Tag: Chapter 8

Chapter 8 Response

While reading this chapter I was thinking off all the discussions we had in class and they fit right into this chapter. This chapter did a great job in not only throwing facts but by telling facts within anecdotes and easy to read stories.

Trees have long been ignored and just seen as a resource. It has been used in the past to build massive ships and homes. There was never a connection between Europeans and nature like the natives shared with nature. The main reason Europeans came was because in their land, trees have already been close to depletion. This is also shown in the last reading where letters have been sent back stating how great of a land America is to exploit.

If only we can now share the connection that Native Americans had with their environment and seeing the true necessity and history trees can have, then maybe our world can look very different.

Too Late for Preservation?

A lot of the information presented in Chapter 8 of City at the Water’s Edge was not as shocking after reading (and discussing in class) “Manahatta: An Ecological First Look at the Manhattan Landscape Prior to Henry Hudson.” Instead, I was expecting to read the same facts about New York’s previous natural life. The articles previously assigned in this class has made me realize that humans are willing to destroy for their inherent greed. It may be cynical of me to think that but history constantly cycles back to this belief that people only care about their own good fortune. Therefore, a little deforestation here and a little pollution there won’t make that much of a difference, right?

Betsy McCully briefly discussed the Native American’s lifestyle in comparison to the Europeans. It was slightly biased, but she articulated that unlike the Europeans, whose sole purpose was to exploit the land, the Native Americans did not unnecessarily or excessively use their resources. Perhaps it is due to their reverence for nature and other living things that allowed the Native Americans to tend to the land properly. There was a mutual benefit for the Native Americans and the environment, while the Europeans devastated the forests for profits and urban development.

Can human civilization advance with the coexistence and preservation of nature or will humans continue to clear and befoul land to build bigger cities? Is reforestation remotely possible in New York City and other densely populated cities?

Chapter 8 Response

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.