Forest Wisdom

With the state of our country being described as the divided states of America in some circles, this may be a good time to observe some truth about unity. Although we may have our individual differences, we are all in this together and we are all a part of the human family. Let’s all take a collective deep breath.
Now, let’s consider some facts; we all need oxygen to stay alive and that oxygen comes from plants. Most notably from trees. I would point out there is no way to distinguish whether the oxygen molecules you just took in came from the tree in your backyard or from a tree in the Amazon, most likely it would be a combination from all of the plant kingdom across the World acting in unison.
Let’s look to the wisdom of the trees in the forest. There are advantages to working together. One tree on its own cannot establish a consistent local climate. Alone, it is at the mercy of wind and weather. Where together, many trees create an ecosystem that can moderate extremes, store more water and generate a great deal of humidity. In such a protected environment, trees can live to a ripe old age.
A common rule in Nature is that the whole is greater than the sum of the parts. Survival of the fittest doesn’t exist in tree world, and only the strong survive is not true in the forest. A forest is a living being, not just made up of living beings, it in itself, is a living being that creates its own microclimate.
One of the most amazing characteristics of trees is how social they are. All trees communicate with an underground network of mycelium. A fungus referred to as the wood wide web, a term coined by Dr. Suzanne Simard of the University of British Columbia. She discovered that news bulletins are sent via the roots using chemical compounds and electrical impulses that travel a third of an inch per second. 1 teaspoon of soil has miles of fungal fiberoptic network. This fungal network connects all the root tips of the trees through which information, nutrients and warning signals are transmitted.
Gentle wisdom
An example of how tree communication works is, if a hungry animal comes along and begins feasting on the leaves of a tree, the tree will, in slow motion about 1 inch per hour start to produce a chemical that makes the leaves taste bitter. At the same time, it starts to emit an ethylene gas that spreads approximately 100 yards to alert the other trees in the area so they can start to produce their own bitter chemical. Although everyone needs to eat, by the time the trees have produced enough bitter, the animal more than likely has eaten its fill. If not, it will have to move away at least 100 yards and in this gentle wisdom way, the forest maintains its balance.
In another study, it was found that if an invasive insect starts to eat the leaves of the tree, it can taste (for lack of a better word) the saliva and determine what type of insect in order to slowly produce a pheromone to attract a natural predator to the area. Once again allowing time for the insect to eat, but not allowing it to be greedy.
In the symbiotic community of the forest, it’s safe to assume all the plants of the forest benefit from these relationships. A far cry from the cultivated farm fields where our food is grown. In Peter Wohllebens book The Hidden Life of Trees, he points out that isolated trees have far shorter life spans than those connected to a forest. He adds that “the saddest plants of all are the ones enslaved by our agricultural systems. They seem to have lost the ability to communicate and are isolated by their silence.” He advocates “Perhaps farmers can learn from the forests and breed a little more wildness back into their grain and potatoes so that they’ll be more talkative in the future.” When plants lose their ability to communicate it leaves them vulnerable to disease and predatory insects.
Trees in a forest literally care for each other and will sometimes nourish the stump of a felled tree for hundreds of years after it was cut down. Some trees are mother trees who nurture their young for several years. There is no discrimination in the forest. Everyone is fed nutrition and information and all are included in the network from the weak, strong, old, new, even competing species are a part of the whole. It matters not, because everyone matters.
In Robin Wall Kimmerer’s book titled Braiding Sweetgrass, she speaks of a phenomenon called mast fruiting.
This occurs among butternut, black walnut, hickory and pecan trees to name a few. Nut trees don’t produce a crop every year because nuts are so highly nutritious and high in caloric content, the trees must take a long time saving up for it. Mast fruiting trees spend years making sugar and rather than spending it little by little they keep it in a savings account as starch in their roots. When the account has a surplus, only then does mast fruiting occur.
If one tree fruits, they all do. There are no solo performances here. Not one tree, or one grove but every tree and every grove across the country acting as a collective. It matters not the fertility of the soil, the amount of sun or shade, or any other factors that have been considered in the attempt by biologists and ecologists to hypothesize this phenomenon.
Exactly why or how this happens we do not know however, it makes no sense for a nut tree to make a few nuts every year with the number of lurking predators. It would not be possible to successfully generate the next generation of forest without making a lot of nuts at once. These trees show a capacity for concerted action and unity of purpose.
“What we do know, and what we see here is the incredible power of unity. What happens to one, happens to us all, we can starve together or feast together. All flourishing is mutual.”
~Robin Wall Kemmerer
Maestro
One of the oldest trees on Earth is in Sweden and is believed to be more than 9500 years old, that is considerably longer than the life span of a human. Consider how much perception it would require for a being to adapt to changing conditions in order to exist for so long. Vast amounts of information would be acquired over this amount of time.
There is much to be learned from the wisdom of the forest and there’s a reason indigenous people refer to the plants as maestro or teacher. On a journey to a remote area of the Amazon, herbalist Rosemary Gladstar encountered an indigenous local who was perplexed by her books. He inquired as to what she needed them for, how did she use them? Her reply was that she gains knowledge from them. Even with her explanation, the local man could not understand.
On her next encounter with him, he could hardly contain his enthusiasm. He figured it out and shared his understanding of how she gained knowledge from a book. He surmised that it was the tree the book was made from that was imparting its wisdom to her. Not the words on the pages if the book.
The wisdom of the forest teaches us that united we stand, divided we fall. If there’s one thing we can learn from Nature, it’s that we’re stronger together and much can be accomplished by reaching out to those in need. No matter where you are, there’s always someone who can use a hand up. Be like a tree, good things happen when people care and share.
For more fascinating information on trees, I highly recommend the book The Hidden Life of Trees by Peter Wohlleben. If you aren’t already a tree hugger, this charming little book will change how you see trees forever.