A “Nurse Tree” In Sabino Canyon — Images by kenne
2020 is the Year of the Nurse and Midwife by the World Health Organization (WHO) and the World Health Assembly (WHA) as the year to honor nurses and midwives to mark the 200th anniversary of the birth of Florence Nightingale who is considered the founder of modern nursing. Nurses and midwives are vital to providing health services to our communities. These people are devoting their lives to caring for mothers and children, giving lifesaving immunizations and health advice, looking after older people, and generally meeting everyday essential health needs. And they are often the first and only point of care, yet the world needs 9 million more nurses and midwives if it is to achieve universal health coverage by 2030.
The vital role of the nurse becomes a metaphor for those of us (Sabino Canyon Volunteer Nationalists) involved in teaching elementary school children about the importance and survival of saguaros in Sabino Canyon and the Sonoran Desert.
SCVN member, Debbie Bird, telling third graders about the “Nurse Tree.”
(She also got the attention of an elderly couple visiting Sabino Canyon.)
Often, for young saguaros to survive, they are located near another faster-growing tree that shelters the slower-growing plant by providing shade, shelter from the wind and sun, or protection from animals that may feed on the young plant. Such a plant is called a nurse tree. A metaphor easily understood by the children in conveying the important relationship between the tree and the saguaro. They get it!
— kenne
“Even though they’re dead, they are not gone — trees find a way to help each other out postmortem.”
— Allie Wisniewski, American Forests
oh, I had no idea. I love this background of the tree