By Dr. Adriane Leveen, JCAN NYC co-founder and steering committee member
A few years ago, I became the facilitator of JTREE USA, a Jewish tree planting organization in our national forests now under the auspices of Adamah. Doing that work helped me realize that my love of trees originated in my childhood at a very young age, perhaps as a 4- or 5-year-old. That love of trees lives deeply in my heart and now guides my conscious actions as a climate activist and enthusiastic planter of trees.
4 or 5? Yes- I grew up in a small town in upstate NY. We lived on a quiet shady street since I was a few months old. In our front lawn was a maple tree that was there long before we moved in. In our back lawn lived a mighty Eucalyptus that literally provided shade for half our lawn and loomed magnificently over our house. That tree also predated us. The edge of our back lawn was separated from the back lawn of our neighbors on the next street over by 6 towering Pine Trees. Those trees were green year-round and offered us shelter and countless opportunities for imaginative play. Their needles would fall to the ground and create a soft carpet while their branches made a roof tall above our heads. The Pines were always there and last time I checked, they are still standing. My mother lived in that house until she died in 2014- which means that all of my childhood and all of my visits home since were to that modest house surrounded by those same Pines well into my 50s. Those trees and that house gave me deep roots, literally and metaphorically.
I have come to realize that when one develops a relationship with someone or something- family, friends, JCAN NYC--and trees -- one ends up caring deeply about, and wanting to ensure, their well-being. Of course that is true of the earth as well.
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On this Earth Day let’s explore trees in a number of ways to remind ourselves yet again of the crucial role trees and forests play in fighting the climate emergency that we are now living through.
Forging a relationship: In I and Thou Martin Buber famously establishes I / thou as a “world of relation” between 2 entities. In those moments we simply take one another in. We see and appreciate one another in our fullness. We don’t use or exploit one another. And guess what? Buber chooses a human encounter with a tree as his initial example of an I/Thou relationship.
Listen to a few of Buber’s lines:
I Contemplate a tree…I can feel it as movement: the flowing veins around the sturdy, striving core, the sucking of the roots, the breathing of the leaves, the infinite commerce with earth and air- and the growing itself in its darkness… if will and grace are joined… as I contemplate the tree I am drawn into a relation, and the tree ceases to be an It…What I encounter is…the tree itself.” [1]
You may wonder about this example since a tree doesn’t talk back to a human! But I will venture to suggest that we can experience a tree as offering itself to us as it is. Further, it turns out that trees can communicate with one another. I think today Buber would add to his description of a tree the discovery that a tree’s roots communicate with, and warn, the roots of other trees if danger is approaching!
A March 2018 essay in the Smithsonian Magazine quotes Peter Wohlleben, a German forester and author:
Trees share water and nutrients through the networks [of their roots], and also use them to communicate. They send distress signals about drought and disease, for example, or insect attacks, and other trees alter their behavior when they receive these messages.”[2]
Scientists call these mycorrhizal networks. In other words, trees have reciprocal relationships with other trees. How fascinating!
Such attentive experiences as contemplating relationships between humanity and trees and trees with other trees directly lead many of us to recognize our human obligation to protect, celebrate and preserve trees, woods and forests.
Biblical Trees and the power of Metaphor in Isaiah 11 introduces the urgency of finding a new leader for the People Israel in a very tough time – around 700 BCE. Yet the prophet opens his exhortation with a description of a tree:
וְיָצָ֥א חֹ֖טֶר מִגֵּ֣זַע יִשָׁ֑י וְנֵ֖צֶר מִשׇּׁרָשָׁ֥יו יִפְרֶֽה׃
But a shoot shall grow out of the stump of Jesse,
A branch shall sprout from his root.
Note the language: A shoot from a stump, and in the second half of the verse a branch from roots, suggesting renewal, rejuvenation, return of vigor and continued growth. The second phrase ends with the Hebrew verb ‘sprout’ or ‘blossom.’ Isaiah is describing a physical tree. Not all trees actually can regenerate themselves- - but we can spot those who can- and apparently Isaiah was familiar with that possibility as he described just that phenomenon. I am obsessed with this image so that every time I walk in the woods, I look for the shoot emerging from a stump and I can always find examples!
But this verse is also a metaphor. It is the stump of Jesse, the father of King David. Isaiah was hoping to find another David – a figure who could be successful in pushing back an enemy and keeping Jerusalem and its inhabitants safe. Thus Isaiah 11: 1 offers a promise and a possibility for continued and new life.
In sum, this example from Isaiah teaches us about a tree’s physical life cycle. Even though it may be cut down many trees know how to rejuvenate themselves. A tree can live for many years, its roots old in the ground. A tree can endure. But Isaiah also reminds us that trees have metaphoric power. Our people have and will survive and so can our planet. Even in one’s darkest hours we can identify and walk a path of sustainability for all species.
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Why is tree planting so essential? The National Forest Foundation offers us a few reasons.
Carbon capture - In one year, a mature tree can absorb a half a Metric ton of carbon dioxide equivalent. Altogether, forests in the U.S. offset about 16 percent—or three decades worth—of greenhouse gas emissions emitted from cars, trucks, power plants, and other sources in the country. In fact, forest ecosystems are the largest land-based carbon sink on Earth.
Clean water - National Forests are the largest single source of fresh water in the U.S., supplying millions of Americans with water. Reforestation helps halt soil erosion and ensures that our forests can supply the water that we all depend on.
Wildlife habitat – National Forests provide habitat for more than 3,000 wildlife species. Nearly one third of federally listed threatened and endangered species (more than 400 species) are known to depend upon National Forest habitats.
Forest Health - Reforestation after disturbances improves forest health. By planting the right species, reforestation helps makes our forests more resilient to future challenges like climate change and wildfire.
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A few summers ago my family and I hiked through the Hendy Cowell Redwoods State Park in Northern California. God was with me on that day as I gazed up at those towering, silent, majestic Redwoods- ancient, wise and threatened.
Relationships with trees- even a quiet, memorable walk through the woods, create obligations in those who cherish them-obligations to pay attention and to preserve trees where ever we find them- - in our backyards, our streets and cities, and in our national parks and forests - - giving all of us the chance to capture some carbon and to breathe for generations to come.
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If you are interested in planting some trees this Earth Day through the National Forest Foundation go to: https://adamah.org/about-adamah/give-now/jtree/. Thanks!
[1] Martin Buber, I and Thou, trans. Walter Kaufmann (New York: 1970)
[2] From: Do Trees Talk to Each Other?
Richard Grant March 2018