Article Link: http://exchangepress.com/article/wonder-connected-with-the-trees/5026280/
*Photos can be found in the pdf version of this article.
“I’m lying on the ground, looking up at the branches of an oak tree. Dappled light is shining through the canopy, the leaves whisper ancient incantations… I wish we could translate the language of trees—hear their voices, know their stories. They host such an astonishing amount of life… And I believe trees are like us, or they inspire the better parts of human nature. If only we could be connected in the way this oak tree is connected with its ecosystem.”
—Dara McAnulty, Diary of a Young Naturalist (2021)
McAnulty’s musings under a mighty oak draw a full circle from how trees inspire us to how we, in turn, might protect trees and our greater environment, celebrating our multi-layered connections with trees. As Maheia points out below, trees that have borne witness to so much human history are now bearing the brunt of human actions that ignore our interconnectedness. Whether by floods or fires, urbanization or clear cutting, we are losing not only habitat for “an astonishing amount of life,” but also the carbon dioxide- and temperature-regulating canopy, and the roots and undergrowth which previously held erosion at ...