President of Brazil’s pro-clearcutting actions over the past several years, few people expect him to hold to the agreement. However, deforestation is not just happening in the tropical rainforests, it is occurring every day in most cities and towns in the “Natural” State. Let me give you some examples from El Dorado. We don’t have a landscaping or tree ordinance in our town, so you can do just about anything with a piece of your property, if it pertains to trees or landscaping. Almost all of our parking lots are as blank as you can get them. Of course, there have been several studies that have compared landscaped parking lots with trees to parking lots without them, and the landscaped lots had 25% more customers than the non-landscaped lots. Dan Burder, a Senior Urban Designer, estimates that over its life a single downtown street tree has $90,000 in direct benefits, and on a residential street with trees, houses sell for an average of 10% more than a street without trees. It must be that El Dorado and most Arkansas cities don’t understand basic economics because we whack away as if trees just get in the way. Now let’s step on a few more toes. El Dorado has a relatively new high school, which is a gorgeous, well-planned series of inter-connected buildings. However, the site, which is a large significant piece of property, has been scraped off. It has one tree remaining in the front of the school. Hugh Goodwin Elementary, our award winning Blue Ribbon School, has just cut down a large pin oak tree, and over trimmed two others. But I will give them credit for planting one tree in the front. However, they need to add not cut down. But it seems the education community is unaware of the value of trees, since they cut down three sidewalk street trees in front of the headquarter building, which were trees I planted. Now let me put my money where my mouth is, which is planting trees, and if you want to join me jump in. I will make a $500 donation to the El Dorado School System, if the school will use it to plant trees on the new high school property. If you donate fifty dollars, it will be enough to plant a tree on other school properties, and it can be for any street tree on any public property in the state. Just send me your commitment of how many dollars you will donate, and where, and I will make sure those dollars buy trees. We must develop a pro-tree attitude, and plant a tree in every spot possible, and refrain from clearing the land when we develop. If you remove a significant tree from your property, you reduce its value, and that’s not environmentalist Richard speaking, but realtors and the IRS. What could be more natural to a state, which calls itself “The Natural State” than trees? Of course the history of our state is rampant with deforestation as the great east Arkansas flood plain of the Mississippi was essentially clear-cut and the huge swamps drained, and yes I know that made the fertile land available for farming, but instead of 95% deforestation couldn’t we have saved more? My uncle lived and farmed in the boot heel of Missouri, and he commented that at least 25% of the land cleared was less than quality farm land. I know when we hear about things such as deforestation, while China and India are still constructing coal fired electrical generating plants, we think we’re isolated from those practices, and if China, India, and Brazil would get their act together, we could get global warming under control. However, the problem is worldwide, and the cumulative destruction of forests whether they were cut down and eliminated a hundred years ago or last year created the problem. The earth has lost a huge percentage of its tree cover, and it continues to lose trees at an alarming rate. A study a few years back estimated 8 trees are cut down for every 1 planted. What the world needs now is more trees, and it needs an attitude that trees are a vital part of our lives, and are keys to a healthy planet. I’ve touched on attitude several times in previous columns, and of course, that’s the way it is with most things. Cutting down trees and not replacing them is an attitude problem. If we get right down to it, cutting down trees, littering the highway, not using plastic bags, and adding waste to our stream and oceans, are all part of the same problem. If we are going to restore trees to our towns and cities we must have the inner desire to consider trees an integral part of our environment. As I drive around and look at our town and others in the state, I look with a critical eye, and I see the empty lots and front yards where a tree would make a difference. However, we do have some excellent examples of landscaping with trees here in El Dorado. The next time you are downtown, look at the block north of the courthouse where Murphy USA, the former Murphy Oil Building, and the Newton Museum are located. What if the rest of our town looked even close to the way that block looks? We’re gaining on the trees and landscaping in downtown El Dorado (over 1000 downtown trees have been planted). And of course our town is better off because of the trees. Our downtown won a national award for the best Main Street Downtown, and one of the factors the judges commented on was the great tree canopy. Now if we can just keep our Mayor and Public Works Director from whacking them down, maybe our downtown can continue to be an example of how urban tree planting can beautify a downtown as well as cut utility cost. Just think; if everyone who reads this column would plant one tree what a difference it would make. Plant a tree!

Arkansas by Richard Mason : Arkansas by Richard Mason---Downtown Trees

Arkansas by Richard Mason : Arkansas by Richard Mason---Downtown Trees:      ARKANSAS                                     BY                     Richard Mason                           DOWNTOWN TREE...

Arkansas by Richard Mason---Downtown Trees

     ARKANSAS

                                    BY

                    Richard Mason

                          DOWNTOWN TREES

In many of our towns and cities, downtown improvement associations, city governments, and interested individuals have joined together to plant trees. They look nice, and many of them cover‑up some unsightly architecture.  But do trees in our downtowns provide other uses?  How about wildlife habitat, lower utility bills, and ambiance? Let's take a close look at downtown trees. 

First, let me say that my hometown, El Dorado, has a master plan for downtown tree planting.  The year by year implementation of this plan has resulted in over 1000 trees planted.  My comments here are being written as I look into a downtown that is literally full of trees. El Dorado's downtown trees are a mix of Ornamental Bradford Pear, Live Oak, Red Oak, Sycamore, and Sweet Gum extending out over a twenty block area. As our trees mature, they rise above the mostly two story buildings in the downtown, and as they have gotten larger, their use by wildlife has increased.  Numerous downtown trees are now roosting areas for a wide variety of birds.  Granted, not all of our downtown birds are the most desirable of the species, but on the whole, the cumulative effect of several thousand birds in a downtown is positive.  As the trees get larger, nesting occurs.  On a recent trip to Houston, I passed a mall with several Bradford Pear Trees planted in a parking lot.  In one tree, I counted six nests.  In several major cities, the downtown trees which attract a general mix of smaller birds, have brought in hawks and falcons, which prey on these birds.  Several falcons have even nested on building ledges, adapting to tall buildings as if they were mountains.  Recently in Chicago, one of the most popular public television programs was a still television camera trained on a falcon's nest.

            Spring comes to my downtown with the Bradford Pear Trees in full bloom.  Honey bees by the thousands invade the city to work the pear blossoms.  In the fall as acorns fall from the numerous oaks, birds feast on the acorns crushed by cars or pedestrians.  At night, when the city sleeps,  numerous opossums, raccoons, and skunks roam our back alleys, and our trees serve as a place of refuge or as a spot to prey on the roosting birds. Just the presence of hundreds of trees in an otherwise sterile downtown setting is conducive to wildlife.  Birds crossing from one area to the next pause in our trees. 

Across the country, thousands of trees have been planted in downtowns.  Each one of these trees is looked upon by wildlife as either a source of food or shelter.  When the tree planting is supplemented by the addition of shrubs or other low bush planting, the wildlife usage jumps.  Vacant lots or even parking areas can be mini‑wildlife corridors by merely planting trees, shrubs, and grasses along their back edges.  As more and more habitat is lost to urban development, these city trees and shrubs become more and more attractive to wildlife.

And finally, one more good reason to plant downtown trees; lower utility bills for your downtown merchants.  No, it's not only because of the shade of the leaves, it's more complicated than that.  When our first satellites carrying heat sensors scanned the country, they immediately detected hot spots in every town and city of any size.  If you have ever walked across a blacktop highway barefoot, you understand how asphalt, concrete, and other building materials hold heat.  The average downtown is sometimes 10 degrees hotter than the surrounding countryside.  When the satellite data was closely analyzed, certain areas within a city would stand out as cooler than other areas.  It became very clear that cities with parks and downtown trees were substantially cooler than a city without trees.  A downtown with good tree planting can have midsummer temperatures as much as 10 degrees cooler than a comparable city without trees.  Translate that to your electric bill and you can have as much as a $50.00 to $100.00 a month reduction. 

So the next time you look at your downtown, try to imagine a beautiful tree every 25 feet along every street.  What a difference it would make.  A difference not only for wildlife, but as a beautiful addition to a bare street and as a cooling agent for those hot Arkansas summers.

Richard can be contacted at richard@gibraltarenergy.com

What's a Woman Doing in My Restroom?

            ARKANSAS

                          BY

                Richard Mason

What’s a Woman Doing in My Restroom?

Actually, I thought at first I was in the wrong restroom, because there was a woman washing her hands at the lavatory. But then a man came out from one of the stalls and headed for the lavatories, and in seconds there were men and women standing there washing their hands while others entered the stalls. Yes, that was restroom wake-up for me. So here’s my take on the restroom controversy here in the USA.

Restroom use seems to be the question of the moment, and states such as North Carolina have taken it upon themselves to try and direct restroom traffic. Yes, that’s right, and as the squeeze of dollars keeps hitting, them they will probable cave in and open those restroom doors to transgender folks. But it doesn’t have to be that way.

Let me back up and give you the whole story about having women in my restroom. My wife and I were on vacation heading for Dijon, France, and we landed in Geneva, Switzerland where we would catch a train to Dijon. We walked through Swiss immigration and customs---which took about two minutes and then into the main airport terminal. I had been needing to take a restroom break ever since we landed, so I began to check for restroom signs. Well, the Swiss have plenty of signage and clocks, and sure enough a series of arrows pointed toward the restrooms. I picked up the pace, looked back at my wife, and said, “I’m going to stop in the restroom before we get a taxi.” She nodded and I hurried on to the area where I could see the very obvious man and woman signage over a door. I stepped inside expecting to find a hallway to another entrance, which naturally would be to the men’s room and another to the women’s restroom. After about three steps into the room, I was sure I was in the women’s restroom because a women was washing her hands at one of the lavatories, and I turned to leave just as a man came out of one of the stalls. What? What? What? Flashed through my brain.

This is how the Swiss restroom area in the Geneva airport was set up: it was a fair sized room with about a half dozen wash basins on one side of the room and about the same number of stalls on the other side of the room. The stalls had doors, which you easily lock after you entered. It was that simple. After a few seconds I figure it out, stepped in one of the stalls, locked the door, and used the facility. As I finished my restroom break, the room filled with men, women, and children. Several planes had just landed, and it was a wait-in-line to use the restroom. Did anyone get upset? Did anyone worry about children being in the same restroom with men or women or who knows, transgender? No, not in the least, and it seemed to me the Swiss are showing us how to solve our restroom phobia. Simple, efficient Swiss ingenuity is what flashed through my mind, and I wondered why we didn’t copy something that would solve any restroom problems you could imagine, and save millions of dollars in doing duplication restrooms?  For gosh sakes, folks, after seeing what people are wearing to the mall going to the restroom together is nothing.

But my restroom experience didn’t stop with Geneva. The next day we headed to Dijon, and in various train stations, I ran into another restroom problem. The French, in most train and airport stations charge to use the restrooms. They are separate and the price changes if you want to do # 1 or # 2. There is an attendant on duty to mainly make change, and the restrooms are separate. That my friend is a step backward in restroom design. Seventy cents to use the bathroom, even if it’s just to do # 1? I know other countries do the same thing in airports, but that’s exactly the wrong way to handle the restroom problem.

After Dijon it was on to London, and after standing in a two hour to get through immigration (the Brits are frantic that thousands of refugees are going to flood into the country and they put everyone through the slow---“You’re not getting in this country  if you are from _______fill in the blank.) Well, the Brits have free restrooms for the most part, and the airport ones were about what you would find in the USA. However, in London, right off Trafalgar Square, I saw a circular kiosk and it had a stall like portal about every two feet where a man could stand on the sidewalk and get up close to the stall and urinate. No, I didn’t try it out, because I really don’t think I could have managed with hundreds of people passing.

Well, so much for the restroom problem. No, I don’t like the going on the sidewalk in London, or paying to pee in France, but the Swiss one restroom for all, seems a perfect fit for any county.

Is We Civilized

             ARKANSAS

                                 BY

                       Richard Mason

                         Is We Civilized?

No, not completely. We may be the most powerful nation on earth, and the most technologically advanced country, in the world, but we're not the most civilized. Yes, as a red blooded American, I know we're supposed to go around with a “we're number one” attitude, on everything, and that fine. Heck, I have that attitude, and I wouldn't want it any other way. But let's talk about being civilized, and be honest on where we stand.

Well, what are the keys to a civilized country? Civilized nations do have many things in common. But before we consider items such as healthcare and other criterion let me relate a story about attitude. After all a civilized county must reflect being civilized in everything a person does, or it reduces the mark of a civilized society. Here’s a little story about a civilized attitude.

We were on vacation in Switzerland, and were traveling by train when we stopped at a fair size town for lunch. As we walked into the center of town it was obvious they were preparing for a parade. Of course, we were tickled that we had lucked out, and after speaking with one of the policemen on duty, we found out it was a military parade. We found a good spot to stand and soon we heard a military band, and then leading the parade came a squad of Swiss Mountain Soldiers carrying crossbows. The parade lasted for several hours and as Swiss army units passed they went from knights on horseback forward portraying every era of the Swiss Military. And then, as the units became more and more modernized, the last unit passed were Swiss Special Forces in white, winter uniforms. It was a great parade, but one small incident sticks in my mind. Just to our left where we were standing was a young Swiss girl who looked to be about 10 years old. She was with her family, and they looked to be an average Swiss family out to watch the parade as we were. One unit passed that got them especially excited to the point where they yelled and clapped. It was group of Swiss Special Mountain Soldiers. I smiled as I noticed one of the soldiers nod in recognition, and it sure didn't take much guessing to know he was part of the family.

The parade took over two hours and somewhere toward the middle of the parade the young girl managed to buy some sort of an ice cream snack. I just happened to notice that as she finished her ice cream bar, she started looking for a trash can. I actually glanced around, and there wasn't one in sight. Well, I didn't give it much thought until I saw her neatly fold up the wrapper and put it in her pocket. The parade finally ended and as the crowd left the street, I made a point to look along the street and sidewalks where people had been standing. There wasn't a scrap of trash.

Yes, the lack of litter is a sign of a civilized society. We lived in Benghazi, Libya for two years and traveled North Africa extensively. As we went in and out of those third world countries the people and buildings changed, but not the liter. I've traveled throughout Mexico and to several countries in South America, and I can guarantee you the one thing they have in common is litter.

While we lived in Libya we went on vacation visiting most of the countries in Western Europe. It was easy to see the difference. The more civilized the country the less litter. Okay, so how do we stand on the litter scale compared to a third world country? We're sure a notch up, but we’re not at the top of the list. Are we uncivilized? Yes, in some ways we are, but it’s not just the littler we toss out. Being civilized is a quality and that is spelled out by our attitude. The little Swiss girl had a civilized attitude, and until that attitude permeates every item of our society, we can’t say we’re totally civilized. That's a mindset that says "no more coal fired generating plants, serve freshly prepared foods with no chemicals added, a mindset that makes litter disappear, an emphasis on education rather than sports, a commitment to plant, beautify, preserve, and a restoration of our environment. That requires a civilized mindset, and just building bigger buildings with super technology won’t ever get us completely civilized.

Left Lives Matter

ARKANSAS

                                      BY

                            Richard Mason

                          Left Lives Matter

I know that sounds trite to you righties, but live a day as a lefty, and you’ll at least have a little sympathy for a small segment of our society. Lefties make up about 10% of the population, and we have faced discrimination since the beginning of recorded history. According to some reports, left-handers suffered severe prejudice during the 18th and 19th centuries, and it was often “beaten out” of them. Even the Latin word for “left” has as an alternate meaning, “sinister,” and in the Bible lefties are put in the same category as “goats.”

The trials and tribulations of a lefty start early in school when your teacher places a writing tablet on a right-handed desk, and you have to do a crab claw turn of you left hand to even write. And as you get older, discrimination increases even up to the highest levels of our country. Our president, who is catching a lot of negative comments about his policies, which some people think it’s because of his brown skin, is really because he's left handed. And, if we consider presidents for a moment, you will find, of the last four presidents, three, Barack Obama, Bill Clinton, and George Bush Sr. were lefties, and of course George W. Bush was a righty—figures. I know you’re wondering about Hillary—yes she’s a lefty and The Donald is a righty.

Discrimination of a lefty goes everywhere. Consider a dining night out.   A lefty must drive in a right-handed designed car, and of course even to start the car you have to reach across to the 'right' side, and then, drive on the right side of the road. Then when you pull into the restaurant parking lot, your wife will invariable say, "You're going the wrong way!" Yes, all parking lots are designed for righties. That’s one of the reasons why an estimated 2500 lefties die each year trying to navigate right-hand roads, road signs, and power saws. Of course, all office and shop equipment is designed for a righty, and so are power saws. Lefties who work with table saws and other power equipment rarely have ten fingers.

After a lefty is seated at a restaurant, they must change the place-setting to a left setting, put up with being served from the wrong side, as if they were a righty, and they can't even butter their bread because there is a right-handed butter knife. Yes, there are right handed butter knives! Then, there are the harsh stares from a righty next to a leftie as their elbow bumps an obtrusive right arm. That's right, those righties think they own the table.

Of course, I do have some satisfaction to know that there are no left-handed Muslim terrorists, (All Muslims are taught to use their right hand, and use their left hand when wiping at the toilet.).And most of the dictators from the beginning of time we're righties. Vladimir Putin, Hitler, Napoleon, Mussolini, Tojo, Count Dracula, and Stalin are or were righties, and Pope Francis and Billy Graham are lefties.--A coincidence? I don’t think so.

Ah, but we lefties have some built in advantages, and if you have ever tried to return a lefties tennis serve to the add court, you realize lefties can do some things a lot better than a righty, and that’s why 40% of the top tennis pros are lefties. Yes, sports do give lefties a boost and Babe Ruth, Arnold Palmer, Jimmy Connors and John McEnroe are proof. Another study of left handed college graduates and right handed graduates show lefties turn out to be 26% richer than righties. And a study from St. Lawrence University in New York finds that more lefties score higher than 140 on an I. Q. test than righties. I guess that mean we lefties are smarter and richer than the rest of the world.

Famous lefties have been responsible for most of what we take for granted in this old world. Just a few come to mind: Benjamin Franklin, Churchill, Mozart, Rembrandt, and Van Gogh, and if you want a little glamor, consider Marilyn Monroe and Angelina Jolie.  I do have a good bit of   satisfaction knowing that most of the creative items of our society were invented by lefties. When you call on your cell phone or type on a computer, thank a lefty.  That's right Steve Jobs is a lefty, and so is Bill Gates, and don't forget, if you like Facebook, another lefty, Mark Zuckerberg invented it. And if we look back into almost any of the former creative people that have ever lived, we have a list of notables: Leonardo Da Vinci, Michelangelo, Picasso, and Albert Einstein; all lefties. Of course, the first and second man on the Moon were lefties; Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin,

Well, as in most areas of discrimination, it takes a long time for the majority to recognize a need to right wrongs, and since lefties are a humble, contrite minority of our population, we likely won't be demonstrating in the streets protesting our plight, but maybe one day on your tax return there will be a box saying, “Check, if you are a lefty and deduct 10% from your tax due.” Actually, as a whole, lefties are the most creative people on earth, and we should honor lefties with a national holiday. August 13 is International Left Hander’s Day, but it should be a national holiday like Christmas, where the righties of the world give gifts of appreciation to lefties in recognition of their creativity.

Yes, Left Lives Matter!

The Curb Appeal of Downtown Pine Bluff

                  ARKANSAS

                                        BY

                              Richard Mason

          The Curb Appeal of Downtown Pine Bluff

“You have got to be kidding.” Of course, even if you haven’t been to Pine Bluff lately, you have an opinion from reading about buildings falling in the street, streets closed, and the appalling condition of their downtown. Yes, it’s really sad, but the reason I’m writing about Pine Bluff is not to rub their noses in the mess, but to alert the citizens of Pine Bluff and the rest of the state to the seriousness of this situation. This is it in a nutshell: When the center of a town is considered to be a failure, the whole town is perceived to be a failure. Yes, Pine Bluff, as a town, is considered a failure primarily because of a failed downtown. Their downtown has reverse curb appeal.

Well, what is curb appeal, and how does it work, and would it help thousands of ugly Arkansas cities and towns? Yes, they all can be helped, and for a lot less money than it takes to bribe a Chinese Pulp Mill into setting up shop.

I really think you have to see curb appeal to understand how it works. Oh, we plan a vacation to Europe or Santa Fe without even considering that our choice was very likely determined by curb appeal. I know, when you consider visiting Switzerland, you think you will be taking in all those wonderful mountain views, but you won't. Yes, you will see the majestic mountains, but you'll spend the majority of your time in the small towns and cities, and when you return home you will rave about the great vacation in the Alps. Yes, you did vacation in the Alps, but those mountains were just the backdrop for the quaint, charming towns and villages in the country. What really made your vacation pop was curb appeal. Of course, here in Arkansas we tend to think of curb appeal as a planter of flowers in front of a business or a token tree. But curb appeal is so much more than that. It's underground utilities, a strict sign ordinance, it's preserving historic buildings, and yes it is planting thousands of trees along with more flowering plants than you can count.

I think most reasonable people will agree that all of the above recommendations sound pretty good, but the question is why do these positive ideas sit on the back burner of our economic development program? Huh? Yep, those recommendations are considered fluff. What we actually do is give the Chinese another 100 million to put in a polluting pulp mill. However, curb appeal costs only a fraction of what we regularly dole out to entice industrial development, and the benefits are multigenerational lasting. Those ideas should be on the top of every town’s economic development program, but of course they aren't even on the list. Why? Well to be brutally honest we're stupidly stuck in 50s with the concept that adding or creating jobs at any cost is the best way to improve the quality of life, and to hell with the environment.

We live in a capitalistic society, and that means our driving focus is based on an economic model. Well, I'm okay with that, but when we ignore things like beautification thinking we shouldn't waste money on those items, we're missing some of the core values of commerce. The curb appeal that sells houses sells towns. We have ignored our towns, especially our downtowns in the state until we have bricks in the street. Yes, it is a terrible indictment for a community to sink to the level where buildings actually fall in the street. That is curb appeal in reverse. Bricks in the street drive nails in the coffin. That anti-curb appeal will slowly eat away at a town until the community is a former skeleton of what it once was, and the remaining civic leaders will still be saying, "We need more jobs, jobs, jobs ...” If Pine Bluff had a beautiful, thriving downtown would their still be a flood of people saying, “Goodbye, Pine Bluff?”

Pine Bluff can make a comeback, but if their city essentially ignores their Downtown, it’s is going to be an uphill battle. What Pine Bluff should do is pass a one cent sales tax and dedicate a goodly portion of that money to creating a quality downtown. Yes, spend money rather than blowing hot air moaning about how terrible things are. And a word to the Pine Bluff City Council. Don’t try to pass the buck and blame the mess on the property owners. Gut up and pass ordinances that will either make the property owner maintain their property or sell it. But for God’s sake! Do something!  

Unless, the center of Pine Bluff regains its stature as a symbol of quality, the goal to bring back this community from the edge of total failure is going to be an impossible job.