Every once in a while my wife says, “Honey, why don’t you volunteer for something?” When I hear that I think, “Why would I want to volunteer for something when I am spending ALL of my “free time” working on my hobbies – and enjoying them?”

Then, on Tuesday morning, my mom and I visited an organization I had heard about called TreePeople. Suddenly, I found myself seeking out the manager of the organization. When I found him, I was surprised to hear myself say, “I would like to volunteer to identify trees at TreePeople. The manager suggested I email him. Here is the text of the email I just wrote:

Dear Ryan,

I was happy to meet you on Tuesday afternoon.

Your TreePeople facility is very impressive. I look forward to many walks among the trees.

I would really enjoy being a volunteer tree expert at TreePeople one day. But I realize I must first get to know and learn about all the trees on your property.

On my visits to TreePeople I plan to photograph and identify the trees, as well as map them. The mapping will help me know where I left off each visit and, subsequently, I will be able to present you with a map of the labeled and coded trees. One type of mapping I will consider is like that used by the Office of Sustainability at CSUN. Their maps appear as 25 quadrant charts covering the campus, and identifying most of the 3600 trees (200 species).

As I may have mentioned to you, my goal, as a volunteer, is not only to be able to identify all the trees I see around me, but also to be able to talk about each tree and how it fits into the scheme of nature.

If it’s okay with you, I’ll show you my beginning mappings of trees when I have them prepared.

Again, thank for your time and interest.

I don’t know if TreePeople will be interested in taking up my offer to volunteer. It does not really matter. It will be a win-win since I will enjoy identifying and mapping their trees.

TreePeople have not labeled their trees. In fact, they see their trees in a different light than I do. Here is part of their credo:

TreePeople is an environmental nonprofit that unites the power of trees, people and technology to grow a sustainable future for Los Angeles. Simply put, our work is about helping nature heal our cities. TreePeople’s mission is to inspire, engage and support people to take personal responsibility for the urban environment, making it safe, healthy, fun and sustainable and to share the process as a model for the world.

Mr. Ebsen may be contacted at Robertebsen@hotmail.com