I find McCully’s book a lot more digestible than the last because instead of throwing many scientific terms at us, McCully tries to get us to connect on an emotional level by talking about her own experiences and work which we might relate to. She ponders the same question we do about why we are drawn to trees and forests in general: “Is it that they mark time, living beyond our individual lives, and connect us to history?”
And they do connect us. The southern-most tip of Brooklyn that she mentions was marked by a tree is a place I’ve passed many times in Flatbush. There’s also the 450-year-old tulip tree in Alley Pond Park where my high school’s softball and soccer teams used to practice. It’s weathered and gnarled, but still standing tall. Or Forest Park, in general, which I cut through to visit my best friend in Richmond Hill. All these trees are older/were older than I will ever be and they connect me to everyone who’s come before me and will come after me. It’s as close to immortality as anyone will ever get.
Trees have been through a lot. Incoming European settlers thought the forests to be infinite – they used them for ships, for trade, for houses, for firewood. Unlike the Native Americans, they didn’t have a spiritual connection with nature. It’s this spirituality that I think we need to bring back to society. Every forest and every tree has a story and it’s up to us to learn and preserve these stories.
