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BLACK LIVES MATTER.

A Note to Our Community:

Trees have a complex history in America. There are the stories of Johnny Appleseed, who planted apple trees across early settlements but the kind used for cider, not for eating. There is the legend of George Washington and his cherry tree - "I cannot tell a lie." And then there are the trees used by racist mobs to hang Black people, an act of terror spawning in the Reconstruction South that made its way across our beloved land to even sunny California this past week and inspiring Abel Meeropol to write the poem "Bitter Fruit," popularized in 1939 by Billie Holiday as the song "Strange Fruit."

This is to say that the tree and its importance in American history is deep-rooted, so we are not out of line when we state that to Trees Matter, Black Lives Matter.

Please read our entire statement HERE.