Tree Sense: Ways of thinking about trees

Description

At a moment when the planet is so clearly in peril, the trees stand as both guardians and messengers. They have words for us - if only we would listen. As climate change imposes significant challenges on the natural world we are being encouraged to plant trees. At the same time, urban intensification and expansion threatens our existing arboreal resources and leads to disputes among communities, councils and developers over the fate of mature trees. To find our way through this confusion, we need to build our respect for trees and to recognise their essential role in our environment, our heritage, our well-being and our future. We need to build a robust 'tree sense'. This collection of essays, art and poetry by artists, activists, ecologists and advocates discusses the many ways in which humans need trees, and how our future is laced into their roots and their branches.

Dr Susette Goldsmith is an independent writer and editor. She has published three social histories: The Gardenmakers of Taranaki; Tea: A potted history of tea in New Zealand and Suzy's: A coffee house history. Her current research explores new ways of perceiving, interpreting and safeguarding natural heritage in twenty-first-century Aotearoa New Zealand.

Jim Eagles reviews Tree Sense: Ways of thinking about trees, edited by Susette Goldsmith, for Kete. 'In her introduction to this book of essays on trees, editor Susette Goldsmith recounts the sort of incident which probably occurs in every neighbourhood in the land and illustrates very well the conflicting views that people have about trees.'