Intergenerational dialogue and lessons from nature: if trees could talk
Building eco-systems of cooperation
Dear friends,
February is here, the harsh winter light is landing a little softer, and I have found myself pondering the lessons we can garner from non-human life.
Let’s talk about trees
In nature I feel most at peace by the sea and in and around saltwater marshland. This environment feels like home, it is where I grew up, it is what I know best. Yet, though the ocean always has a special hold over me, sitting beside trees that tower as ancient giants can be an ethereal experience. When I am in local woodland I find myself slowing down - my breathing, my heart rate, my mental busyness. I do not personally see trees as deities, but do not doubt they are of the divine. When I am by the ocean I feel connected to all oceans, to all seas. When I am in a forest, similarly I find myself thinking of my human brothers and sisters around the world also surrounded by life-giving trees.
Trees rely on a complex web of kinship networks, within their own species and in alliance with other species. I am not a scientist, but am fascinated by the unfolding scientific understanding of how trees send chemical, hormonal and slow-pulsing electrical signals between each other and through a fungal network beneath our feet. Science tells us not only do trees respond to the needs of other trees in their community, they may even carry and pass on memories.
In the past I have spent time in local woodland ‘forest bathing’, a practice inspired by the ancient Japanese process of shinrin-yoku where spending dedicated time around trees to promote wellbeing has had demonstrable results on human health. When I have spent this intentional time with trees, I have occasionally been struck by how beautifully a forest glade provides a metaphor for symbiotic dialogue - an eco-system of cooperation where every tree benefits the whole by both nurturing and allowing itself to be nurtured. When we look beyond our own relationship with trees and start to look at the relationships trees have with each other and other sentient beings, there is so much to learn!
Trees, the climate crisis - 5 lessons on intergenerational dialogue from trees
It is tricky to talk about the climate crisis without talking about trees.
I am not going to dwell on the better known, more obvious links between forests and the climate crisis, but the simple fact is trees matter to people. If a diseased or damaged tree dies, when it falls it creates a gap in the forest canopy. Even on this small scale, the death of one tree results in that microclimate becoming hotter and drier, and the environment becomes worse for the trees that remain. The death of even one tree matters. At the rate humans are thinning forests we are contributing to larger-scale change. Forests are both life-giving, oxygen releasing sources of energy, at the same time trees pull in harmful carbon dioxide and are one of our best lines of defence. Peter Wohlleben, author of ‘The Hidden Life of Trees’, explains how important trees are to each other and to us in this Yale 360 interview. Protecting and restoring forests, at a very practical level, plays an enormous role in leaving a positive legacy for our future ancestors.
A lone tree cannot create or maintain a consistent local climate - trees need each other. We do too.
Trees provide each other with shade, trees nurse each other with nutrients, older more mature trees protect younger trees, some trees even exist alongside each other in cooperative family groupings. The healthiest most vibrant forests are ones where trees have been allowed to develop deep reciprocal relationships with other trees around them. Lone trees are more susceptible to disease or destruction, less able to cope with environmental changes. Are we not the same? In this climate crisis we need to foster deep relationships with each other, protect each other, shelter each other from the literal and metaphorical storms. Though lone people can survive - as can lone trees - we are rarely better for it.
There is a vital role for forest elders in creating communities of care.
Forest ecologist Suzanne Simard studies what she terms “mother trees.” In her book ‘Finding the Mother Tree’, she describes the web of interdependence between trees. Mother trees are the old-growth trees that have vast root systems connected to hundreds of other trees via a network of fungi. This root system creates a kind of network of care amongst trees. In our human societies we have mother trees too. We have those figures who connect whole communities, we have those elders who provide a source of resilience and renewal in the face of adversity, we have those individuals who nurture and provide care for others. Often we focus on youth voices when examine intergenerational dialogue as a tool for action in the climate crisis, we must not forget the vital wisdom and resources of our ‘mother trees’. And, like trees, we all have the potential to grow to be ‘mother trees’ in our communities.
Trees are part of a tapestry of life and every tree has its role to play in the forest.
Though some of the connections in nature are not easily seen with the human eye, or may exist beneath the surface of what we can see, these connections are crucial and they’re real. Too often in many human societies we want everything to be seen, we want our lives and our relationships recorded in detail on our Instagram feeds or our Facebook walls. Yet, as we too keenly observe in moments of personal crisis, those deep ‘real’ relationships are the ones built on years of less obvious labour beneath the surface. We are not all designed to play the role of the visible climate activist marching with banner aloft. We do not all have the skills to contribute to climate science. What we do all have is a job to do and something we can offer. We can all play a part in nurturing the wider movement for change. And it will take all of us - young and old, visible and unseen.
Learning from trees and between generations isn’t a new concept, it is something most Indigenous communities have been doing for hundreds, even thousands, of years.
Tree Sisters is an organisation aiming to tackle the root cause of climate change by reconnecting everyone to nature and encouraging the cultural shift required to grow from a consumer to a restorative culture. On their website they have a wonderful collection of interviews, videos, blogs and audio recordings where Indigenous people from many different communities and traditions share their understanding and connection with nature. Frequently these media pieces focus on what can be learnt from trees. There are so many cultures with deep, lived experience of learning from nature - many of us just stopped listening for a really long time.
Learn more
Forest bathing
Here my own local ‘forest bathing guide’ Ruth explains more about the relationship between human health and being with trees.
Additional recommended reading/viewing
Book: ‘Braiding Sweetgrass’ by Robin Wall Kimmerer
Article: ‘Hearing the Language of Trees’ by Robin Wall Kimmerer
Book: ‘The Wisdom of Trees’ by Max Adams
Website: Amazon Watch - Women defenders of the Amazon
Thank you to all who have subscribed to my newsletter so far, I really appreciate your interest and support. May this week be one where you feel the nurturing community of a thousand trees around you.
Laura