Tree Sense

At a moment when the planet is so clearly in peril, the trees stand as both guardians and messengers. They have words for us — if only we would listen. As climate change imposes significant challenges on the natural world, we are being encouraged to plant trees. At the same time, urban intensification and expansion threaten our existing arboreal resources and lead to disputes among communities, councils, and developers over the fate of mature trees.

To find our way through this confusion, we need to build our respect for trees and to recognise their essential role in our environment, our heritage, our well-being, and our future. We need to build a robust tree sense.

This collection of essays, art, and poetry by artists, activists, ecologists, and advocates, including Philip Simpson, Anne Noble, Elizabeth Smither, Kennedy Warne, and Glyn Church, discusses the many ways in which humans need trees, and how our future is laced into their roots and their branches.