To Speak for the Trees

 

“Trees offer us the solution to nearly every problem facing humanity today, from defending against drug resistance to halting global temperature rise, and they are eager to share those answers. They do so even when we can’t or won’t hear them. We once knew how to listen. It is a skill we must remember.”

Diana Beresford-Kroeger

Gifted with an incredible memory since a very young age, soaking up the nectar of ancient Celtic wisdom, Diana grew up with a love for the natural world and an unquenchable curiosity to learn as much as she could about it.

 How can I communicate the marvel of diving into To Speak for the Trees?

 If you feel rejuvenated and cheerful when you immerse yourself in a forest, reading her words will be a unique experience, a wellspring of inspiration and an invitation to learn more about trees and the boreal forest.

 Her book illuminates our spirit with hope, but not the kind of hope based on empty words; it is the invigorating energy underpinned by scientific knowledge and creative ideas to work together to become part of the solution to the environmental crisis.

 Did you know that pine trees produce an atmospheric aerosol called pinene? The pinene molecules are easily absorbed by the skin and the lungs, and they have shown to boost the human immune system and to uplift the mood.

 “The beneficial effects of a twenty-minute pine forest walk will remain in the immune system’s memory for about thirty days.”

 

 The Druidic physicians considered the evergreen pine essential to health, and they prescribed walking in pine forests to support the health of the respiratory system. They called it “forest bathing”.

 Diana migrated to Canada from Ireland when her research prospects were limited. In Canada she endured new challenges.

 She was always motivated to learn about the natural world and to share her knowledge and research. As a courageous independent thinker, however, she was treated with derision and underestimated. Tired of the biases against her, she left the academic system in the 1980s and embarked on a new path of research.  She explains it well in these words: “I had the whole of my scientific education, a baseline of knowledge and technique against which I could measure and make sense of the things I observed. I had the freedom of being loosed from institutions, the room to be myself and chased what caught my curiosity without external interference. “

Her honest reflections resonate on many levels:

 “I had the solitude and desperation of existence on the margins, scary and sometimes painful emotions that have the power to strip you down until you’re just your raw essence and nothing more. I had my painter’s eye for beauty, which could draw me to a discovery just as surely as the orderly thinking achieved by reason. And I had the ancient knowledge of Lisheens and the view it had given me of nature as the sacred source of everything that’s needed to sustain ourselves and the planet.”

 Her love for trees led her to save several species. Diana Beresford-Kroeger is a botanist, medical biochemist, activist and author of various books. Her research and work strive to influence the way we interact with Nature.

 She had settled with her husband in Ontario, Canada, on a 160-acre area of land, where they planted trees and a vegetable garden; a place they care for in partnership with nature, without the use of pesticides.

Diana Beresford-Kroeger plays a vital role in the preservation of the boreal forest. She empowers each and every one of us to do our part to support the health of the planet and our own survival.

 “From my childhood in Lisheens, I’d been taught to freely share anything I was able to, especially my knowledge, and to always look for ways to improve the world around me.  I’d never had the money to engage in the type of philanthropy favored by the Marias of the world. Instead, I gave back through something called philanthropy of the mind, using my scientific knowledge and all the energy I could muster to advocate for any worthy cause that came through my door and to spread awareness of the issues nearest to my heart.”

   Diana’s scientific knowledge and ancient Celtic wisdom were augmented by the teachings she absorbed from the indigenous people of Canada. To Speak for the Trees unleashes the power of the mysterious world of trees.

 The first part of the book is about her childhood, youth, work and experiences interacting with Nature. The last few chapters focus on various species of trees with interesting facts about them. (Some of the trees included are elderberry, birch, blackhorn, aspen, oak and many others).

Her enthusiasm to understand the natural world is an endless endeavor that creates ripples of transformation to support the planet and our survival.

 She never gives up.

 “There is never a day spent outside that you don’t learn something. It might be something small, but that small thing might also be a key to something very big. The discovery of those small things and of the ways they connect to one another and ripple through the whole web of life—that is one of the true beauties of nature. That is what I sought to understand and cultivate.”

  If I asked you to explain a way in which trees support the health of the oceans, what would you say?

 You will probably mention that forests absorb a quarter of the amount of carbon dioxide generated by human beings. This is how forests help to curb the acidification of oceans caused by the burning of fossil fuels. After reading To Speak for the Trees, I should also tell you about a  beneficial effect of Mother Trees I had never heard of before.

 When the leaves of these trees fall in the autumn, they contain high amounts of fulvic acid. As the leaves decompose in the ground, the fulvic acid dissolves in the soil. Fulvic acid is rich in iron, and when this form of iron is flushed out into the oceans through rivers and other waterways, it helps to feed the phytoplankton, supporting the health of the ocean ecosystems.

 Everything in the planet is connected. Hence, the effects of Mother Trees extend into the oceans. This is why when those trees are cut down, fish die; ocean ecosystems are disrupted.  

 When Diana shares her childhood years, she also offers interesting information about the Celts and their history.

 The Celts were woodland people; their culture was born from the deciduous rainforests that covered much of the country in the past.  In the penal years, the British subjugated the Celts and destroyed these ancient forests with the purpose of severing the ties of the Celts with the roots of their culture and language.

“During the penal times, the Irish were not allowed to own trees or even certain seeds—they were only allowed to grow potatoes for food.”

 How can we listen to the trees?

Some people are more attuned to trees than others. Celtic cultures believed in the sentience of trees; many ancient cultures did too.

  I already wrote about ways through which trees communicate. However, I had never read anything about infrasound or silent sound from trees until I read To Speak for the Trees. These are sounds below the range of human hearing. They travel great distances, and they are also produced by elephants to communicate.

 How are trees related to these infrasounds? I wonder about it. Science does not know, but some research is emerging about sounds and plants:

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7671032/

The mystery of trees… an endless exploration to observe, feel and ask questions.

 There is a documentary she made called Call of the Forest.

You can also learn more about Diana Beresford-Kroeger’s work by visiting her website.

 

If you enjoyed this post, you may welcome my writing on the following books:

The Ecological Gardener

 Finding the Mother Tree: discovering the wisdom of the forest

Butterflies: their natural history and diversity

Enjoy the offcial trailer of the documentary Call of the Forest:

The Wisdom of Wolves by Jim and Jamie Dutcher

 

 “Each and every wolf has a story to share. Can we be trusted to listen?”

 Marc Bekoff

 Every member of a pack of wolves is valued by the others and recognized as a unique individual who makes a special contribution to the group. Their bonds are deep.  Jim and Jamie Dutcher spent six years living in a tent beside a pack of wolves by the Sawtooth Mountains of Idaho. The Wisdom of Wolves shares their knowledge and experience of living side by side with the Sawtooth pack of wolves, taking us into an emotional journey of countless surprises.

 Jim and Jamie Dutcher describe the wolves’ compassionate nature; they admire their curious courageous spirit. Wolves care well for the most vulnerable in the pack, and they do what it takes to keep everybody safe.  Jim and Jamie examined their relationships and paid special attention to the ways wolves communicate. They also learned how wolves keep each other in check to maintain harmony in the group.

  The authors give each wolf a name and describe their fascinating personalities. Besides, they explain how wolves interact with other species.

  When a person kills an old wolf, the survival of the group as a whole is threatened because old wolves have invaluable knowledge and experience that help the pack. Furthermore, the loss of any member of the group causes deep pain among the wolves. The Wisdom of Wolves elucidates how they grieve.

  The book was published by National Geographic. Both Jim and Jamie Dutcher raise public awareness about the true nature of wolves by writing books, making documentaries and giving talks in educational settings.

 

 The authors debunk the myth of the so-called lone wolf: “We often hear the term of the ‘lone wolf’ in reference to a person who acts alone, cares for no one, and craves no companionship. Sadly, like so many negative things falsely connected to wolves, the term has now come to mean a loner who wishes to do us harm. Such a state is an aberration among humans, and it’s equally rare among wolves.”

  It is important to clarify the concept to avoid misunderstandings and confusion. The truth is that a lone wolf in nature is a temporary phenomenon. Biologists call him a disperser. In reality “the lone wolf in nature is a wolf in its third year or so who has decided to leave its birth pack and strike out in search of new territory and a mate. What does a lone wolf want? It wants to stop being a lone wolf. It wants togetherness, to be part of something bigger.” It is not the aberration that the misused term alludes to.

  The term “lone wolf” should not be used to describe people that have no compassion and empathy for others because it perpetuates an attitude of ignorance toward wolves. It tarnishes the reputation of wolves and is dangerous. Another relevant fact to highlight here is that when the ecosystems where wolves thrive are respected, wolves don’t attack cattle.

   During the fourth year of their project, Jim and Jamie encountered all kinds of threats. They received anonymous letters in their mailbox asking them “to get rid of those wolves or we will." Authorities put pressure on them to make sure they would move out of their wolf camp. They were persecuted in different ways.

 “Somebody posted signs near our camp warning us to be gone or ‘wind up in the Custer County jail.’ Even a former governor weighted in, saying our project was nothing more than ‘wolf propaganda’ and should not be allowed to exist. Jamie and I were painfully aware that we were responsible for the lives of these wolves, but our ability to keep them safe seemed increasingly beyond our control.”

  In view of the stress they faced, Jim went out for a walk to sort things out. During his walk, the leader of the pack, Kamots, stayed close to him. He would disappear into the trees, and then he would emerge again, trotting and exploring the territory, until something amazing happened.

 As Jim sat and talked to himself, wondering what to do, Kamots approached him.

 “In a gesture I’d never seen before, he raised his paw up to me. I put out my hand and pressed it against his paw, and we sat there like that for a minute in silence. I felt as though he was assuring me that if we held up our end, he would hold up his. We should continue to deal with the human world, and in his calm, strong, confident way, he would keep his pack stable and safe. He was that kind of leader.”

 

The wolves gave Jim and Jamie a very special gift: the gift of trust between species, and through this gift they learned a lot about life, love, and compassion. You can visit their website to learn more about their work:

If you enjoyed this post, you will probably welcome my writing on these books:

Second Nature: The Inner Lives of Animals

Untamed

Unforgotten

Finding the Mother Tree: Discovering the Wisdom of the Forest by Suzanne Simard

 

“But man is part of nature, and his war against nature is inevitably a war against himself.” Rachel Carson

   Working in the logging industry, Suzanne Simard introduced the concept of cooperation among trees; it was based on a discovery for which she was mocked and shunned. Her finding had the potential to turn forest practices upside down. 

  Policies and practices in forestry had been established on the basis of competition as the key to the survival of trees.

  Decades ago, Suzanne Simard’s discovery on the way birch trees support the health of the fir trees was the beginning of an ongoing journey that would study the kind of interaction the field of forestry had ignored for so long: cooperation among trees.

 

You may wonder how trees cooperate with each other when all you’ve heard in school was about competition.

 Just as Albert Frank was fiercely criticized when he introduced the concept of symbiosis, Suzanne Simard was dismissed when she explained the need to let birch trees coexist with fir trees to support the health of the desired fir trees. Birch trees were considered “weeds”; therefore, policies to spray and kill those trees had always been in place.

 Thankfully, Simard found another job at the University of British Columbia and she continued to work hard on her path of research, asking questions that challenged the blindsided system and paved the way to comprehend how trees communicate with each other.

 

Suzanne Simard’s research showed that trees connect underground with the roots of other trees through an intricate network of fungi (the mycorrhizae), and their health and resilience depend on this complex web.

  In her book Finding the Mother Tree, Simard details the story of her research and threads into it her own life experiences, delving into her childhood, youth, family relationships, motherhood, and other relevant matters, like her cancer diagnosis and treatment.

 I appreciate how she was able to integrate so many subjects into a thought-provoking book, and I could empathize with her on every aspect of her journey.  

 “I have come full circle to stumble onto some of the indigenous ideals: Diversity matters. And everything in the universe is connected—between the forests and the prairies, the land and the water, the sky and the soil, the spirits and the living, the people and all other creatures.”

  

Suzanne Simard also focuses on the role of Mother trees. These are the oldest trees in a forest, and they are pivotal to the survival of young seedlings and various other trees, for they provide nourishment, making the forest strong and resilient. Mother trees are the foundation that underpins the integrity of a forest, and they are vital to the diversity of the woods.

  Simard reveals the power of her scientific observations by adding poetical reflections:

  “Imagine the flow of energy from the Mother Trees as powerful as the ocean tide, as strong as the sun’s rays, as irrepressible as the wind in the mountains, as unstoppable as a mother protecting her child. I knew that power in myself even before I’d uncovered these forest conversations. I’d felt it in the energy of the maple in my yard, flowing into me as I contemplated Dr. Malpass’s wisdom about embracing the mystery of life, sensing that magical emergent phenomena when we work together, the synergy that reductionist science so often misses, leading us to mistakenly simplify our societies and ecosystems.”

  After she survived her breast cancer treatment, she asked for some kind of reassurance to get on with her life, but all she encountered was the mystery of life, so she used her knowledge and passion for trees to create The Mother Tree Project. 

 “Our goal is to further develop an emergent philosophy: complexity science. Based on embracing collaboration in addition to competition—indeed, working with all the interactions that make up the forest—complexity science can transform forestry practices into what is adaptive and holistic and away from what has been overly authoritarian and simplistic.”

 Perhaps this book will confirm what your intuition perceives in your own interactions with trees and forests; or it may offer you a new window of contemplation, immersed in a deeper understanding of the trees, inviting you to cherish those moments of communion.

 “There is no moment too small in the world. Nothing should be lost. Everything has a purpose, and everything is in need of care. This is my creed. Let us embrace it. We can watch it rise.”

  Feel free to visit The Mother Tree Project:

https://mothertreeproject.org

 To keep marveling at the ways trees communicate, check this video by Suzanne Simard:

 

You may want to read my writing on Entangled Life if you haven't had a chance to read it yet:

https://juliahoneswritinglife.blogspot.com/2021/12/entangled-life.html

 

Entangled Life

 

“Fungi are everywhere, but they are easy to miss. They are inside you and around you. They sustain you and all that you depend on. As you read these words, fungi are changing the way that life happens, as they have done for more than one billion years. They are eating rock, making soil, digesting pollutants, nourishing and killing plants, surviving in space, inducing visions, producing food, making medicines, manipulating animal behavior and influencing the composition of the Earth’s atmosphere. Fungi provide a key to understanding the plants on which we live and the ways we think, feel and behave. Yet they live their lives hidden from view, and more than ninety percent of their species remain undocumented.” Merlin Sheldrake

  If these words catch your attention, you are not alone. It is the first paragraph of the book Entangled Life, a fascinating exploration of the life of fungi. Did you know that you have more microorganisms in your body than human cells? Some of those microorganisms are fungi. Fungi are everywhere; they are not only present in our bodies. They are in the clouds, influencing the weather. They are on the sea floor, on the surface of deserts, in the frozen valleys of Antarctica, in the soil under our feet. They have the capacity to adapt to different habitats. The ecosystems of microorganisms in our bodies help us to digest food, to nourish us, to support our immune system, and may even influence our behaviors (check references 1 and 2 at the bottom of this post). These interactions are not unique to humans. Even bacteria have viruses within them, and viruses can contain smaller viruses.

  Fungi are neither plants nor animals. Plants make up 80% of the mass of life on earth and they are the base of the food chain. However, 600 million years ago, there were no plants on land. Back then, life was an aquatic event and there was no soil as we know it now; only rocks, where minerals were locked. Merlin Sheldrake explains that “plants made it out of the water around 500 million years ago because of their collaboration with fungi, which served as their root systems for tens of millions of years until plants could evolve their own.”

  Here is a surprising fact that is often overlooked: ninety percent of plants depend on fungi to survive and thrive. The intimate partnerships between plant roots and mycorrhizal fungi allow the plant to take in water and minerals from the soil. Fungi also provide 80 percent of a plant’s nitrogen and a hundred percent of its phosphorus. Likewise, the fungi benefit from the plants by gaining access to food produced by the plant. Mycorrhizal fungi are connected to plants and trees through shared networks. “Mykes” in Greek means fungus; “rhiza” means roots.

 Unsustainable agricultural practices ignore these vital relationships between plants and fungi. Did you know that a teaspoon of healthy soil contains more bugs than human beings in the planet? Fungi represent at least one third of the living mass in the soil. The role of fungi in soil ecosystems is an active field of research. Fungi networks in the soil prevent the loss of nutrients in it, and help to regulate the water, so they support the soil under extreme weather conditions that lead to droughts or floods.

 The levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, climate changes and pollution influence the interactions between plant roots and mycorrhizae, and the effects have an impact on ecosystems. A study published in 2018 found that the deterioration of the health of trees across Europe was the consequence of a disruption of their mycorrhizal relationships, which was triggered by nitrogen pollution.

 The term “mycorrhiza” was coined by biologist Albert Frank in 1885; his study of lichens, symbiotic partnerships of fungi and algae, led to the use of the word “symbiosis”. Frank’s passion for the study of mycorrhiza spurred him to focus on the research of mycorrhizal relationships for more than a decade; back then, other scientists opposed his ideas on symbiosis as some kind of “sentimental illusion” that could not materialize in nature.

 Reading Entangled Life is akin to climbing a tree. The higher you ascend, the more views and perspectives you gain. As you clamber up a branch, more questions arise, and the adventure of knowledge guides you to embrace how everything is deeply interconnected to function within the delicate web of life.  

  Merlin Sheldrake shares his wonder for fungi in Entangled Life the way Sara Dykman explores the life of Monarch butterflies in “Bicycling with Butterflies. They both captivate us with creativity, facts and artistry.

 Merlin Sheldrake is a biologist and a writer. He received a Ph.D. in Tropical ecology from Cambridge University for his work on underground fungal networks in tropical forests in Panama, where he was a predoctoral research fellow of the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute. He is also a musician. You can visit his website here:

www.merlinsheldrake.com

 

References

1)     1)  https://asm.org/Articles/2021/October/Addressing-Systematic-Barriers-in-Human-Microbiome

2)    2)   https://cumming.ucalgary.ca/news/fungi-play-critical-role-within-our-gut-microbiome-research-finds

3)    3)   https://www.farmersweekly.co.za/crops/field-crops/integrated-pest-management-taking-care-of-crop-protectors/

4)    4)   https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fmicb.2019.00292/full

Silent Spring

In the year 1962 a woman stirred the waters of conformity and ignorance by writing and publishing a book. Her name was Rachel Carson. She wrote about the ecosystems and  about how the misuse of pesticides exacerbates the problems with insects and weeds instead of controlling them. She also delved into the effects of many of these chemicals on human health. Why is this important?   

Fifty three years later her book “Silent Spring” continues to have relevance: the food we eat and the water we drink contain pesticides. The case of Atrazine can be used as an example to illustrate how her words resonate today.

 Atrazine is a pesticide used to kill weeds. Research has shown that Atrazine can cause cancer in mammals and developmental problems in fish. It also changes male frogs into females. The European Union banned the use of Atrazine in 2004. The corporation that manufactures this chemical is in Switzerland (Syngenta). I surmise it has “power” over the decisions made by EPA because in the United States of America Atrazine continues to be used.  90% of the drinking water in the United States of America contains Atrazine.

 We signed a petition to encourage the authorities to ban the use of Atrazine, but so far nothing has changed. (Profits matter more than human health and the environment).

 Reading Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring motivated me to learn more about pesticides and the current situation.

 The use of glyphosate

The most well-known glyphosate is “Roundup. It is manufactured by Monsanto.

 The use of glyphosate is associated with birth defects, cancer, miscarriages and stillbirths. In the year 2010 Professor Andres Carrasco of Buenos Aries Medical School in Argentina published his findings on the effect of glyphosate (Roundup) on chicken embryo. He decided to work on this kind of research after observing what happened to the people who live close to the farms. However, Monsanto still claimed that its Roundup product was safe.

 There were violent attempts to silence Carrasco and his group. Four representatives of Argentina’s crop protection trade group CASAFE tried to raid his laboratory. He was also the focus of an orchestrated attack in which three people were seriously injured when he was in an agricultural town in Argentina called La Leonesa, where he explained the findings of his research. Carrasco escaped injury by locking himself in a car.

  Glyphosates started to be used in La Leonesa in 2000. Birth defects increased fourfold in the region around the town between 2000 and 2009, and the rate of childhood cancers tripled over the same period.  Glyphosates are still used in Argentina. Again, profits matter more than human health.

 Despite the hazards associated with the use of these chemicals manufactured by Monsanto they are also used widely in the United States of America, not only to grow food but also to control weeds in parks and pavements. On the other hand, countries like the Netherlands, Denmark, and Sweden have either banned glyphosate or have restricted its use. 

 Roundup is spread on about 12 million acres of American farmland every year. Now the so-called "Superweeds", which are resistant to Roundup, are emerging. Rachel Carson discussed these patterns of resistance and an exacerbation of the original problems as a result of the abuse of pesticides.

 Rachel Carson also explained  that pesticides contained in runoff from farms and forests are being carried to the sea in the waters of many rivers. She pointed out that the funds to research the changes that these chemicals undergo during the transit period are small. She proposed that some of the money invested in the development of toxic sprays should be used on research to use less dangerous materials and keep poisons out of the waterways. Then she asked the following question: when will the public become sufficiently aware of the facts to demand such action? Her question is relevant today.

What can we do?

Educating ourselves and our communities is our duty. 

 Make wise choices. Reduce your chemical imprint.

Support organic farming practices.

Environmentalists are urging farmers to adopt the principles of integrated pest management (IPM), which encourages the use of less toxic products and the use of other methods. Ladybugs, for example, are the natural enemy of many insects.

 The EU encourages the reduced use of pesticides on farms and in homes. It has created a directive on the sustainable application of pesticides.

References:

http://www.beyondpesticides.org/resources/safety-source-on-pesticide-providers/what-is-integrated-pest-management

http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/atrazine-water-tied-hormonal-irregularities/

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20695457

https://www.organicconsumers.org/news/us-drinking-water-and-watersheds-widely-contaminated-hormone-disrupting-pesticide-atrazine

http://truth-out.org/archive/component/k2/item/92751:war-over-monsanto-gets-ugly

https://www.revealnews.org/article-legacy/5-pesticides-used-in-us-are-banned-in-other-countries/

http://gmwatch.org/gm-soy-sustainable-responsible-reports

http://savethefrogs.com/threats/pesticides/atrazine/index.html

https://www.rt.com/usa/314544-california-epa-glyphosate-carcinogenic/https://www.rt.com/usa/314544-california-epa-glyphosate-carcinogenic/