“A tree is not a forest:” Why trees are a perfect metaphor for human communities

Why it’s valuable to understand “how we belong” in our human communities through the lens of old growth forests.

“A tree is not a forest” writes Peter Wohlleben in The Hidden Life of Trees, “on it’s own, a tree cannot establish a consistent local climate. It is at the mercy of wind and weather” [1]. Alone, a tree is a vulnerable individual. It must succumb to the forces of the larger landscape.

It can also be a lonesome existence within human society that scales to the individual as the critical unit. Indeed, loneliness is a returning visitor to our lives. As Margaret Wheatley writes: “We have never wanted to be alone. But today, we are alone. We are more fragmented and isolated from one another than ever before. Archbishop Desmond Tutu describes it as “a radical brokenness in all of existence.” We are the lonesome tree on the hill, with no protection from searing winds tearing down the landscape.

For both the trees and humans, a hope resides within connecting with our kin; a community within which we belong. Wheatley continues, “To ameliorate our fractured existence, we need a community in which we belong. Indeed, The need to create a structure of belonging grows out of the isolated nature of our lives, our institutions, and our communities” [4]. In the fractured world of humans, community is critical unit of meaningful change. “There is no power for change greater than a community discovering what it cares about” Margaret Wheatley writes [3].

Like humans, trees can only thrive and grow old with the support of those around us. Together, they create the conditions within which they can thrive. As Wohlleben writes, “…together, many trees create an ecosystem that moderates extremes of heat and cold, stores a great deal of water, and generates a great deal of humidity. And in this protected environment, trees can live to be very old. To get to this point, the community must remain intact no matter what” [1]. What if we took this lesson to heart? The way that trees live together can teach us about how to reweave the fabric of our social existence, to create the conditions within which we can experience the sense of belonging within a community.

“Every tree, therefore, is valuable to the community and worth keeping around for as long as possible” [1].

Finding our sense of belonging, both in terms of community and place (bioregion), are vital.As author, doula, women’s rights activist and black feminist adrienne maree brown writes “Do you understand that your quality of life and your survival are tied to how authentic and generous the connections are between you and the people and place you live with and in?” [2]. As visible and consequential members of biomes, trees provide several specific pathways of knowing towards understanding how we belong with each other and the land:

• Communities of interdependence and resilience. With mycellium networks as facilitators, trees share nutrients with one another such that even trees in unfavorable locations thrive as heartily as other better located trees [1]. Trees alert one another of predators (animals or insects) through scent. They all go through the laborious process of producing nuts together. These acts of embracing interdependence allow trees to become resilient together. Noticing the power of small acts of resillience, adrienne maree brown emphasizes these acts of “maintaining core practices that ensure” the survival of non-human organisms. Indeed, she asserts they hold key strategies for building life-affirming humanities communities; she asks “How do we turn our collective full-bodied intelligence towards collaboration, is that is the way we will survive?”
• Creating a climate. Peter Wohlleben states, “The forest creates its own ideal habitat” [1]. The relationships of interdependence and reciprocity trees share allows a forest of them to thrive. And together, they cool the air through “sweating,” creating the colder conditions within which they thrive. This is analagous to a community of people, through their relationships of interdependence and resilience, creating the conditions of care and listening that they need to thrive in an otherwise inhospitable climate. Communities can open up spaces for these life-affirming conditions.
• Scales of time. Because trees create the conditions within which they can thrive, they are able to live to be very old — hundreds of years — far beyond human life scale. Further, their presence is felt far after a tree falls over in death. An Eastern Hemlock will spend three hundred years living, and it will take three hundred years for its wood to decompose, nourishing the soil and providing a fertile spot for new trees to thrive in its place (indeed, in old growth forests, Eastern Hemlocks often grow in rows where old trees have fallen). In a shift to de-privilege our anthropocentric view, opening our perspective of time is vital. Botanist Robin Wall Kimmerer puts this idea in terms of reconnecting with the land:

“We say that humans have the least experience with how to live and thus the most to learn — we must look to our teachers among the other species for guidance. Their wisdom is apparent in the way that they live. They teach us by example. They’ve been on the earth far longer than we have been, and have had time to figure things out.

And most importantly, unbeknownst to many, trees are critical features of the landscape: their respiration sends water towards dry inland, preventing desertification, their deep interconnected roots secure the soil landscape and prevent erosion, their sturdy stalks act as a windbreak, providing shelter for smaller organisms to grow and thrive. Trees are consequential shapers of our world, making a diverse, thriving landscape possible. We owe them our attention.

Sources

1. The Hidden Life of Trees
2. emergent strategy
3. Turning Toward One Another. Margaret Wheatley
4. Community. Peter Block