Trees provide a strong connection between people and nature. They are a vital pillar in ecosystems, and provide a backdrop against which lives unfold. They are so common, and yet so highly unlikely. In trees we see ourselves, our loved ones and nature unfurl and change with every new season.

There is a small Japanese Maple variety on our home property, on the west side of the house just outside the kitchen window. About three quarters of the tree is of the weeping variety, and the other quarter is reverted and shooting off of the the root stalk upright. The tree has different leaves, the weeping side laceleaf and the reverted side six-lobed. I’m not certain what caused the reverted, epicormic growth from the root stalk; maybe an old pruning cut, wound or other abiotic stress. The tree is gracefully stout, climbing upward and grooving outward.

About a week ago, I performed some maintenance on it in the form of root zone management and pruning.

I removed a combination of old permeable and non-permeable plastic landscape fabric from the root zone. It was unsightly, popping through the thin layer of mulch and decomposing leaves in various places. By removing the fabric, all of the small debris previously on top was mixed together and aerated, and the synthetic barrier between the decomposing organic debris and the fine, feeding roots of the tree was removed. This will aid the tree’s processes of water and nutrient uptake.

The pruning treatment included removing deadwood, reducing and thinning to make the tree more spacious for my son to climb in and play under. Cuts were made no greater than one inch in diameter. Furthermore, I hung a bird feeder on an intentional, three-inch long coronet cut and filled it with black sunflower seeds in order to attract birds, either migrants or residents. The thinning and reduction pruning provided clearance for the bird feeder, as well as clearance in the line-of-sight from the kitchen and living room windows, so that a clear view is always available of the birdhouse from inside the house.

So far, I have seen Black-capped chickadees, Cedar waxwings, a chipping sparrow, a Cardinal, and Tufted Titmice play in the branches of this little, unruly maple. The titmice and chickadees are the most frequent visitors, and have been adding to the organic mix over the critical root zone many hundreds of shucked sunflower seed shells. By providing a benefit for the birds in the form of food and habitat, they provide a benefit for the tree in the form of insect management and predation, soil aeration and nutrient return. Maybe there are some disadvantages to this relationship that I am naive to as well, but this is the barter of the ecosystem economy. It is a symbiotic existence-in this case a trinity of sorts between people, plants and wildlife. Interacting with this tree, just on a basic level, has profound affects on many aspects of the environment around it.

My son has taken a liking to climbing the little tree, and our family enjoys watching the birds visit the feeder either at the breakfast table or through a window in the living room that also provides a vantage point of the tree. We’ve started a bird list and so the little tree has given us several different recreational opportunities. By watching the branches flex and shake in the wind, or wet raindrops filtering down the branch system and onto the roots, we have no need for a weather app-the little maple forecasts a rain jacket or warm gloves before venturing out for a climb.

I would recommend everyone care for a tree in their yard. Mulch it, water it, and prune it. Pick the best window to sit by and watch it every so often. Put a bird feeder in it. See how the sun warms it and how the wind chills it-how a snowflake or a Cardinal visits for a moment, from the breakfast table or a well-worn recliner. A love seat, perhaps.

And soon it becomes the center of life-a branch to land on.