Walking with Trees

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Research has shown how woods can increase our physical health, mental wellbeing and quality of life. In fact trials of ‘green prescriptions’ are underway around the UK, with GPs encouraging patients to take exercise in nature. I circle to the south and look up at the branches just above me. The whorls of twigs and leaves make magnificent patterns in the sky. I bow again. Oh tree, your beauty is stunning. In this time of winter, the continued presence of the pandemic demands that there is more work to be done, that we look deeper, that we pay attention to the process of death, decay and renewal. Decomposition is a kind of distillation as complex organisms returned to their elemental state where they may nurture future generations, whatever the forms of life emerge. Which aspects of human behavior—love, kindness or compassion, can serve to work with the darkness of collapsing systems?

A look at the data from the Yale Program on Climate Change Communication, which charts public opinion about climate change in the US, does show a 13% rise, from 2015 to 2017, to 44%, in the number of people who think that they will be personally affected by climate change, but since 2017 that figure has remained static. Disturbingly, it took until 2017 for a greater number of people to believe that global warming was mostly human-caused than held that belief a decade earlier. After that number rose further in 2018, to only 62%, it dropped in the most recent poll. i For more than a decade I have been walking with trees. I have walked in the aftermath of drought, bark beetles, introduced boring beetles, and two conflagrations, in 2003 again in 2007, the first of which, although only one of four fires burning simultaneously in San Diego county, was the largest ever in California until 2017. I started near my home in San Diego, repeatedly visiting many locales, from the coastal chaparral and Torrey pines to the inland mountains. I started gradually, without a plan, wanting to understand, to be attentive to the ecological changes that were occurring. It was not with any particular intention that I returned to the same places, year after year, but simply to be present and learn from the trees. The trees called to me. Walk among us. Look. Listen. Be attentive to feeling. Bear witness. Record what you see. Let tears flow. In honor of Helen and Newton Harrison, I share these stories of my experiences. Nina Karavasiles and Ruth Wallen, “Pushing Up Daises,” a hugelkulture memorial to dying trees, Center for the Arts, Escondido, 2018 I myself have been leading a course called ‘Tongues in Trees’ for about five years now. In its most recent incarnation it’s a year–long online course, beginning at the winter solstice 2018, rooted in the Celtic tree ogham alphabet/calendar. Nathan Stephenson and Christy Brigham, “Preliminary Estimates of Sequoia Mortality in the 2020 Castle Fire,” version: 25 June 2021. https://www.nps.gov/articles/000/preliminary-estimates-of-sequoia-mortality-in-the-2020-castle-fire.htm. Last accessed July, 22, 2022.

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Almost two years ago at the start of that pandemic, could we have imagined that even after a vaccine was developed, holiday parties would be planned and cancelled, replaced with masks, vaccination restrictions, calls for everyone getting a booster, worries that hospitals would again be at the breaking point and that many would die alone, isolated from their loved ones? The tall sequoias that survive the fires are calling us to think more expansively. Fire too is calling. As it clears the underbrush, may it also clear away existing prejudices and spark fresh imagination.

Suzanne Simard, Finding the Mother Tree: Discovering the Wisdom of the Forest (New York: Alfred A. Knopf; 2021). Recently there has been an upsurge of interest in trees. Some of this arises from research done by Suzanne Simard that gives us a picture of what is now known as the Wood Wide Web; and building on this is the amazing book by Peter Wohlleben, The Hidden Life of Trees. There are now a great number of tree books around (of which some of the most inspiring and comprehensive are the three in a series by Fred Hageneder).To the three tenets of the Zen Peacemakers, like Macy, I start by adding a fourth, the expression of gratitude.[8] I always begin my walks with a sensing of the vitality of the life web and an offering of gratitude for the wondrous world in which we live. As Martin Prechtel writes, in his most powerful book, The Smell of Rain on Dust: Grief and Praise, “Nine tenths of feeling bad about life is the inability to see the details of the natural magnificence”…. that surround us at any moment.”[9] Fully feeling the magnificent wonder of the living world is heart opening, an opening to love and to the ability to stay present with grief. As the title of Prechtel’s book implies, grief and love are intertwined; “grief is praise for those we have lost.”[10] This summer, for the first time, I passed a hiker on the trail. From a distance, I saw another car briefly pulling into the campground. In other ways, I felt less alone as well. The series of blazes in California over the past two years had raised some awareness of fire danger and drought. It seemed like discussion of climate change and the extinction crisis were finally more frequently in the news. The extinction rebellion was beginning to make noise. A green new deal was a topic of discussion. Omar C. Stewart, Forgotten Fires: Native Americans and the transient wilderness edited and with introductions by Henry T. Lewis and M. Kat Anderson (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 2022). If soaring height isn’t enough to inspire a broad perspective, consider all that is unseen, spreading outwards in the depths of the soil. Much of the redwood tree lives below the surface. Their root systems are relatively shallow, but those of a single tree can extend as far as an acre. Like most trees, their roots are entangled with mycorrhizal fungi, forming a vast network that allows them to communicate with each other, to share nutrients, warnings of pests, and perhaps even to hear the sound of water. Learning about the multitude of functions of mycorrhiza is part of a reorientation of scientific thinking to focus on symbiosis, as opposed to competition, as a driver of evolution and change.

But the earth is calling us to look down. The seedlings at my feet were less than two inches tall. Sequoia seeds only germinate after fire. Despite those who say that the fire burned so hot that it destroyed all of the seeds, here they were by the thousands, demonstrating the continuous life force energy of the earth. Instead of sterile monoculture, intercropping trees with a variety of plants allows each to contribute to the complex whole, adding minerals, fixing nitrogen, and improving soil composition. Creating hedgerows that provide windbreaks establishes microclimates and shelters wildlife, providing habits for the natural enemies of pests.

Sample Pages

Ruth Wallen, Embracing Ecological Grief,” in Ecoart in Action: Activities, Case Studies and Provocations for Classrooms and Communities, edited by Amara Geffen, Ann Rosenthal, Chris Fremantle and Aviva Rahmani (New York: New Village Press, 2022). Walking with Trees is a rich compendium of arboreal wisdom, ancient and modern, spiritual and practical from a wise and compassionate teacher of Earth wisdom. Glennie Kindred’s gentle, power-full words and images move us deeper into ourselves and deeper into the world, to the place of no separation. This is where we need to be at this time.
" - Lucy H. Pearce, Womancraft author of Medicine Woman; Burning Woman; Full Circle Health and Moon Time.
"This book is both a love affair made visible and the deepest bow of respect and reverence to the standing ones who grace our lives. To read this is to receive a direct transmission of Glennie’s soul, threaded through with a depth of knowledge and fascination that captivates and educates. Astonishing." - Clare Dubois, Founder of Tree Sisters. TreeSisters.org It takes a whole day to travel from Ecuador’s capital, Quito, to the heart of the Unesco Sumaco Biosphere Reserve, some 100km to the southeast. The journey entails three hours by car to the edge of the forest, and then anywhere from seven to 15 hours by boat, mule and foot, mostly uphill and on a muddy road, to reach the interior. But the effort is worth it, considering you wind up in the middle of a pristine forest that houses a rather unusual find: walking palm trees. the trees, as part of our journey to heal our fractured relationship with the Earth. As with all of Glennie's books, the seasonal cycles and the Earth festivals are interwoven and provide further ways to deepen our journey with trees. This is a book about possibilities, for those who care for our environment. This is a book that reminds you of what you might have missed or forgotten, and reminds you of your power. This is a book of our time, where we recognise our deep interconnectivity with the trees, with all of life and with the Earth herself. It inspires us to open our arms and hearts wide, and joyfully embrace the changes. Since pandemic began, I have been visiting the oaks at Pine Valley Creek at least quarterly. I am grateful to be able to continue to return, to mourn their losses, share my love and learn from being in their presence. Francis Weller calls this an apprenticeship with grief.[7]