I feel compelled to write a few words about a man who was very special to me and who recently passed on to a better world. I have to respect his family’s wishes to not have a funeral or memorial, but as my way of saying goodbye, I need to memorialize him.
I first met Ken Tidwell in 1998 when I came to work for Extension in Montgomery County. Ken had recently completed the Master Gardener class (1997) and then received his certification from me in 1998. I think we were kindred spirits from the beginning, both having a love of nature and trees. Trees especially!
In 1999, he gave me a book entitled, The Man Who Planted Trees, by Jean Giono. In this book the author proceeds on a walk across a desolate valley in the foothills of the Alps near Provence in 1914. He describes the area as dry and barren, unfit for man or beast. In his journey he meets a solitary shepherd, Elzeard Bouffier, who plants acorns in the desert.
[vimeo]http://vimeo.com/19426214[/vimeo]
The shepherd initially planted 100,000 acorns and of those, a total of 20,000 had sprouted. Out of that 20,000, he still expected to lose half of them to the unpredictable environment.
That left 10,000 trees to grow where nothing had ever grown before. Indeed, these first 10,000 trees and many more planted after filled the barren land and brought about a resurgence of native plants, water and life to villages in this land.
Ken Tidwell was our “man who planted trees” in Tennessee.
I still have a note he wrote to me in November of 2000 in reference to an article I had written about oak trees.
He says, “I LOVE OAKS! In addition to the Pin Oak and Shumard Oak I will plant 50 Black Oak, 50 Bur Oak, 50 Cherry Bark Oak, 50 White Oak and 50 Northern Red Oak for a total of 1,800 seedlings this winter.” Yes, just in November 2000 he planted 1,800 trees on his farm in Joelton.
In 2003 & 2004 I began working on my thesis adventure. My thesis study was about the importance of nature and shade trees in childcare learning centers. So I sat down and interviewed Mr. Tidwell who shared his visions of how children should be taught to love nature.
He believed they should learn outside, in nature’s classroom and was dismayed to realize that most children could tell you the name of every dinosaur that ever existed but take them for a walk in the woods and they could not tell an oak tree from a redbud!
We talked about how nature provided a sense of place for children.
My own love of trees was ingrained as a child when I would follow my father into the woods as he cut trees. Yes, he was a logger but he did not clear cut trees. I remember him picking out the best and leaving the rest to grow. Cull, broken trees were cut out of the way and used for firewood. Even today, the smell of leaves in the fall, tobacco smoke and crisp air take me back to the Missouri forest’s which I considered my playground.
In 2008, Mr. Tidwell won the Tennessee Small Farmer of the Year award for the labor of love he and friends implemented at the Tidwell Tree Farm in Joelton. I was so surprised to receive a card and a note from him thanking me for teaching him about planting trees! I was humbled by his remarks as I had learned more from him than anyone else I knew, except maybe dad!
The Tidwell Tree Farm is a working example of his passion and the dedication one man had for trees and I hope that it will continue to be protected as a natural area.
I know Mr. Tidwell lived a long, happy life on this ole’ world; and, although I didn’t get to say goodbye, I know I will see him again one day! Maybe Mr. Tidwell and dad are sitting on a cloud telling tales and talkin’ trees. I believe God is looking at him and saying, “Well done, good and faithful servant. Well done.”
When you remembered that all this had sprung from the hands and the soul of this one man, without technical resources, you understood that men could be as effectual as God in other realms than that of destruction.—From the Man Who Planted Trees
