Trees That Have Stood for Hundreds of Years
Hurricanes, essays, foresters, and the beautiful communities that trees are a part of.
“It rained and it rained and it rained…it was rather exciting. The little dry ditches in which Piglet had nosed about so often had become streams, the little streams across which he had splashed were rivers, and the river, between whose steep banks they had played so happily, had sprawled out of its own bed and was taking up so much room everywhere, that Piglet was beginning to wonder whether it would be coming into his bed soon.”1 I read this fragment a few days before Hurricane Francine bore down on Louisiana. Fond of staying safe, I evacuated to my grandparents’ house.
Work was cancelled, my body was preparing for another month of menstruation, and I had a 800 page historical fiction to read. After settling into the same room I’ve had many childhood memories in, I took out my laptop and my blanket. Sat cuddled up at the table and started writing after making a mug of tea. Outside, the ran came in waves: a steady drizzle and then quickly, shortly a downpour with wind increasing. The leaves and branches dancing fiercely — not fighting the wind — but moving with it.
My biggest fear with hurricanes, is the possibility of trees being uprooted. The damage that these giants can unintentionally cause by falling on various buildings, or by simply being ripped from such an intricate community it’s a part of. Trees of great height and width. Trees that have stood for hundreds of years. One tree falling could absolutely demolish a house. Or could leave an entire community grieving.
I started writing this essay during mid-September and now I am within the depths of October, wearing worn sweaters nearly every day, and drinking mugs of warm tea out of a huge Winne-the-Pooh mug. For school, I read, researched, and wrote a report on The Overstory by Richard Powers which I was inspired to read becuase of
’s “Field Guide to Anthropocene”.
Archived Essay
Written: 28 October 2024
The Death of a Family Tree
Trees are huge structures deeply rooted into the ground that actively participate in language, communication, and community through “fungi exchanging nutrients by sending hormonal, chemical, and electrical signals and connecting their roots” (Schueman) is the research and discovery that Canadian forester Suzanne Simard has devoted her life to exploring and researching. In his book: The Overstory, eco-novelist Richard Powers creates a fictional forester heavily inspired by the life and works of Simard (named Dr Patricia Westerford) to develop a moral surrounding humanity’s relationship with nature.
Throughout the novel, we race through time through vignettes of decades and generations chronicling the Hoel family and their slowly growing, lonesome chestnut tree. Arguably, the most enthralling character is not a part of the family and places an impactful emphasis on the symbolism of the tree. Patricia Westerford’s work and passion sheds a light on the Hoel Chestnut Tree as a representation of perseverance, longevity, and - most importantly - humanity as nurturing and destructive to nature. This tree is proof that though other species (such as trees) appear stagnant to the human eye, everything within nature is moving within its own seasons, relying on each other for growth, and is in constant communication with each other. “The power of observation and the importance of interconnectedness with Mother Earth may guide us toward a more resilient future” (Schueman) is the belief that Simards and Powers share. A belief that is depicted within this novel.
Patricia Westerford is the example of the healthy, nurturing relationship humans can cultivate with nature. Westerford’s belief is that trees are in constant communication with each other which is how they protect and warn each other from and of danger as well as share nutrients. Her work reflects that belief, but when initially published it is immediately criticized, disregarded, and looked down upon. Which causes her to become more of a recluse and almost commit suicide. Years later, her work was ratified and defended. She goes on to write and publish a book The Secret Forest which is likely a parallel to Peter Wholleben’s The Hidden Life of Trees and start a seed bank to preserve trees from mass extinction. As passionate and hopeful as Westerford is, she believes an extinction is inevitable. The creation of her character is an emphasis on the theme of humans being nurturing. Unlike the creation and symbolism of the Hoel tree.
Though the character, Dr Westerford, is interesting enough, her inspiration (Suzanne Simard) is even more intriguing even though their lives almost exactly mirror each other. Similarly to Westerford in the novel, Simard’s educational path throughout her entire life has centered around the studies of nature and more specifically: trees. Her studies were also decided because of her childhood which was surrounded by roots, logging, and her grandfather’s teachings of peace found amongst the trees. Simard’s work as an ecologist made her more observant on how trees were being exploited for financial gain. Her alertness of different problems within the forests she worked in provoked her to return back to graduate school. The research she did while writing her PhD thesis shifted the practices ideas surrounding forestry because it effectively proved her belief that trees are a part of a larger community, which have a vast network in which they communicate, warn each other, and share nutrients and resources. Her research connected the trees communication to fungi. Westerford’s mirror of Simard’s life perfectly ties together the theme of the novel because it emphasizes humanity’s destructive relationship. Fungi is the most vulnerable to temperature rise, and climate change could cut off the flow of information because trees and without the flow, forests would die and the effects would be catastrophic.
Which, in return, comes back to the Hoel Chestnut Tree. Similarly to the fungi: the Hoel tree’s death is caused by unprecedented consequences of human activity: the blight that reaches the Hoel tree and kills it. Each year, there are more than 15 billion trees cut down (Kilgore). By making the tree develop feelings which become more of a beloved family members and when it dies from the blight, it further demonstrates the long-term damage unintentionally done by humanity’s greed and desire for immediate wealth, profit, consumption, and capitalism.
The Overstory’s larger message is that trees - and other plants and creatures - are intelligent, resilient, and purposeful individuals who also have communities. Richard Powers places emphasis on the Hoel Chestnut tree as a sentient being using the character Patricia Westerford as well as her real-life inspiration: Suzanne Simard. “When you know that trees experience pain and have memories that tree parents live together with their children, then you can no longer just chop them down and disrupt their lives with larger machines,” Peter Wohlleben writes (xiv). Arguably, Powers wrote these characters and this tree in such a manner to emphasize this exact point and to so that readers could give more empathy to nature because in order for humans to feel sympathy we have to see ourselves within what is being destroyed.
Milne, A. A. 1882-1956. and Ernest H. 1879-1976 Shepard. Winnie-the-Pooh. [1st ed.]. New York, Dutton, 1974.
Works Cited:
Powers, Richards. The Overstory, W. W. Norton & Company, 2018.
Wholleben, Peter. The Hidden Life of Trees: What They Feel, How They Communicate, Greystone Books, Vancouver and Berkeley, 2016.
Scheuman, Lindsey. “How Suzanne Simard uncovered the secret conversations of forest”. https://www.oneearth.org/environmental-hero-suzanne-simard/
Kilgore, Georgette. “How Many Trees Cut Down Each Year or in 2023? The Deforestation Crisis Explained”, 2024. https://8billiontrees.com/trees/how-many-trees-cut-down-each-year/#:~:text=How%20Many%20Trees%20Cut%20Down%20Each%20Year%20or%20in,The%20Deforestation%20Crisis%20Explained&text=If%20you've%20ever%20wondered,are%20lost%20annually%20to%20deforestation.&text=While%20that%20number%20is%20staggering%2C%20it%20can%20be%20hard%20to%20visualize