Trees deserve our deep-rooted respect

Opinion

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 17/02/2020 (1676 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

I have a surefire way to inspire people to support the mayor’s Million Tree Challenge, but I don’t think I can afford it.

My idea is to buy everyone in Winnipeg a copy of The Overstory, by Richard Powers. We would all read it together, like the biggest-ever book club.

It’s one of those rare books that can change how people see the world. And yes, it’s about trees. It could help Winnipeggers cultivate a fresh appreciation for the giant beings that share the city with us.

Don’t take my word for it. The Overstory won the Pulitzer Prize for fiction in 2018 and was shortlisted for the Man Booker prize. It was called “monumental… a gigantic fable of genuine truths,” by a New York Times reviewer.

Alas, even if I could convince Visa to remove the ceiling on my credit card so I could gift everyone in Winnipeg a personal copy, not everyone would be eager to read it. Some people might regard the book and say, “It’s 508 pages and it’s about trees? Hmm. I have more interesting things to do, like scrubbing the bathtub.”

That’s what I used to think, too. Until The Overstory opened my eyes, I seldom thought about trees, unless it was to bring a dead one into our home at Christmas, or rake the leaves on our lawn in autumn.

Powers uses his exceptional skill as one of the greatest modern novelists to help readers understand the latest scientific studies about trees. Trees are more social and alert than previously thought. They interact with other trees around them, forming alliances to share water and nutrients through an underground network of hairlike roots and microscopic fungal filaments. When a tree is damaged or chopped down, the neighbouring trees react.

They communicate in a language that humans are only beginning to understand. One way they communicate is through the air, releasing chemical pheromones that act as a signal that is picked up by other trees. For example, when borers attack a maple tree, it emits defensive chemicals and the alert is picked up by other trees that are not yet attacked but release their own defensive chemicals in preparation.

As a character in The Overstory puts it, “A forest knows things. They wire themselves up underground. There are brains down there, ones our own brains aren’t shaped to see. Root plasticity, solving problems and making decisions. Fungal synapses. What else do you want to call it? Link enough trees together, and a forest grows aware.”

Describing the behaviour of trees carries the risk of slipping into anthropomorphism, which is to accord them human traits such as emotions. Lots of cultures have fables of talking trees, including the tree-like Ents in J.R.R. Tolkien’s Middle-Earth fantasy world, but that’s folklore, not science.

The last few years have seen a rash of research into tree communication in such countries as the U.S., the U.K and China. Researchers at the University of Australia have found some plants emit clicking sounds at a frequency of 220 Hertz, inaudible to humans but detected by other plants.

An international bestselling book is The Hidden Life of Trees: What They Feel, How They Communicate by German forester Peter Wohlleben. A documentary film called Intelligent Trees features Suzanne Simard, a professor of forest ecology at the University of British Columbia.

Research showing trees are social creatures is particularly relevant to Winnipeg, given the devastation recently inflicted on this city’s specimens.

Like the people who live here, Winnipeg trees are rugged — they withstand -30 C cold, ice storms, blazing hot sun, floods, droughts and the poisonous gases emitted by the vehicles of Winnipeggers. But as tough as our trees are, the canopy has recently been crippled by the triple blows of Dutch elm disease, the emerald ash borer and a freak storm in October that damaged or destroyed tens of thousands of trees.

The mayor says planting one million trees would cost $43 million, but I think the cost could drop substantially if the city organized the project but left lots of opportunity for citizens to help with both financial donations and sweat equity by green-thumb types willing to show up with a spade and gardening gloves.

As an example of potential public participation, look at how hundreds, sometimes thousands, of Winnipeggers unite on weekends in spring, summer and autumn to walk or run in circles and raise money to cure diseases. That’s the type of community energy that can be channelled into public sprees of tree planting.

Trees are a treasure that shouldn’t be taken for granted. They provide shade, block the wind, clean the air, shelter birds and increase the property values of people fortunate enough to live near them.

Winnipeg’s urban forest is going through a hard time and could use some loving care. Given the chance, lots of Winnipeggers would roll up their sleeves and get planting.

carl.degurse@freepress.mb.ca

Carl DeGurse is a member of the Free Press editorial board.