Idaho Falls

Outdoors by Gregg Losinski 70 IDAHO FALLS MAGAZINE SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2016 When I was a kid growing up outside of Chicago, I worked for a time during high school as a cook at a Howard Johnson's Restaurant that spanned the tollway. The place was ironically called an oasis, although aside from the drinking fountains and toilets there was no run- ning water to speak of, and there was nary a tree to be found. However, being the Midwest, there were plenty of other trees to be found elsewhere, if not at the imita- tion oasis. Crazy as it sounds, trees are the founda- tions for some of my earliest memories and to this day they still make me smile. Even though Idaho Falls is nowhere near as verdant as the Midwest of my youth, it still does a respectable job of being a true oasis in the desert. Trees of all sizes and varieties can be seen throughout the town, and our parks help to bring the forests of the mountains closer to our everyday lives. As a boy, there was a massive silver maple tree in our backyard to the top of which I would climb and watch the jets as they circled waiting to land at O'Hare Airport. If you go to the canal behind Funland at Tautphaus Park, you can check out a procession of these same leafy mon- sters. Whenever I walk there, I'm transport- ed back nearly 50 years and remember all the good times spent scurrying amongst the limbs, oblivious to the dread I must have been causing my mother. Recently, at our home here in Idaho Falls, we had to have a giant old locust tree cut down. It must have been planted after the original owners built our home almost sixty years ago. The tree was one of the largest in the whole neighborhood and served as a focal point for our back- yard. Not only did the fox squirrels and nuthatches scurry up and down it, but it had been the terminus for a zip line for our sons. While the tree was stately, it did have a downside in regards to its composite leaflets that broke up into smaller leaves and obnoxious stems that were difficult to rake up and clogged rain gutters. The tree being a male also dropped a ton of sawdust sized pollen at the start of each summer. So while I will miss the gently filtered shade it provided, I'm sure the backyard critters will find somewhere else to scamper, while we enjoy a bit less plant detritus. Fortunately, our backyard has plenty of other trees to provide shade, but they also provide another valuable service with the arboreal aural cover that they project. I pity the people who go to sleep at night and are unable to listen to the soft swishing of branches through their open windows. Air conditioners are a sad surrogate for the white noise that nature provides by way of gently rustling leaves. No matter what direction you approach Idaho Falls from, it is clear that we truly live in a tree-lined oasis. Many of our older streets are entirely covered over by living canopies during the hot summer months, and nearly every home has enough trees for both kids and squirrels to enjoy. Sure, we may curse our trees for that short peri- od each fall that we are forced to clean up after them, but when you think of all the physical and psychological benefits they provide, it's all worth it. Besides, once you have raked up a really huge pile of leaves, who has not been tempted to run and jump into it? Implanted Memories IF

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