Trees are pervasive phenomena. They exist in our imaginations, grace long tracts of the forested landscape worldwide, and emerge as obvious and surreptitious partners throughout our lives. In the United States alone, the ratio of trees to people is above 200 trees per person.[1] Trees are beings which are both older and larger than humans, yet their prolific generativity has been used and overused throughout human history. Humans often view trees as nothing more than a resource for board-feet of lumber or as unwanted guests on valuable land. This stems from a paradigm in which only humans inhabit the realm of living beings with both plants and animals as merely mechanisms at our disposal. As this paradigm has reached its extreme ends, the entire planet has been ushered into a time of ecological crisis characterized by a shifting climate, ocean rise and acidification, and deforestation. This crisis is not only environmental, but is deeply intertwined with a crisis of both social justice and spirituality. A widespread paradigm shift is necessary to reimagine a sustainable world.
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