{"id":6607,"date":"2023-06-06T17:31:03","date_gmt":"2023-06-06T14:31:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.cfwt.sua.ac.tz\/ecosystems\/?p=6607"},"modified":"2023-06-06T17:31:04","modified_gmt":"2023-06-06T14:31:04","slug":"what-we-owe-our-trees","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.cfwt.sua.ac.tz\/ecosystems\/news\/what-we-owe-our-trees","title":{"rendered":"What we owe our trees"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"BaseWrap-sc-gjQpdd BaseText-ewhhUZ SplitScreenContentHeaderDek-emptdL iUEiRd gTCKij dJrDEb\">Forests fed us, housed us, and made our way of life possible. But they can\u2019t save us if we can\u2019t save them. <span class=\"BaseWrap-sc-gjQpdd BaseText-ewhhUZ BylinePreamble-iJolpQ iUEiRd jslZfG uhfVi byline__preamble\">By\u00a0<\/span>Jill Lepore<\/div>\n<div>\n<p class=\"has-dropcap has-dropcap__lead-standard-heading paywall\">The woods I know best, love best, are made of Northern hardwoods, sugar maple and white ash, timber-tall; black and yellow birch, tiger-skinned; seedlings and saplings of blighted beech and striped maple creeping up, knock-kneed, from a forest floor of princess pine and Christmas fern, shag-rugged. White-tailed deer dart through softwood stands of pine and hemlock, bucks and does, the last leaping fawn, leaving tracks that look like tiny human lungs, trails that people can only ever see in the snow, even though, long after snowmelt, dogs can smell them, tracking, snuffling, shuddering with the thrill of the hunt and noshing on deer scat for dog treats. I make lists of finds, two-winged, four-footed, and rolling: black-throated green warblers and blue-headed vireos, porcupines and salamanders, tin cans and old tires, deer mice and fisher cats, wild turkeys and ruffed grouse, black bears and, come spring, their tumbling, potbellied, big-eared cubs.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paywall\">Even if you haven\u2019t been to the woods lately, you probably know that the forest is disappearing. In the past ten thousand years, the Earth has <a title=\"Mountain forests are being lost at an accelerating rate, putting biodiversity at risk\" href=\"https:\/\/www.cfwt.sua.ac.tz\/ecosystems\/news\/mountain-forests-are-being-lost-at-an-accelerating-rate-putting-biodiversity-at-risk\">lost about a third of its forest<\/a>, which wouldn\u2019t be so worrying if it weren\u2019t for the fact that almost all that loss has happened in the past three hundred years or so. As much <a title=\"Forest fires: North America\u2019s boreal forests are burning a lot, but less than 150 years ago\" href=\"https:\/\/www.cfwt.sua.ac.tz\/ecosystems\/news\/forest-fires-north-americas-boreal-forests-are-burning-a-lot-but-less-than-150-years-ago\">forest has been lost in the past hundred years<\/a> as in the nine thousand before. With the forest go the worlds within those woods, each habitat and dwelling place, a universe within each rotting log, a galaxy within a pine cone. And, unlike earlier <a title=\"How forest loss has changed biodiversity across the globe over the last 150 years\" href=\"https:\/\/www.cfwt.sua.ac.tz\/ecosystems\/news\/how-forest-loss-has-changed-biodiversity-across-the-globe-over-the-last-150-years\">losses of forests<\/a>, owing to ice and fire, volcanoes, comets, and earthquakes\u2014actuarially acts of God\u2014nearly all the destruction in the past three centuries has been done deliberately, by people, actuarially at fault: cutting down trees to harvest wood, plant crops, and graze animals.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paywall\">The Earth is about four and a half billion years old. By about two and a half billion years ago, enough oxygen had built up in the atmosphere to support multicellular life, and by about five hundred and seventy million years ago the first complex macroscopic organisms had begun to appear, as Peter Frankopan reports in \u201c<a class=\"external-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Earth-Transformed-Untold-History\/dp\/0525659161\/ref=sr_1_1?ots=1&amp;tag=thneyo0f-20&amp;linkCode=w50&amp;keywords=The%20Earth%20Transformed&amp;qid=1684517344&amp;s=books&amp;sr=1-1\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" data-offer-url=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Earth-Transformed-Untold-History\/dp\/0525659161\/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=The%20Earth%20Transformed&amp;qid=1684517344&amp;s=books&amp;sr=1-1\" data-event-click=\"{&quot;element&quot;:&quot;ExternalLink&quot;,&quot;outgoingURL&quot;:&quot;https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Earth-Transformed-Untold-History\/dp\/0525659161\/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=The%20Earth%20Transformed&amp;qid=1684517344&amp;s=books&amp;sr=1-1&quot;}\" data-orig-url=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Earth-Transformed-Untold-History\/dp\/0525659161\/ref=sr_1_1?ots=1&amp;tag=thneyo0f-20&amp;linkCode=w50&amp;keywords=The%20Earth%20Transformed&amp;qid=1684517344&amp;s=books&amp;sr=1-1\" data-ml-id=\"0\" data-ml=\"true\" data-xid=\"fr1686061396701jjd\" data-uri=\"c14e5c4aaa51151aa7f7654de6145260\">The Earth Transformed<\/a>\u201d (Knopf), an essential epic that runs from the dawn of time to, oh, six o\u2019clock yesterday. In his not at all cheerful conclusion, looking to a possibly not too distant future in which humans fail to address <a title=\"Taiwan and Climate Change\" href=\"https:\/\/www.cfwt.sua.ac.tz\/ecosystems\/news\/taiwan-and-climate-change\">climate change<\/a> and become extinct, Frankopan writes, \u201cOur loss will be the gain of other animals and plants.\u201d An upside!<\/p>\n<p class=\"paywall\">The first trees evolved about four hundred million years ago, and pretty quickly, geologically speaking, they <a title=\"Training on Remote Sensing and GIS-based analysis for land cover change assessment\" href=\"https:\/\/www.cfwt.sua.ac.tz\/ecosystems\/news\/training-on-remote-sensing-and-gis-based-analysis-for-land-cover-change-assessment\">covered most of the Earth\u2019s dry land<\/a>. A hundred and fifty million years later, during a mass-extinction event known as the Great Dying, the forests perished, along with nearly everything else on land and sea. Then, two million years after that, the supercontinent broke up, a seismic process whose consequences included depositing oil, coal, and natural gas in the places on the planet where they can still be found, to our enrichment and ruination. The trees returned. The ginkgo is the oldest surviving tree species, its fan-shaped leaves unfurling lime green in spring and falling, mustard yellow, in autumn.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paywall\">The first primates showed up about fifty-five million years ago, in the rain forest. They lived in the trees. Our ancestors began dividing from apes\u2014began, slowly, coming down from the trees\u2014about seven million years ago; the genus\u00a0<em>Homo<\/em>\u00a0branched off four million years later; and\u00a0<em>Homo sapiens<\/em>\u00a0began wandering around the understory somewhere between eight hundred thousand and two hundred thousand years ago, although exactly when is apparently a matter of fierce debate, which seems right, since humans are such a contentious, Neanderthal-killing lot. Here\u2019s how Frankopan, a professor of global history at Oxford, puts it: \u201cLike rude house guests who arrive at the last minute, cause havoc and set about destroying the house to which they have been invited, human impact on the natural environment has been substantial and is accelerating to the point that many scientists question the long-term viability of human life.\u201d <a title=\"Heat insurance offers climate change lifeline to poor workers\" href=\"https:\/\/www.cfwt.sua.ac.tz\/ecosystems\/news\/heat-insurance-offers-climate-change-lifeline-to-poor-workers\">Climate change<\/a> contributed to the extinction of Neanderthals about thirty-five thousand years ago, but humans, instead of dying out, migrated to different climates, or found other ways to survive, which generally involved controlling fire and burning fallen sticks and branches for heat and to cook otherwise hard-to-digest food, or making axes to cut down trees, whose wood could be used to build shelters and, later, fences for animals. They cut and felled. Knopf printed about twenty thousand copies of Frankopan\u2019s seven-hundred-page book on paper made from trees. I read it sitting in a house built of pine in a chair made of maple at a desk made of oak holding a pencil made of cedar. They cut and felled. The wood in my woodstove is yellow birch, burning, bark curling.<\/p>\n<p class=\"has-dropcap has-dropcap__lead-standard-heading paywall\">\u201cIf you think about it, a tree is a tricky place in which to live,\u201d the biologist Roland Ennos writes in \u201c<a class=\"external-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Age-Wood-Material-Construction-Civilization\/dp\/1982114738\/ref=sr_1_1?ots=1&amp;tag=thneyo0f-20&amp;linkCode=w50&amp;crid=OPJ07RZP3QBQ&amp;keywords=The%20Age%20of%20Wood&amp;qid=1684517387&amp;s=books&amp;sprefix=the%20age%20of%20wood,stripbooks,158&amp;sr=1-1\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" data-offer-url=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Age-Wood-Material-Construction-Civilization\/dp\/1982114738\/ref=sr_1_1?crid=OPJ07RZP3QBQ&amp;keywords=The%20Age%20of%20Wood&amp;qid=1684517387&amp;s=books&amp;sprefix=the%20age%20of%20wood,stripbooks,158&amp;sr=1-1\" data-event-click=\"{&quot;element&quot;:&quot;ExternalLink&quot;,&quot;outgoingURL&quot;:&quot;https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Age-Wood-Material-Construction-Civilization\/dp\/1982114738\/ref=sr_1_1?crid=OPJ07RZP3QBQ&amp;keywords=The%20Age%20of%20Wood&amp;qid=1684517387&amp;s=books&amp;sprefix=the%20age%20of%20wood,stripbooks,158&amp;sr=1-1&quot;}\" data-orig-url=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Age-Wood-Material-Construction-Civilization\/dp\/1982114738\/ref=sr_1_1?ots=1&amp;tag=thneyo0f-20&amp;linkCode=w50&amp;crid=OPJ07RZP3QBQ&amp;keywords=The%20Age%20of%20Wood&amp;qid=1684517387&amp;s=books&amp;sprefix=the%20age%20of%20wood,stripbooks,158&amp;sr=1-1\" data-ml-id=\"1\" data-ml=\"true\" data-xid=\"fr1686061396702geh\" data-uri=\"dc00b192df7d04bdf2a48a41cfbaa5c7\">The Age of Wood<\/a>\u201d (Scribner). Ennos argues that dividing human history into the Stone Age (beginning two and a half million years ago), the Bronze Age (3000\u20131000 B.C.E.), and the Iron Age (1200\u2013300 B.C.E.)\u2014a scheme invented in the nineteenth century by a Danish antiquarian\u2014misses the earliest and most important era, the Wood Age.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paywall\">People are arboreal, at least vestigially, Ennos points out, with binocular vision, upright posture, hind limbs for movement, forelimbs for gripping, and fingers with soft pads and nails, all features that evolved to help primates live in trees. The first primates were as small as mice, and could scramble wherever they liked, but, as they got bigger, it became harder to stay up in the trees, where it was safest, especially at night. A \u201cclambering hypothesis,\u201d among primatologists, has it that the thinking of great apes got more sophisticated\u2014they developed a \u201cself-reflective psychology\u201d\u2014so that they could better understand the mechanics of climbing and swinging through trees. Also, the first tools used by great apes were made of trees and in trees: nests for sleeping in higher branches. (The bigger your brain, the more\u00a0<em class=\"small\">rem<\/em>\u00a0sleep you need.) The earliest hominins who learned to walk upright did so while still living, mainly, in trees, and they came down at night only after figuring out how to make fires\u2014with wood. That had all kinds of knock-on effects, including being able to cook food, which makes it easier for us to get <a title=\"Energy Globe Award for Sustainability \u2014 Awards 2023\" href=\"https:\/\/www.cfwt.sua.ac.tz\/ecosystems\/uncategorized\/energy-globe-award-for-sustainability-awards-2023\">energy<\/a> out of it, and made it possible for our brains to grow bigger. Hominins came down from the trees, built huts, made <a title=\"Clearing the ridge: Fire for forest health and resilient communities\" href=\"https:\/\/www.cfwt.sua.ac.tz\/ecosystems\/news\/clearing-the-ridge-fire-for-forest-health-and-resilient-communities\">fires<\/a>, and no longer needed their fur, so they lost it, which meant that when the weather, or the climate, got colder they needed warmer huts and more fires, but with those they could go anywhere, as long as there were trees. As for making tools, they mainly used not stone but wood, and when they did use stone it was often to make better tools out of wood. You could use a stone, for instance, to sharpen a wooden spear, a tool you could wield to kill beasts of land and sea.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paywall\">In all this time, people did not run out of wood, since there weren\u2019t that many people and there were a great many trees, and because trees grow back. Even after humans invented the stone axe and began to chop down trees, this was still true. Chopping and burning, they cleared <a title=\"New Job Openings \u2013 Forest Stewardship Council (FSC)\" href=\"https:\/\/www.cfwt.sua.ac.tz\/ecosystems\/news\/new-job-openings-fsc\">openings in forests<\/a> to attract game, and they adzed trunks and limbs into poles and posts, planks and beams. They built houses and rafts and boats, and some people, in places where they had cleared the forests, began to farm. During the ages of stone, bronze, and iron, down through the early modern era, Ennos writes, \u201calmost all the possessions of everyday folk were wooden, while those that were not actually made of wood needed large quantities of wood to produce.\u201d Only the turn to coal for fuel in the eighteenth century and to wrought iron for building in the nineteenth, he argues, brought about the end of the age of wood. Except that it didn\u2019t exactly end, since imperialism, industrialism, and capitalism meant that people were more likely to go to war and conquer land in order to cut down other people\u2019s trees.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paywall\">You could tell this story about a lot of places, but consider England and its North American colonies. By the eighteenth century, much of England and in fact much of Western Europe had been deforested, but England needed timber to build ships in order to trade goods, wage war, and found colonies. It especially wanted very tall and straight pines, for ships\u2019 masts. During the long wars between Britain and France, often fought at sea, France had for a time a ship\u2019s-mast advantage, having cut a path known as the Mast Road through the Pyrenees to a stand of tall fir trees. Britain harvested its masts from its colonies, and especially from the tall white pines of New England, having issued an edict, in 1691, that any pine whose trunk, when measured a foot from the ground, was more than twenty-four inches in diameter belonged to the King (later revised, fairly desperately, to twelve inches in diameter). Among the many causes of the American Revolution was the Pine Tree Riot of 1772, when New Hampshire mill owners refused to pay fines for sawing pine trees into boards.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paywall\">One of the earliest alarms about deforestation written in English is \u201cSylva, or a Discourse on Forest-Trees, and the Propagation of Timber of His Majesties Dominions,\u201d by Sir John Evelyn, published in London in 1664. Evelyn called for tree planting as an act of patriotism, and if he was the first to do so he was not the last, as the University of Oregon geographer Shaul\u00a0E. Cohen reported in his book \u201c<a class=\"external-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Planting-Nature-Manipulation-Environmental-Stewardship\/dp\/0520237706\/ref=sr_1_1?ots=1&amp;tag=thneyo0f-20&amp;linkCode=w50&amp;crid=3CY9YZAD7NI5Y&amp;keywords=Planting%20Nature:%20Trees%20and%20the%20Manipulation%20of%20Environmental%20Stewardship%20in%20America&amp;qid=1684517805&amp;s=books&amp;sprefix=planting%20nature%20trees%20and%20the%20manipulation%20of%20environmental%20stewardship%20in%20america,stripbooks,212&amp;sr=1-1\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" data-offer-url=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Planting-Nature-Manipulation-Environmental-Stewardship\/dp\/0520237706\/ref=sr_1_1?crid=3CY9YZAD7NI5Y&amp;keywords=Planting%20Nature:%20Trees%20and%20the%20Manipulation%20of%20Environmental%20Stewardship%20in%20America&amp;qid=1684517805&amp;s=books&amp;sprefix=planting%20nature%20trees%20and%20the%20manipulation%20of%20environmental%20stewardship%20in%20america,stripbooks,212&amp;sr=1-1\" data-event-click=\"{&quot;element&quot;:&quot;ExternalLink&quot;,&quot;outgoingURL&quot;:&quot;https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Planting-Nature-Manipulation-Environmental-Stewardship\/dp\/0520237706\/ref=sr_1_1?crid=3CY9YZAD7NI5Y&amp;keywords=Planting%20Nature:%20Trees%20and%20the%20Manipulation%20of%20Environmental%20Stewardship%20in%20America&amp;qid=1684517805&amp;s=books&amp;sprefix=planting%20nature%20trees%20and%20the%20manipulation%20of%20environmental%20stewardship%20in%20america,stripbooks,212&amp;sr=1-1&quot;}\" data-orig-url=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Planting-Nature-Manipulation-Environmental-Stewardship\/dp\/0520237706\/ref=sr_1_1?ots=1&amp;tag=thneyo0f-20&amp;linkCode=w50&amp;crid=3CY9YZAD7NI5Y&amp;keywords=Planting%20Nature:%20Trees%20and%20the%20Manipulation%20of%20Environmental%20Stewardship%20in%20America&amp;qid=1684517805&amp;s=books&amp;sprefix=planting%20nature%20trees%20and%20the%20manipulation%20of%20environmental%20stewardship%20in%20america,stripbooks,212&amp;sr=1-1\" data-ml-id=\"2\" data-ml=\"true\" data-xid=\"fr1686061396702dhj\" data-uri=\"5c2611cb626a8f4759fe2f6d8966134d\">Planting Nature: Trees and the Manipulation of Environmental Stewardship in America<\/a>\u201d (2004). Writing about forests, John Perlin urges humans to \u201cstop our war against them\u201d in a new edition of his 1989 book, \u201c<a class=\"external-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Forest-Journey-Story-Trees-Civilization\/dp\/1938340973\/ref=sr_1_1?ots=1&amp;tag=thneyo0f-20&amp;linkCode=w50&amp;crid=1SIDDM9E1DGPF&amp;keywords=A%20Forest%20Journey:%20The%20Role%20of%20Trees%20in%20the%20Fate%20of%20Civilization&amp;qid=1684517835&amp;s=books&amp;sprefix=a%20forest%20journey%20the%20role%20of%20trees%20in%20the%20fate%20of%20civilization,stripbooks,106&amp;sr=1-1\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" data-offer-url=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Forest-Journey-Story-Trees-Civilization\/dp\/1938340973\/ref=sr_1_1?crid=1SIDDM9E1DGPF&amp;keywords=A%20Forest%20Journey:%20The%20Role%20of%20Trees%20in%20the%20Fate%20of%20Civilization&amp;qid=1684517835&amp;s=books&amp;sprefix=a%20forest%20journey%20the%20role%20of%20trees%20in%20the%20fate%20of%20civilization,stripbooks,106&amp;sr=1-1\" data-event-click=\"{&quot;element&quot;:&quot;ExternalLink&quot;,&quot;outgoingURL&quot;:&quot;https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Forest-Journey-Story-Trees-Civilization\/dp\/1938340973\/ref=sr_1_1?crid=1SIDDM9E1DGPF&amp;keywords=A%20Forest%20Journey:%20The%20Role%20of%20Trees%20in%20the%20Fate%20of%20Civilization&amp;qid=1684517835&amp;s=books&amp;sprefix=a%20forest%20journey%20the%20role%20of%20trees%20in%20the%20fate%20of%20civilization,stripbooks,106&amp;sr=1-1&quot;}\" data-orig-url=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Forest-Journey-Story-Trees-Civilization\/dp\/1938340973\/ref=sr_1_1?ots=1&amp;tag=thneyo0f-20&amp;linkCode=w50&amp;crid=1SIDDM9E1DGPF&amp;keywords=A%20Forest%20Journey:%20The%20Role%20of%20Trees%20in%20the%20Fate%20of%20Civilization&amp;qid=1684517835&amp;s=books&amp;sprefix=a%20forest%20journey%20the%20role%20of%20trees%20in%20the%20fate%20of%20civilization,stripbooks,106&amp;sr=1-1\" data-ml-id=\"3\" data-ml=\"true\" data-xid=\"fr1686061396702bgd\" data-uri=\"367d9cea0390b8166c13c61ca0757957\">A Forest Journey: The Role of Trees in the Fate of Civilization<\/a>\u201d (Patagonia), more than five hundred pages but \u201cprinted on 100 percent postconsumer paper.\u201d Yet any plans for a truce in this war, including calls for planting trees, have often been pretty suspect, perhaps especially so in the United States.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paywall\">American states legislated the <a title=\"Protected and Conserved Area Fund\" href=\"https:\/\/www.cfwt.sua.ac.tz\/ecosystems\/news\/protected-and-conserved-area-fund\">protection<\/a> of the forests from the start, if to little effect. After the Revolution, for instance, Massachusetts forbade the cutting down of those twenty-four-inch white pines on any <a title=\"Request for Proposal on Analysis of Public Sector Climate, Forest, and Land Use Strategies and Determination of Investment Readiness Score\" href=\"https:\/\/www.cfwt.sua.ac.tz\/ecosystems\/news\/request-for-proposal-on-analysis-of-public-sector-climate-forest-and-land-use-strategies-and-determination-of-investment-readiness-score\">public lands<\/a>. But in the Western territories \u201cpublic lands,\u201d which were generally the unceded ancestral homelands of tribal nations, quickly became private lands. After the Northwest Ordinance of 1787, Congress paid Revolutionary War veterans in plots of land in the Northwest Territory, north of the Ohio River. (\u201cThe utmost good faith shall always be observed towards the Indians; their lands and property shall never be taken from them without their consent; and, in their property, rights and liberty, they shall never be invaded or disturbed, unless in just and lawful wars authorized by Congress,\u201d Congress affirmed in the Ordinance, in a pledge not honored.) In Conrad Richter\u2019s 1940 historical novel, \u201c<a class=\"external-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Trees-Rediscovered-Classics-Conrad-Richter\/dp\/1613737416\/ref=sr_1_1?ots=1&amp;tag=thneyo0f-20&amp;linkCode=w50&amp;crid=2KRZN45RSH5XY&amp;keywords=conrad%20richter%20the%20trees&amp;qid=1684517998&amp;s=books&amp;sprefix=conrad%20richter%20the%20trees,stripbooks,138&amp;sr=1-1\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" data-offer-url=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Trees-Rediscovered-Classics-Conrad-Richter\/dp\/1613737416\/ref=sr_1_1?crid=2KRZN45RSH5XY&amp;keywords=conrad%20richter%20the%20trees&amp;qid=1684517998&amp;s=books&amp;sprefix=conrad%20richter%20the%20trees,stripbooks,138&amp;sr=1-1\" data-event-click=\"{&quot;element&quot;:&quot;ExternalLink&quot;,&quot;outgoingURL&quot;:&quot;https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Trees-Rediscovered-Classics-Conrad-Richter\/dp\/1613737416\/ref=sr_1_1?crid=2KRZN45RSH5XY&amp;keywords=conrad%20richter%20the%20trees&amp;qid=1684517998&amp;s=books&amp;sprefix=conrad%20richter%20the%20trees,stripbooks,138&amp;sr=1-1&quot;}\" data-orig-url=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Trees-Rediscovered-Classics-Conrad-Richter\/dp\/1613737416\/ref=sr_1_1?ots=1&amp;tag=thneyo0f-20&amp;linkCode=w50&amp;crid=2KRZN45RSH5XY&amp;keywords=conrad%20richter%20the%20trees&amp;qid=1684517998&amp;s=books&amp;sprefix=conrad%20richter%20the%20trees,stripbooks,138&amp;sr=1-1\" data-ml-id=\"4\" data-ml=\"true\" data-xid=\"fr1686061396702cbi\" data-uri=\"063aa7df928b1d7840bd45714f97bc8c\">The Trees<\/a>,\u201d a family from Pennsylvania treks to the Ohio Valley around 1787. Their little girl, looking down from a hilltop, is overwhelmed by her first view of the forest, thinking that \u201cwhat lay beneath was the late sun glittering on green-black water,\u201d mistaking for an ocean what was, instead, \u201ca sea of solid treetops broken only by some gash where deep beneath the foliage an unknown stream made its way.\u201d The whole of Richter\u2019s trilogy, the story of American pioneers, is the story of clearing the woods: \u201cOh, it was hard beating back the woods. You had to fight the wild trees and their sprouts tooth and nail.\u201d By the trilogy\u2019s end, that little girl, now an old woman, is haunted by regret. \u201cShe reckoned she knew now how one of those old butts in the deep woods felt when all its fellows were cut down and it was left standing lone and gaunt against the sky, with only whips and brush and those not worth the axe pushing up around it. The second growth trees you saw today were mighty poor and spindly specimens beside the giants she had known when first she came to this country.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"paywall\">A sense that the great clearing meant, as well, a great loss pervaded nineteenth-century American culture. Much of it was romance, a product of the wispy, dreamy, self-justifying association many Americans made between the vanishing forest and the imagined vanishing of the Indians, even while the federal and state governments pursued a <a title=\"Call for Proposal: Analytical Study on National Energy Policy and Regulatory Frameworks\" href=\"https:\/\/www.cfwt.sua.ac.tz\/ecosystems\/news\/call-for-proposal-analytical-study-on-national-energy-policy-and-regulatory-frameworks\">policy of conquest and war against Native nations<\/a>. Tree-planting campaigns became the called-for, remorseful remedy. \u201cIf our ancestors found it wise and necessary to cut down fast forests, it is all the more needful that their descendants should plant trees,\u201d the landscape architect Andrew Jackson Downing wrote in 1847. \u201cLet every man, whose soul is not a desert, plant trees.\u201d That same year, George Perkins Marsh gave a lecture in Rutland, Vermont, that helped launch the <a title=\"Emergency Funding for Conservation\" href=\"https:\/\/www.cfwt.sua.ac.tz\/ecosystems\/news\/emergency-funding-for-conservation\">conservation<\/a> movement. Marsh argued that the destruction of the forests had consequences for the <a title=\"Funding: Climate-resilient Action in African Countries\" href=\"https:\/\/www.cfwt.sua.ac.tz\/ecosystems\/news\/funding-climate-resilient-action-in-african-countries\">climate<\/a>: \u201cThough man cannot at his pleasure command the rain and the sunshine, the wind and frost and snow, yet it is certain that climate itself has in many instances been gradually changed and ameliorated or deteriorated by human action.\u201d He went on:<\/p>\n<p class=\"paywall\">The draining of swamps and the clearing of forests perceptibly effect the evaporation from the earth, and of course the mean quantity of moisture suspended in the air. The same causes modify the electrical condition of the atmosphere and the power of the surface to reflect, absorb and radiate the rays of the sun, and consequently influence the distribution of light and heat, and the force and direction of the winds. Within narrow limits too, domestic fires and artificial structures create and diffuse increased warmth, to an extent that may effect vegetation.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paywall\">Marsh insisted, \u201cTrees are no longer what they were in our fathers\u2019 time, an incumbrance.\u201d They are, instead, a reservoir, the source of life, the regulators of the climate.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paywall\">Marsh, a linguist and a diplomat, went on to write a groundbreaking book, \u201cThe Earth as Modified by Human Action,\u201d first published in 1864 under the title \u201cMan and Nature,\u201d a nineteenth-century version of Frankopan\u2019s \u201cThe Earth Transformed.\u201d The Wisconsin legislature in 1867 commissioned an investigation that resulted in the publication of its \u201cReport on the Disastrous Effects of the Destruction of Forest Trees, Now Going On So Rapidly in the State of Wisconsin.\u201d The state then inaugurated a program of tax exemption for landowners who planted trees. In 1873, the Nebraska senator Phineas\u00a0W. Hitchcock introduced the Timber Culture Act, declaring, \u201cThe object of this bill is to encourage the growth of timber, not merely for the benefit of the soil, not merely for the value of timber itself, but for its influence upon the climate.\u201d The act, a failure, was repealed in 1891. Instead, the lasting consequence of Marsh\u2019s \u201cThe Earth as Modified by Human Action\u201d was Arbor Day, created by a Nebraskan named J.\u00a0Sterling Morton and first celebrated on April 10, 1872.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paywall\">Morton, the editor of the Nebraska City\u00a0<em>News<\/em>, called for a day \u201cset apart and consecrated for tree planting.\u201d On that first Arbor Day, Nebraskans planted more than a million trees. The holiday soon spread, especially after Grover Cleveland appointed Morton as his Secretary of Agriculture, in 1892. The <a title=\"Policy Advocacy Officer \u2013 Forest Program\" href=\"https:\/\/www.cfwt.sua.ac.tz\/ecosystems\/news\/policy-advocacy-officer-forest-program\">advocacy organization American Forests<\/a> was founded in 1875, and, as Cohen writes, it also advanced the idea that planting a tree was an act of citizenship. This was a tradition that faltered at various times in the twentieth century but was renewed beginning in 1970 with the first Earth Day (also held in April) and with the establishment of the National Arbor Day Foundation two years later. Its many programs include Trees for America; pay a membership fee, and you get ten saplings in the mail. American <a title=\"Global Transformation of Forest for People and Climate: A Focus on West Africa\" href=\"https:\/\/www.cfwt.sua.ac.tz\/ecosystems\/news\/global-transformation-of-forest-for-people-and-climate-a-focus-on-west-africa\">Forests runs Global<\/a> ReLeaf.<\/p>\n<div class=\"inline-recirc-wrapper inline-recirc-observer-target-2 viewport-monitor-anchor\" data-attr-viewport-monitor=\"inline-recirc\" data-event-boundary=\"click\" data-event-click=\"{&quot;pattern&quot;:&quot;InlineRecirc&quot;}\" data-in-view=\"{&quot;pattern&quot;:&quot;InlineRecirc&quot;}\" data-include-experiments=\"true\"><\/div>\n<p class=\"paywall\">But Cohen and other critics have argued that there is little evidence that these programs do much more than greenwash bad actors. American Forests has been sponsored by both fossil fuel and timber companies. In 1996, the climate-change-denying G.O.P. encouraged Republican congressional candidates to have themselves photographed planting a tree. \u201c10 Reasons to Plant Trees with American Forests,\u201d printed in 2001, suggests that \u201cplanting 30 trees each year offsets the average American\u2019s \u2018carbon debt\u2019\u2014the amount of carbon dioxide you produce each year from your car and home.\u201d The E.P.A., on a Web site that linked to American Forests, urged Americans to plant trees as penance: \u201cPlant some trees and stop feeling guilty.\u201d What with one thing and another, have you used ten thousand kilowatt-hours of electricity? The site offered indulgences: plant ten trees, one for every thousand kilowatt-hours. At the height of the corporate tree-atonement era, a\u00a0<em>New Yorker<\/em>\u00a0cartoon showed a queue of businessmen waiting to see a guru, with one saying to another, \u201cIt\u2019s great! You just tell him how much pollution your company is responsible for and he tells you how many trees you have to plant to atone for it.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"paywall\">The notion that clear-cutting can be counteracted by the planting of trees is a political product of the timber industry. As Cohen shows, the phrase \u201ctree farm\u201d was coined by a publicist at a timber company, as was the motto \u201cTimber Is a Crop.\u201d And the notion hasn\u2019t died. In 2020, the World Economic Forum announced its sponsorship of an initiative called 1t, a corporate-funded plan to \u201cconserve, <a title=\"Restoring a transitional cloud forest in Costa Rica\" href=\"https:\/\/www.cfwt.sua.ac.tz\/ecosystems\/news\/restoring-a-transitional-cloud-forest-in-costa-rica\">restore<\/a>, and grow\u201d one trillion trees by the year 2030. At Davos in 2020, Donald Trump pledged American support. (At the time, the President mentioned that he was reading a book about the environmental movement; written by a former adviser of his, it was called \u201cDonald\u00a0J. Trump: An Environmental Hero.\u201d)<\/p>\n<p class=\"paywall\">It\u2019s good to plant trees. No one\u2019s arguing any different. \u201cThere\u2019s no anti-tree lobby,\u201d a Nature <a title=\"Measuring impact to improve conservation results\" href=\"https:\/\/www.cfwt.sua.ac.tz\/ecosystems\/news\/measuring-impact-to-improve-conservation-results\">Conservancy<\/a> ecologist told\u00a0<em>Science News<\/em>\u00a0recently. Trees are the new polar bears, the trending face of the environmental movement. But it\u2019s not clear that planting a trillion trees is a solution. In terms of biodiversity, killing forests and planting tree farms isn\u2019t much help; a forest is an <a title=\"Ecosystems and Conservation\" href=\"https:\/\/www.cfwt.sua.ac.tz\/ecosystems\/ecosystems-and-conservation\">ecosystem<\/a>, and a tree farm is a monoculture. Forests absorb about sixteen billion metric tons of <a title=\"The story behind a Carbon Credit\" href=\"https:\/\/www.cfwt.sua.ac.tz\/ecosystems\/news\/the-story-behind-a-carbon-credit\">carbon<\/a> dioxide every year, but they also emit about eight billion tons. The main study behind the 1t movement proposes that planting trees on land around the world roughly equivalent in area to the United States will trap more than two hundred\u00a0billion tons of carbon. Yet a forum published in\u00a0<em>Science<\/em>\u00a0in 2019 expressed grave skepticism about both the science and the math behind this plan. The history is fishy, too. National tree-planting schemes have, historically, come up short. Studies across countries have found that as many as nine in ten saplings planted under these auspices die. They\u2019re the wrong kind of tree. No one waters them. They\u2019re planted at the wrong time of year. They have not improved <a title=\"Call for Applications: Consultancy services on drivers of forest cover change and loss in different forest types in Africa\" href=\"https:\/\/www.cfwt.sua.ac.tz\/ecosystems\/news\/call-for-applications-consultancy-services-on-drivers-of-forest-cover-change-and-loss-in-different-forest-types-in-africa\">forest cover<\/a>. The 1t folks make a point of saying that they\u2019re not planting trees; they\u2019re growing them. But whether they really are remains to be seen.<\/p>\n<p class=\"has-dropcap has-dropcap__lead-standard-heading paywall\">In the meantime, you are asked to think differently about trees. They\u2019re out there. They\u2019re smart. They will outlast us. Brian Selznick\u2019s graphic children\u2019s novel \u201c<a class=\"external-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Big-Tree-Brian-Selznick\/dp\/1338180630\/ref=sr_1_1?ots=1&amp;tag=thneyo0f-20&amp;linkCode=w50&amp;crid=1SEKINNZHUMED&amp;keywords=Big%20Tree&amp;qid=1684518284&amp;s=books&amp;sprefix=big%20tree,stripbooks,188&amp;sr=1-1\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" data-offer-url=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Big-Tree-Brian-Selznick\/dp\/1338180630\/ref=sr_1_1?crid=1SEKINNZHUMED&amp;keywords=Big%20Tree&amp;qid=1684518284&amp;s=books&amp;sprefix=big%20tree,stripbooks,188&amp;sr=1-1\" data-event-click=\"{&quot;element&quot;:&quot;ExternalLink&quot;,&quot;outgoingURL&quot;:&quot;https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Big-Tree-Brian-Selznick\/dp\/1338180630\/ref=sr_1_1?crid=1SEKINNZHUMED&amp;keywords=Big%20Tree&amp;qid=1684518284&amp;s=books&amp;sprefix=big%20tree,stripbooks,188&amp;sr=1-1&quot;}\" data-orig-url=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Big-Tree-Brian-Selznick\/dp\/1338180630\/ref=sr_1_1?ots=1&amp;tag=thneyo0f-20&amp;linkCode=w50&amp;crid=1SEKINNZHUMED&amp;keywords=Big%20Tree&amp;qid=1684518284&amp;s=books&amp;sprefix=big%20tree,stripbooks,188&amp;sr=1-1\" data-ml-id=\"5\" data-ml=\"true\" data-xid=\"fr1686061396702aig\" data-uri=\"209c54be1f58a8ca0999425b16b46055\">Big Tree<\/a>\u201d (Scholastic) tells the story of trees across tens of millions of years, through the trials of two sycamores: \u201cOnce upon a time, there were two little seeds in a very old forest. Their mama said she would give them roots and wings\u2014roots so they\u2019d always have a home, and wings so they would be brave enough to find it.\u201d Selznick\u2019s understanding of forestry, and maternal trees, borrows from the work of the Canadian ecologist Suzanne Simard. As a <a title=\"Environmental Conservation \u2013 Young Scientist Awards 2021\" href=\"https:\/\/www.cfwt.sua.ac.tz\/ecosystems\/news\/young-scientist-awards-2021\">young scientist<\/a>, Simard was the lead author of a study published in\u00a0<em>Nature<\/em>, \u201cNet Transfer of Carbon Between Ectomycorrhizal Tree Species in the Field,\u201d in which she reported the findings of a years-long series of experiments that she conducted with seedlings. \u201cPlants within communities can be interconnected and exchange resources through a common hyphal network, and form guilds based on their shared mycorrhizal associates,\u201d she concluded. That is to say, plants can communicate with one another chemically, and across species, issuing warnings, for instance. Put in human terms, trees can care for one another. Simard came to call certain of these signallers \u201cmother trees,\u201d which both got her into hot water and made her beloved. Although subsequent research verified most of her major findings, she was for a long time chastised by scientists, an experience that was the inspiration for the trials of Patricia Westerford in Richard Powers\u2019s intricate Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, \u201c<a class=\"external-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Overstory-Novel-Richard-Powers\/dp\/039335668X\/ref=sr_1_1?ots=1&amp;tag=thneyo0f-20&amp;linkCode=w50&amp;crid=1HET7JPCLIEHU&amp;keywords=The%20Overstory&amp;qid=1684518309&amp;s=books&amp;sprefix=the%20overstory,stripbooks,99&amp;sr=1-1\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" data-offer-url=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Overstory-Novel-Richard-Powers\/dp\/039335668X\/ref=sr_1_1?crid=1HET7JPCLIEHU&amp;keywords=The%20Overstory&amp;qid=1684518309&amp;s=books&amp;sprefix=the%20overstory,stripbooks,99&amp;sr=1-1\" data-event-click=\"{&quot;element&quot;:&quot;ExternalLink&quot;,&quot;outgoingURL&quot;:&quot;https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Overstory-Novel-Richard-Powers\/dp\/039335668X\/ref=sr_1_1?crid=1HET7JPCLIEHU&amp;keywords=The%20Overstory&amp;qid=1684518309&amp;s=books&amp;sprefix=the%20overstory,stripbooks,99&amp;sr=1-1&quot;}\" data-orig-url=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Overstory-Novel-Richard-Powers\/dp\/039335668X\/ref=sr_1_1?ots=1&amp;tag=thneyo0f-20&amp;linkCode=w50&amp;crid=1HET7JPCLIEHU&amp;keywords=The%20Overstory&amp;qid=1684518309&amp;s=books&amp;sprefix=the%20overstory,stripbooks,99&amp;sr=1-1\" data-ml-id=\"6\" data-ml=\"true\" data-xid=\"fr1686061396702hdi\" data-uri=\"58a12a96a32ec6a9969f9fbce379f5fe\">The Overstory<\/a>,\u201d from 2018. In the novel, Powers describes the moment of Westerford\u2019s crucial finding, in a forest of sugar maples:<\/p>\n<p class=\"has-dropcap has-dropcap__lead-standard-heading paywall\">The trees under attack pump out insecticides to save their lives. That much is uncontroversial. But something else in the data makes her flesh pucker: trees a little way off, untouched by the invading swarms, ramp up their own defenses when their neighbor is attacked. Something <em>alerts<\/em>\u00a0them. They get wind of the disaster, and they prepare. She controls for everything she can, and the results are always the same. Only one conclusion makes any sense: The wounded trees send out alarms that other trees smell. Her maples are\u00a0<em>signaling<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paywall\">Amy Adams is slated to play Simard in an upcoming film adaptation of Simard\u2019s memoir, \u201c<a class=\"external-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Finding-Mother-Tree-Discovering-Wisdom\/dp\/052556599X\/ref=sr_1_1?ots=1&amp;tag=thneyo0f-20&amp;linkCode=w50&amp;crid=3BIF32U7NCETI&amp;keywords=Finding%20the%20Mother%20Tree:%20Discovering%20the%20Wisdom%20of%20the%20Forest&amp;qid=1684519824&amp;s=books&amp;sprefix=finding%20the%20mother%20tree%20discovering%20the%20wisdom%20of%20the%20forest,stripbooks,161&amp;sr=1-1\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" data-offer-url=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Finding-Mother-Tree-Discovering-Wisdom\/dp\/052556599X\/ref=sr_1_1?crid=3BIF32U7NCETI&amp;keywords=Finding%20the%20Mother%20Tree:%20Discovering%20the%20Wisdom%20of%20the%20Forest&amp;qid=1684519824&amp;s=books&amp;sprefix=finding%20the%20mother%20tree%20discovering%20the%20wisdom%20of%20the%20forest,stripbooks,161&amp;sr=1-1\" data-event-click=\"{&quot;element&quot;:&quot;ExternalLink&quot;,&quot;outgoingURL&quot;:&quot;https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Finding-Mother-Tree-Discovering-Wisdom\/dp\/052556599X\/ref=sr_1_1?crid=3BIF32U7NCETI&amp;keywords=Finding%20the%20Mother%20Tree:%20Discovering%20the%20Wisdom%20of%20the%20Forest&amp;qid=1684519824&amp;s=books&amp;sprefix=finding%20the%20mother%20tree%20discovering%20the%20wisdom%20of%20the%20forest,stripbooks,161&amp;sr=1-1&quot;}\" data-orig-url=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Finding-Mother-Tree-Discovering-Wisdom\/dp\/052556599X\/ref=sr_1_1?ots=1&amp;tag=thneyo0f-20&amp;linkCode=w50&amp;crid=3BIF32U7NCETI&amp;keywords=Finding%20the%20Mother%20Tree:%20Discovering%20the%20Wisdom%20of%20the%20Forest&amp;qid=1684519824&amp;s=books&amp;sprefix=finding%20the%20mother%20tree%20discovering%20the%20wisdom%20of%20the%20forest,stripbooks,161&amp;sr=1-1\" data-ml-id=\"7\" data-ml=\"true\" data-xid=\"fr1686061396702geh\" data-uri=\"50ac19cbab4a74c13e2937d80d2e5886\">Finding the Mother Tree: Discovering the Wisdom of the Forest<\/a>\u201d (Knopf).<\/p>\n<p class=\"paywall\">Simard is herself something of a maternal spirit in Katie Holten\u2019s collection of essays, poems, and other snippets, \u201c<a class=\"external-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Language-Trees-Rewilding-Literature-Landscape\/dp\/1953534686\/ref=sr_1_1?ots=1&amp;tag=thneyo0f-20&amp;linkCode=w50&amp;crid=6NZ4S5DH3VBX&amp;keywords=The%20Language%20of%20Trees&amp;qid=1684519842&amp;s=books&amp;sprefix=the%20language%20of%20trees,stripbooks,74&amp;sr=1-1\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" data-offer-url=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Language-Trees-Rewilding-Literature-Landscape\/dp\/1953534686\/ref=sr_1_1?crid=6NZ4S5DH3VBX&amp;keywords=The%20Language%20of%20Trees&amp;qid=1684519842&amp;s=books&amp;sprefix=the%20language%20of%20trees,stripbooks,74&amp;sr=1-1\" data-event-click=\"{&quot;element&quot;:&quot;ExternalLink&quot;,&quot;outgoingURL&quot;:&quot;https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Language-Trees-Rewilding-Literature-Landscape\/dp\/1953534686\/ref=sr_1_1?crid=6NZ4S5DH3VBX&amp;keywords=The%20Language%20of%20Trees&amp;qid=1684519842&amp;s=books&amp;sprefix=the%20language%20of%20trees,stripbooks,74&amp;sr=1-1&quot;}\" data-orig-url=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Language-Trees-Rewilding-Literature-Landscape\/dp\/1953534686\/ref=sr_1_1?ots=1&amp;tag=thneyo0f-20&amp;linkCode=w50&amp;crid=6NZ4S5DH3VBX&amp;keywords=The%20Language%20of%20Trees&amp;qid=1684519842&amp;s=books&amp;sprefix=the%20language%20of%20trees,stripbooks,74&amp;sr=1-1\" data-ml-id=\"8\" data-ml=\"true\" data-xid=\"fr1686061396702dje\" data-uri=\"3c1abaae290af35ab3912d0337ab51b7\">The Language of Trees<\/a>\u201d (Tin House), in which Holten, an Irish artist and activist, introduces a tree alphabet. Each letter is represented by the striking silhouette of a tree: Apple, Beech, Cedar, Dogwood, Elm, and so on. The book reproduces a piece of Simard\u2019s writing: \u201cWhen mother trees\u2014the majestic hubs at the center of forest communication, protection, and sentience\u2014die, they pass their wisdom to their kin, generation after generation, sharing the knowledge of what helps and what harms, who is friend or foe, and how to adapt and survive in an ever-changing landscape. It\u2019s what all parents do.\u201d That \u201cmother,\u201d in Holten\u2019s abecedary, reads this way: Mulberry, Oak, Tree of heaven, Horse chestnut, Elm, Redwood.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paywall\">Simard\u2019s research has also been popularized by a German forester named Peter Wohlleben in his best-selling 2015 book (first translated into English in 2016), \u201c<a class=\"external-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Hidden-Life-Trees-Communicate_Discoveries-Secret\/dp\/1771642483\/ref=tmm_hrd_swatch_0?ots=1&amp;tag=thneyo0f-20&amp;linkCode=w50&amp;_encoding=UTF8&amp;qid=1684519862&amp;sr=1-1\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" data-offer-url=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Hidden-Life-Trees-Communicate_Discoveries-Secret\/dp\/1771642483\/ref=tmm_hrd_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&amp;qid=1684519862&amp;sr=1-1\" data-event-click=\"{&quot;element&quot;:&quot;ExternalLink&quot;,&quot;outgoingURL&quot;:&quot;https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Hidden-Life-Trees-Communicate_Discoveries-Secret\/dp\/1771642483\/ref=tmm_hrd_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&amp;qid=1684519862&amp;sr=1-1&quot;}\" data-orig-url=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Hidden-Life-Trees-Communicate_Discoveries-Secret\/dp\/1771642483\/ref=tmm_hrd_swatch_0?ots=1&amp;tag=thneyo0f-20&amp;linkCode=w50&amp;_encoding=UTF8&amp;qid=1684519862&amp;sr=1-1\" data-ml-id=\"9\" data-ml=\"true\" data-xid=\"fr1686061396702aef\" data-uri=\"4626fbf7d64cd0416871191c5d26de02\">The Hidden Life of Trees: What They Feel, How They Communicate<\/a>.\u201d Wohlleben\u2019s earlier books were downers, like \u201cThe Forest: An Obituary.\u201d \u201cThe Hidden Life of Trees\u201d is not a downer. Forget imperialism, industrialism, and capitalism. Think feelings. A forest of trees, Wohlleben argues, is like a herd of elephants. \u201cLike the herd, they, too, look after their own, and they help their sick and weak back up onto their feet.\u201d Like elephants\u2014like humans\u2014trees have friends, and lovers, and parents and children. They have language, and they also have, he argues, a kind of sentience.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paywall\">As science, the mothering, feeling tree is controversial. As literature for a political movement, it\u2019s not bad, and, after all, nothing else has worked\u2014not Arbor Day, not the \u201cReport on the Disastrous Effects of the Destruction of Forest Trees, Now Going On So Rapidly,\u201d not Global ReLeaf, not 1t. At this rate, unless humans think of something better fast, the forests, and then we who walk the Earth, two-legged, will be Dogwood, Elm, Apple, Dogwood.\u00a0\u2666<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Forests fed us, housed us, and made our way of life possible. But they can\u2019t save us if we can\u2019t save them. By\u00a0Jill Lepore The woods I know best, love best, are made of Northern hardwoods, sugar maple and white ash, timber-tall; black and yellow birch, tiger-skinned; seedlings and saplings of blighted beech and striped [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":6609,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6607","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cfwt.sua.ac.tz\/ecosystems\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6607","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cfwt.sua.ac.tz\/ecosystems\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cfwt.sua.ac.tz\/ecosystems\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cfwt.sua.ac.tz\/ecosystems\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cfwt.sua.ac.tz\/ecosystems\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6607"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.cfwt.sua.ac.tz\/ecosystems\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6607\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6613,"href":"https:\/\/www.cfwt.sua.ac.tz\/ecosystems\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6607\/revisions\/6613"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cfwt.sua.ac.tz\/ecosystems\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6609"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cfwt.sua.ac.tz\/ecosystems\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6607"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cfwt.sua.ac.tz\/ecosystems\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6607"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cfwt.sua.ac.tz\/ecosystems\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6607"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}