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A View Of Columbus Through Rose-Colored Glasses
This column is dedicated to acknowledging examples of positives that express the community spirit of Columbus – our town.
Thanks to friends who inspire these little articles, share your ideas with me when you can. Throwing ideas to me is very helpful. A visit from Wanda Anglin, who had just presented a lecture on trees to the Girl Scouts, gave me the inspiration for this article. Wanda is a Texas Master Naturalist and a former owner of a tree farm.
It is pleasing to see a person supporting the girl scouts. Wanda and her husband, Frank, live on one of my favorite roads, Reece Lane. That was the location of Wanda’s tree farm. She had a very precise reason for getting out of retail. Her reason: people want to purchase and plant trees in the spring.
Trees should be planted in the winter for survival and success. Her stock had been Texas native trees, oak, loblolly, pine, etc. Again, remember to plant in winter. Texas summers are too hot and dry. Wanda’s love for trees began in her home state of Louisiana. After moving to Houston, she became acutely aware of houses with onetreeintheyard. She didn’t feel like it was “home.” She began planting trees and volunteering to work in the neighborhood park. She studied all about trees and became quite successful in planting. Frank actually accused her of having a “tree addiction.” His answer was to stop driving by single tree yards and always avoid tree farms.
It was her greatest pleasure when they moved to the country; she then began to grow her own trees for herself and others. The project lasted five years. She had the opportunity to sell her entire tree farm to a solar tree farm near Lake Jackson.
Now Wanda is absorbed in studying water quality and native Texas grasses and forbs wi ldf lowers. I’m sure you thought of our deceased friend, Quentin Sikes, I shared my copy of Quentin’s book with Wanda.
Of course, Wanda told why trees are important with the scouts and they discussed our town’s beautiful magnolia trees and crepe myrtles that flourish every year. The scouts learned that there are 60,000 known species of trees in the world. The oldest tree in the world is a bristlecone pine named Methuselah, almost 5,000 years old, located in the White Mountains in the Southern California desert.
Let’s all be good stewards of our outstanding Columbus trees and remember to teach children that favorite line, “I think that I shall never see a poem lovely as a tree.” Cheers to all those citizens who are Texas Master Naturalists, you inspire us.
