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Only the Hardiest Trees Can Survive Today’s Urban Inferno
Only the Hardiest Trees Can Survive Today’s Urban Inferno In a rapidly warming world, cities need more tree cover to stay cool—but only certain species can handle soaring temperatures, and often they aren’t native species. PHOTOGRAPH: VICENTE MÉNDEZ Last fall, I invited a stranger into my yard. Manzanita, with its peeling red bark and delicate […]
We All Need to Be Tree Huggers Now
We All Need to Be Tree Huggers Now It’s about respecting our elders Originally published pre-Substack, on January 14, 2020, and included in my collection, From Outside, available in paperback or as a digital download. The author with a giant fir tree in the Cascade Mountains of Oregon Nearly everything about contemporary human life needs to change if we […]
Exploring the Massive Clean Energy Boondoggle of Burning Trees as Carbon Neutral
Exploring the Massive Clean Energy Boondoggle of Burning Trees as Carbon Neutral To the shock of everyone with any semblance of common sense, we are clearcutting forests and burning the trees based on the idea the process is carbon neutral. Image from Smithsonian article below EPA Declared That Burning Wood Is Carbon Neutral In 2018, […]
Pruning established trees
Pruning established trees This month I continue the series on pruning with a look at pruning established landscape trees. These are trees in the prime of life, growing well, starting to shade the garden beneath them and expanding their canopies. Various reasons can prompt the call for tree care professionals. What reasons would we have […]
Pruning newly planted trees
Pruning newly planted trees As the climate warms the value of trees for cooling the environment around buildings, especially in cities, drives tree planting programs. Planting trees is just the first step in growing a tree in a sustainable landscape. Successful plantings require evaluation and guidance of the new tree’s current and future branch architecture. […]
“Save the planet, (learn how to) plant a tree”
“Save the planet, (learn how to) plant a tree” I like catchy memes as much as the next person. They’re easily memorized and passed on. But “Save the planet, plant a tree” has always bugged me for two reasons. First, and probably most importantly, this simplistic mantra absolves people of doing MORE to improve our […]
Where Does Vancouver’s Urban Forest Need to Grow Next?
Where Does Vancouver’s Urban Forest Need to Grow Next? The city strategy faces a tricky challenge: inspiring the growth of trees on private land. Most of the tree loss in Vancouver’s urban forest has been caused by the removal of trees on private lands. Some say more can be done. Photo by Kaitlyn Fung. Over the […]
Household tissue is a climate issue
Household tissue is a climate issue Trees are the source of much of our household tissue. And trees and soil store huge quantities of carbon to add to greenhouse gas totals. LONDON, 27 June, 2019 − The household tissue you use to blow your nose could be adding to the problems of climate change. A substantial […]
The Polyculture Market Garden Study–Results From Year 4–2018
THE POLYCULTURE MARKET GARDEN STUDY – RESULTS FROM YEAR 4 – 2018 HERE ARE THE RESULTS FROM THE FOURTH YEAR OF OUR MARKET GARDEN POLYCULTURE STUDY. THIS STUDY LOOKS AT THE DIFFERENCES BETWEEN GROWING ANNUAL VEGETABLES AND HERBS IN POLYCULTURES VS GROWING THEM IN TRADITIONAL BLOCKS. In this post you will find an overview of […]
Multi-Functional Living: Wood Heat
MULTI-FUNCTIONAL LIVING: WOOD HEAT This year Emma and I are taking something we did last year and making it more functional: We are heating with wood, full-time. Previously, we often had fires at night, giving the heating system a break and enjoying the atmosphere, but it was noncommittal. Some nights we didn’t bother. We used […]
Tree Teachings: How Forests and Wildfires Are Critically Linked
Tree Teachings: How Forests and Wildfires Are Critically Linked First in a series about the work of famed botanist . Diana Beresford-Kroeger: The global forest ‘forecasts our future in every breath it takes.’ I have called up Diana Beresford-Kroeger, the famed Irish botanist and bestselling author, to ask about the megafires that carpeted much of […]
5 HA Polyculture Farm Design–Suhi Dol Revisited
5 HA POLYCULTURE FARM DESIGN – SUHI DOL REVISITED Paul Alfrey from Balkan Ecology Project shares with us his observations and thoughts in regards to a visit he made to a farm he designed and how it slowly developed into a polyculture of fruit trees, aquaculture and vegetable gardens. Last week Dylan and I set off […]
How to Green the Desert: Europe’s Heatwave and Some Holistic Suggestions
HOW TO GREEN THE DESERT: EUROPE’S HEATWAVE AND SOME HOLISTIC SUGGESTIONS In the Northern Hemisphere, the balance of light is turning ever more towards darkness as we approach the Autumn Equinox. This is following a summer which in many places was unusually hot and dry(1, 2). This is perhaps not unexpected; climate change scientists have […]
Up in Smoke
Up in Smoke Trees are dying at unprecedented rates. Can we rethink conservation before it’s too late? Each year, the Earth’s trees suck more than a hundred billion tons of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. That’s an impossibly huge number to consider, about 60 times the weight of all the humans currently on the planet. […]
