Tulip Tree Medicinal Uses

By Liliana Usvat
Blog 275-365

Other Names Liriodendron tulipifera

One of the tallest native trees of eastern North America, features uniquely shaped leaves and large yellow tulip-shaped flowers which are hard to see because of the height of the tree; needs lots of moisture and room to grow, not for small properties

Characteristics

Tuliptree will grow to be about 90 feet tall at maturity, with a spread of 50 feet. It has a high canopy with a typical clearance of 10 feet from the ground, and should not be planted underneath power lines. It grows at a fast rate, and under ideal conditions can be expected to live to a ripe old age of 120 years or more; think of this as a heritage tree for future generations!

This tree should only be grown in full sunlight. It prefers to grow in average to moist conditions, and shouldn't be allowed to dry out. It is not particular as to soil pH, but grows best in rich soils. It is quite intolerant of urban pollution, therefore inner city or urban streetside plantings are best avoided.

Tuliptree has buttery yellow cup-shaped flowers with yellow eyes and orange centers held atop the branches from mid to late spring. It has emerald green foliage throughout the season. The square leaves turn an outstanding gold in the fall. The fruit is not ornamentally significant. The furrowed gray bark is extremely showy and adds significant winter interest.

The Tulip Tree Liriodendron tulipifera is a member of the Magnolia Family Magnoliaceae and one of our tallest (to 150 feet) and most beautiful native hardwood trees. The tulip trees are in full flower, which you might miss unless you look up into the tree to find them. Their stunning orange- yellow flowers, set off by glossy, star-shaped leaves are too often overlooked, as they are usually way above our heads.

Food for Wildlife

The tree is a significant source of food for wildlife, as food and habitat for bees and a stately shade tree for large areas. It ranges throughout the Eastern United States from southern New England, west to southern Ontario and Michigan, and south to north-central Florida and Louisiana.

Use

Some references say Tulip Tree roots were used as a flavoring to take the bitterness out of Spruce Beer. 

 Tulip Trees were used to make honey. For just a short time while the tree is blossoming there is a small amount of very sweet nectar in each blossom. It is heavy and honey-flavored. You can drink it directly from the blossom.

 The expert was relying on old reports that probably didn’t describe how the natives used the tree. They weren’t collecting honey, they were collecting nectar. The tree was also called the Sap Poplar, perhaps because its sap is consumable.

Medicinal Uses of AFRICAN TULIP TREE, SPATHODEA CAMPANULATA 

• A decoction of the bark is astringent and used as a laxative as well as for cases of dysentery and for other gastro-intestinal problems. 
• A decoction of the bark and leaves is used as a lotion for inflamed skin and on rashes.
•  The flowers can be applied directly onto wounds, as can the bruised leaves which have mild pain-killing and anti-inflammatory properties. Both the bark and leaves have been found to have antiseptic actions.
• An infusion of the leaves is used for urethral infections, and the dried and pulverized or even the fresh inner bark is applied to oozing ulcers. The tree also has UV absorbing properties and could be utilized as a cheap sunscreen.

•   Studies have found that the stem bark can lower blood sugar levels and so the traditional use of the bark for diabetes sufferers seems to have been borne out. (Journal of Phytotherapy Research, 
• Extracts of the bark, leaves and roots have also been used to combat malaria and HIV and have antimicrobial and antifungal properties.

Indian Tulip Tree Medicinal Uses Thespesia populnea

• The bitter inner bark of the Indian Tulip tree is used as diuretic and stimulant. Its raw green bark is also chewed as an aphrodisaic. 
• Its tea is used in the treatment of indigestion, 
• dysentery, 
• rheumatism, 
• coughs and 
• fevers. 
• In India its bark was used to treat the skin diseases, and
•  haemorrhoids. 
• Its leaves are applied to the inflamed and swollen joints. 
• It is also used in the treatment of ringworm. 
• Its roots are used as the tonic. 

Indian Tulip tree is found in the lower dry forests to the wet forests. Deep, rich, well-drained soils of forest coves and lower mountain slopes. It is widely grown in the Eravikulam National Park in India.. 

Forest Caribou in Alberta and Habitat Reclamation

By Liliana Usvat
Blog 274-365

Caribou are one of Canada’s most recognizable national symbols, but their populations are under threat in Alberta for a number of reasons, including the effects of industrial development on habitat, the effects of global warming and because they’re increasingly being hunted by wolves which have increased in population and range in response to an increase in numbers of deer and moose, their primary prey.

During oil and gas exploration activities over the past 40 years, fragmentation occurred in the boreal forest as corridors were cut to accommodate seismic exploration and access routes for exploration drilling. 

The Algar Project takes an integrated regional approach, with six companies working together to repair fragmented habitat across an area of land outside of their actual license areas. The project includes a five-year program to replant trees and shrubs along the linear footprint within the Algar Region, covering an area approximately 570 square kilometers (km2) southwest of Fort McMurray.

No much have been done to reclaim the oil land
Scientists studying the ravaged caribou habitat of Alberta's northwestern foothills say they have found so much disturbance from decades of industrial use that restoration of the terrain will have to be selective.

Loss of Bisons on the plane.
Alberta is still selling of the forest. It is possible to do something about it?

Alberta is looking as a post apocalyptic war zone.

Can we do something about it? It is too late?

Deforestation in Alberta is worse than in Brazil

There are more than 16,000 kilometres of seismic lines, cut by the energy industry through the forest, within the study area's 13,000 square kilometres.

About five per cent of range for the Little Smoky and a la Peche caribou herds remains undisturbed — a long way from the federal government's 65 per cent target.

Wolves normally prefer to prey on deer and moose, but seismic lines allow them to penetrate into the deep woods where caribou hide.

Caribou also normally avoid coming within 500 metres of a seismic line, making every line, in effect, a kilometre wide.

In 2012 The oil companies paid 1 billion dollars in rights to drill for oil and leases of land.

Who is going to protect those that cannot protect themselves.

The ministry of the environment is promoting the lease of the lands.

Canada needs to consider a better solutions. It is not only the responsibility of the government to protect the environment.

We can live a prosperous life without destroying the forest and the land and the caribou.

“If you look at the attached Environment Canada map (above) of boreal woodland caribou across Canada, it’s Alberta where most of the herds are at highest risk of dying out under current policies. This affects the genetic diversity and viability of neighbouring B.C., the North West Territories and Saskatchewan caribou populations. 

Beyond that, caribou are indicators of whether the boreal and foothills forests are healthy. If we change how these forests are managed so that caribou populations can recover (which Alberta states is its policy goal), then our northern Mackenzie watershed will be healthier, and many other species will benefit too, such as migratory birds that depend on old growth forest and intact wetlands.” 

Links

http://www.cbc.ca/news/technology/caribou-habitat-in-alberta-ravaged-beyond-

repair-1.2745870

http://www.desmog.ca/2014/06/09/alberta-sell-more-oil-and-gas-leases-endangered-caribou-habitat

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/alberta-continues-to-sell-caribou-habitat-despite-federal-recovery-plan/article19019092/

http://manitobawildlands.org/bio_species_mb_caribou.htm

Forest Concession

By Liliana Usvat
Blog 273-365

Forest Concession -  a contract, license, or permit granted to a firm or a person to extract and market timber (timber concession) or other produce commercially from a defined area of the forest within a given period —note a timber concession may specify the number, type, and size of tree that may be harvested



Forest concessions have been an important element of forestry, and forest management in many countries, including many developing countries.

 More often than not, the concessions experience of these countries has not been successful, and, improving their performance is not likely to be popular. 

The forest concessions involve both forest utilization contracts, and forest management services contracts.

Africa


Concessions in Africa have a long history and mixed records. Initially, under colonial era, concessionaires were granted by Westerns Governments a given – and generally huge – area on which they received privileges to use natural resources as private assets, the trade monopoly on resources they gathered, and often the right to levy taxes and use hard labour.

After the Independence, the relationship between private actors and the State evolved into a more balanced one. 

The concession timber sector is a significant contributor to the Government budget, although the revenues derived from this sector look modest compared to revenues derived from oil.
Forest taxes are totalling annually between $3.85 million for DRC to $40 million in Cameroon and up to $50 million in Gabon. In Congo-Brazzaville, forest taxes compare to theoretical oil revenues in proportion of 1 to 100. 

The concessions sector is still dominated by the Europeans, but with an increasing prominence of Asian companies, which are already dominant in Equatorial Guinea, CAR and South Congo.
The size of the concessions, the demographic patterns, and the land allocation history  are closely related. West African countries are more densely populated than those of the Congo Basin. 

In the Congo Basin, since the mid 90’s for Cameroon, and the beginning of the decade, the fiscal reform promoted by the World Bank and backed by the IMF has lead to changes in the taxation structure pattern, with an introduction or an increase of the area tax. 

Since most of the forest sector in West and Central Africa is export-oriented, with the largest part of the production (in value) still going to Europe (except for Equatorial Guinea), the issue of “environmental norms” (certification) – which includes legality requirement – should not be underestimated. And small-scale logging and processing is, currently, unable to meet these escalating  requirements. 

Outside the boundaries of national parks and reserves, many areas of the Congo River Basin have been allocated for forestry concessions. But logging is also taking place inside protected areas, with dire consequences for people and wildlife. 

By far the greatest threat is the demand for timber by some Asian and European-owned trans-national logging companies, which take advantage of weak forest legislation and law enforcement. 

They are not alone in this process. International banks and financial institutions are also implicated in the deforestation of the Congo Basin’s ancient forests.

How the logging process works

The governments of Congo Basin countries grant companies, usually foreign-owned, rights to log areas of the forest. These areas are called forest concessions and they vary in size and cost millions. 

Between 1959-2000, 80% of Cameroon’s forest was allocated for logging in this way. This 'license to log' is only granted for a set number of years, after which the companies need to re-apply.

There is no guarantee that documenting an illegal activity will bring any consequence.Over 80% of the violation cases brought before the judiciary were dropped after “the intervention of an influential person”.

Climate Change

We are currently experiencing, without a doubt, the greatest crisis to face human kind. Indications of climate change are being seen around the globe: accelerated melting of the Arctic sea ice, rapidly receding glaciers, rising sea levels, warming oceans and ocean acidification, more frequent and longer-lasting droughts, stronger and more frequent storms, higher temperatures than ever recorded, and a rapid extinction of species are direct result of a warming climate.

Taken for granted in the climate change discussion is the assumption that nature or the environment is something that can or should be commodified, yet the structure of society seeks to commodify everything, including human life (labor) and the environment (land and natural resources). The commodification of nature and the environment, is problematic in its own right.


Conclusion

So if we want to understand deforestation we need to follow the money.


Links

http://dictionaryofforestry.org/dict/term/forest_concession

http://elibrary.worldbank.org/doi/pdf/10.1596/0-8213-5170-2

Loggers cut Down the Oldest Tree in Amazon Forest

By Liliana Usvat
Blog 272-365

On 6 December 2014, World News Daily Report published the sad news that Loggers cut Down the Oldest Tree in Amazon Forest


What can we do to prevent the destruction of the forest in the future?
We need to create a critical mass of people around the globe that have the life of the planet at hearth where the financial benefits of few are not more important that the existence of the forest and the subsistence of animals and other plants that use it.

How can the public opinion change the mind of the governments and other power players that see the profit in logging?

Illegal loggers at the frontier of the Peruvian and Brazilian border have mistakenly cut down what experts claim is the world’s oldest tree after allegedly not noticing they were logging deeply in Matsés Indigenous 

Reserve, an area where logging is illegal, infuriating local conservation organizations and native indigenous communities. 

The giant Samauma tree that is thought to be over 5,800 years old judging on its concentric rings and estimated to be close to 40 meters in height was a major part of the native tribes cultural landscape, countless generations of natives having witnessed the long duration of the tree and having included it in their own culture. 

«It is the Mother spirit of the rainforest, from this spirit-tree came the life force of all things living. They have destroyed Aotlcp-Awak, they have brought darkness upon not only our people, but the whole world» explains local tribesman leader Tahuactep of the Matsés tribe.

Native communities alarmed local media outlets and conservation groups when Aotlcp-Awak, or Mother tree in local dialects, was reported sawed down by heavy machinery

«For many generations, the Mother tree has brought my people health and good fortune. The roots of the Mother tree spread throughout the rainforest and bring its life spirit to the world. What will be left of the animals, of the plants and of our people now that the Mother spirit is gone» asks Kalahuaptl, a local shaman. «They have murdered the Mother spirit knowingly, they have done this to kill our people and take the spoils of the land» he adds, visibly shaken by the destruction of the millennia-old Samauma tree.

Anna Golding, local researcher for non profit organization and conservancy group Rainforest Protection Coalition (RPC), an initiative stemming from Berkeley University in California, believes the ‘incident’ was intentionnal. « There are large portions of this national reserve that are rich in oil and natural gas. 


There has been committed action by energy corporations to lobby the government to exploit the area for years. The protected zones have been cut in half over the past decade and this is only their latest attempt to get rid of the local populations who are fighting to preserve their cultural heritage and lifestyle» she admits.

«These actions are clearly perpetrated with the consent of local authorities and the government. If this wasn’t the case, why are local enforcement agencies not prosecuting these corporations? Why are these loggers free to keep doing what they are doing? That is the bigger question» she adds.

Between 1991 and 2014, the total area of forest lost in the Amazon has more than tripled, with most of the lost forest becoming pasture for cattle. Rainforests are the richest places on earth holding the majority of the planet’s biodiversity, yet 100 acres of rainforests are cleared every minute, estimates a recent 2014 World Resources Institute report.

Samauma tree 

In the Amazon forest, there grows a giant tree called Samaúma, referred to by the indigenous people as the "mother of trees". 

Majestic Samauma trees grow between 100 and 160 feet high and to nearly 20 feet in diameter. The local people refer to the tree as the "Queen of the Forest" because of its immense size.

The Samaúma is a very tall tree in the forest, and is very easy to notice high above the surrounding greenery, it´s branches reaching out over the plant life underneath like a mother caring for her children. One of the largest living trees known to the human race, the Samaúma has a special purpose in the natural world. 

The trunk of the Samaúma is hollow, and generally has a bulge in its center as if it were a full belly. Within the trunk is stored a large quantity of water, which in times of drought is released into the ground through its roots, giving life to the surrounding area. In this way the forest is able to survive until the next rainfall.

Conserving water with rain barrels and cisterns has a similar effect to the Samaúma tree within our society. By having these containers ready for rain, we can store water in them until it is needed in dry periods. Like this, we can preserve the lives of our plants as well as cut down on our usage of the water that grows more precious every day.

 The mammoth roots of the trees are used by indigenous people to beat out messages that echo throughout the rainforest. Illegal logging operations have taken thousands of trees from pristine areas of the ancient forest. 

Who is buying?

Timber operators use the trees for a cheap source of plywood for Brazil, Asia, Japan and the United States.

Wayfaring Tree Viburnum lantana Medicinal Uses

By Liliana Usvat
Blog 271-365

Other Name Viburnum lantana

The Viburnum lantana is a medium to large, deciduous shrub that is native to Europe and western Asia. This multi stemmed, spreading shrub grows 10 to 15 feet high and produces a somewhat rounded outline. Its thick, green leaves are opposite, simple oval to lanceolate, and are 2 to 5 inches long with finely serrated margins and white, silky-haired undersides. Clusters of creamy white, 5 inch, flat-topped flowers canvas the shrub from May to June. Berries are green, flushed with red, then turn black in early fall, often showing all three colors at once. The fruit can be eaten either raw or cooked. Common uses of this tree include rootstock and twine.

Wayfaring Tree is covered in stunning creamy white flat-top flowers at the ends of the branches in mid spring. It has dark green foliage throughout the season. The large fuzzy pointy leaves turn an outstanding deep purple in the fall. The red fruits are held in abundance in spectacular clusters from late summer to late fall. The smooth gray bark is not particularly outstanding.

Landscape Attributes

Wayfaring Tree is a multi-stemmed deciduous shrub with a more or less rounded form. Its relatively coarse texture can be used to stand it apart from other landscape plants with finer foliage.

This is a relatively low maintenance shrub, and should only be pruned after flowering to avoid removing any of the current season's flowers. It is a good choice for attracting birds to your yard, but is not particularly attractive to deer who tend to leave it alone in favor of tastier treats. It has no significant negative characteristics.

Wayfaring Tree is recommended for the following landscape applications;

• General Garden Use
• Accent
• Hedges/Screening
• Mass Planting

Reforestation

An easily grown plant, it succeeds in most soils but is ill-adapted for poor soils and for dry situations

Propagation
Propagate by seed, softwood and semi-hardwood cuttings

Suggested planting locations and garden typesHedging & Screens Low Maintenance Wildlife Gardens

Wildlife

Bees, butterflies and hoverflies visit the flowers. A variety of bird species including blackbirds, fieldfares and waxwings eat the berries, as do the Dormouse and the Wood Mouse.

Medicinal Uses

Gemmotherapy is a modern method of draining the organism. It uses plant bud extract and other embryonic plant tissues to open cellular detoxification pathways. It employs buds, inner bark, rootlets, or very young shoots of plants from various woodland trees and shrubs. They are harvested in the spring, throughout the period of cellular division and plant growth. During this stage they contain the highest concentration of active growth factor hormones, auxins, and gibberllins. These hormonal agents contain valuable informative matter required for the drainage of various organs and tissues at the cellular level.

 

In order to extract the embryonic substance from the fresh buds, fresh plant material is macerated in a solution of 50/50 glycerin and alcohol for three weeks. It is then filtered and diluted. It is prescribed in the fist decimal potency for maximum effect. Gemmotherapy extends the drainage of toxins beyond the excretory organs. It takes in the detoxification of the skin, bones, heart, and nervous system. Gemmotherapy can be used alone or in combination with other modalities.

 

Viburnum lantana is used for :Asthma, chronic spasmodic rhinitis, hyperthyroidism, bronchitis

Viburnum Lantana is a remedy for chronic allergies that are evolving towards asthma, eczema, or chronic spasmodic rhinitis. It is the intermediate remedy between Rosmarinus Officinalis and Ribes Nigrum. This remedy is indicated for conditions such as hyperthyroidism, smoker's cough with blood in sputum and some types of rheumatoid arthritis.

Indications

• Acute Asthma
• Asthma
• Basic Support for Allergies
• Cigarette Coughs
• Coughs
• Eczema
• Hyperthyroidism
• Rhinitis
• Support for Symptoms Due to Smoking

Nitrogen Fixing Plants Prarie Acacia or Acacia Angustissima

By Liliana Usvat
Blog 270-365

''Acacia angustissima'' is a perennial, deciduous, shrub or tree in the Fabaceae family native to Central America and the United States. It is also found in South America, India and Pakistan. 

Other common names for it include Carboncillo, Timbe, Timbre, Fern Acacia and Prairie wattle. 

It grows 1m to 4m in height having whitish, 1.3 cm diameter spherical flowers from June through September. ''"Angustissima"'' in Latin means "narrowest," describing the look of the shrub's leaves. 

Good for Reforestation

Altitude: 0-2600m
Annual Temperature Mean: 5-30 deg. C.
Annual Rainfall Mean: 895-2870mm
Soil: ''A. angustissima'' is well-suited for acidic, low-nutrient soils and it has very good resistance to drought.

 The flowers are clustered into 1/2 inch (1.3 cm) wide, fuzzy balls of stamens and will open white and age to a pinkish color. The flowers are followed by flat, elongated, brown seedpods. The leaves are green and bipinnate with tiny leaflets. The stems are hairy, reddish, and spineless. The larger stems are ridged and grooved, unlike the similar, but taller and smooth-stemmed Lysiloma watsonii.

PROPAGATION

Propagation Material: Seeds , Softwood Cuttings 
Description: Propagate by scarified seed or softwood cuttings. 
Seed Collection: Collect in late summer to early fall when seeds are firm, filled out, and dark brown.


Butterfly Plant 

The flowers attract butterflies and other insects like bees.

Chewing Gum

Used as a source of chewing gum or gum flavoring.

Medicinal Plant

 A bitter astringent, sedative herb that improves diegstion

and 

cerebral circulation



Medicinal Uses. Internally for headaches associated with with debility

and 

nervous tension and 
for anxiety, 
neuralgia, 
sinusitis, 
excess upper respiratory tract mucus, 
gastritis, 
poor digestion, 
hypertension and
menopausal problems. 


Excess causes, diarrhoea and vomiting.  Not to be given to pregnant
women. 

Externally for wounds (especially if infected),
 bruises, 
ulcers, 
sore throat, and 
gum inflammation.

Combines well with Scutellaria laterifolia, Verbena officinalis,
Lavandula angustifolia or Hypericum perforatum

 for tension headaches

(although I suspect to much of any of these combinations may be TOO
MUCH)

"action: 

astringent, 
carminative, 
diuretic, 
expectorant, 
nervine, 
tonic,
vulnerary"
"body: bladder, 
kidney, 
spleen, 
stomach"


"used to treat: 

asthma, 
bladder ailments, 
bronchitis, 
cancer, 
cough,
cuts, 
excessive sweating, 
external ulcers, 
heartburn, 

kidney ailments,
neurasthenia, 
sore, 
spitting blood, 
sprains, 
varicose veins,
wen, 
worms"

use: tea
"The infusion is used for neurasthenia, bladder and kidney ailments,
spitting blood, and excessive sweating; 

regular use is recommended for

varicose veins. 
A strong decoction is used against worms. 
The juice of the plant can be used to heal cuts, external "

Forest and Nature

By Liliana Usvat
Blog 269-365

In western culture since the Industrial Revolution ( After 1790) the idea grew that there was little connection between the objects in the wold and the individual. Before that time man did believe that he could affect matter and the environment through his thoughts. With the Industrial Revolution however even the elements of nature lost their living quality in man's eye. See the destruction of the forest for example. They became objects to be categorized named torn apart examined.

In his great curiosity to understand the heredity of a flower, say he forgot  what he could learn by smelling a flower looking at ti watching it be itself.

You cannot understand what makes things live when you rob them of life. So he examined dead nature. Often he had to kill life in order to he thought  to discover its reality.

Man's thoughts no longer seemed to have any effect upon nature because his mind he saw himself apart from it. He became blind to the connection between his thoughts and his physical environment and experience.

Nature became then an adversary that he must control.  Yet underneath he felt that he was at the mercy of  nature, because in cutting himself off from it he also cut himself off from using many of his own abilities.

Very natural functions of the conscious mind therefore were assigned to the underground  and cut off from the normal use.

If the purpose of civilization is to enable the individual to live in peace joy security and abundance, then that ideea of disconnection with nature has served him poorly.

Forest Lessons form the Easter Island

By Liliana Usvat
Blog 268 -365

Most everyone is familiar with the enigmatic stone heads of Easter Island, the massive carved rocks that sit on stone platforms on the coast and lie scattered across the landscape.

The heads, called moai, and a small native population are virtually all that is left of the Polynesian civilization that once flourished on the island. The once-lush forests that covered the 63-square-mile island, known to its inhabitants as Rapa Nui, have all been lost and the fertile soil that once supported a vital farming community has been blown away by tradewinds.

A chilling story of resource exploitation and destruction on Easter Island is beginning to come to light. The first westerners to discover the island wondered how any one could have survived on such a desolate, treeless place. Indeed, this was a mystery until recent core samples taken from the crater lakes showed that the island was heavily forested with a giant now-extinct palm while the Easter Island culture was active.

Easter Island is the prototypical example illustrating the serious consequences of the overexploitation of natural resources by man. According to this thesis, the deforestation of the island, noted by the first explorers, was due to the negligence of the Pascuenses themselves. This latter group, applying no forethought, were said to have cut down all the trees essential to their survival for domestic purposes or even more foolishly, for constructing, transporting and setting up their famous Moai. The disappearance of the trees thus ineluctably led to the decline of their civilization and the near disappearance of the Pascuenses.

When Easter Island was "discovered" by Europeans in 1722, it was a barren landscape with no trees over ten feet in height. The small number of inhabitants, around 2000, lived in a state of civil disorder and were thin and emaciated. Virtually no animals besides rats inhabited the island and the natives lacked sea-worthy boats.

The Easter Island of ancient times supported a sub-tropical forest complete with the tall Easter Island Palm, a tree suitable for building homes, canoes, and latticing necessary for the construction of such statues. With the vegetation of the island, natives had fuelwood and the resources to make rope. With their sea-worthy canoes, Easter Islanders lived off a steady diet of porpoise. A complex social structure developed complete with a centralized government and religious priests. 




It was this Easter Island society that built the famous statues and hauled them around the island using wooden platforms and rope constructed from the forest. The construction of these statues peaked from 1200 to 1500 AD, probably when the civilization was at its greatest level. However, pollen analysis shows that at this time the tree population of the island was rapidly declining as deforestation took its toll.

 A spooky cave (right) at the southwest corner of the island, Ana Kai Tangata, is translated to "cave where men are eaten." Inside are pictographs painted in ochre and white of ghost like birds flying upwards. With no wood left to build boats, all the Rapa Nui people could do was look enviously at the birds that sail effortless through the sky. The Rapa Nui culture and community, which had developed over the past 300 years, collapsed.

Around 1400 the Easter Island palm became extinct due to overharvesting. Its capability to reproduce has become severely limited by the proliferation of rats, introduced by the islanders when they first arrived, which ate its seeds. In the years after the disappearance of the palm, ancient garbage piles reveal that porpoise bones declined sharply. 

The islanders, no longer with the palm wood needed for canoe building, could no longer make journeys out to sea. Consequently, the consumption of land birds, migratory birds, and mollusks increased. Soon land birds went extinct and migratory bird numbers were severely reduced, thus spelling an end for Easter Island's forests. Already under intense pressure by the human population for firewood and building material, the forests lost their animal pollinators and seed dispersers with the disappearance of the birds. Today, only one of the original 22 species of seabird still nests on Easter Island.

With the loss of their forest, the quality of life for Islanders plummeted. Streams and drinking water supplies dried up. Crop yields declined as wind, rain, and sunlight eroded topsoils. Fires became a luxury since no wood could be found on the island, and grasses had to be used for fuel. No longer could rope by manufactured to move the stone statues and they were abandoned. The Easter Islanders began to starve, lacking their access to porpoise meat and having depleted the island of birds. As life worsened, the orderly society disappeared and chaos and disarray prevailed.

Links
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jYliCfzOkDE