{"id":40146,"date":"2018-11-04T18:41:42","date_gmt":"2018-11-04T23:41:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/olduvai.ca\/?p=40146"},"modified":"2018-11-04T18:41:42","modified_gmt":"2018-11-04T23:41:42","slug":"tree-teachings-how-forests-and-wildfires-are-critically-linked","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/?p=40146","title":{"rendered":"Tree Teachings: How Forests and Wildfires Are Critically Linked"},"content":{"rendered":"<header class=\"article__header\" data-dev-object-descrip=\"organisms\/article\/article__header\" data-dev-status=\"IN-PROGRESS\">\n<div class=\"container-fluid\">\n<h3 data-bind=\"title\"><a href=\"https:\/\/thetyee.ca\/News\/2018\/10\/22\/Tree-Teachings-Forest-Wildfires\/\">Tree Teachings: How Forests and Wildfires Are Critically Linked<\/a><\/h3>\n<h4 data-bind=\"teaser\">First in a series about the work of famed botanist .<\/h4>\n<\/div>\n<\/header>\n<section class=\"featured-media\" data-dev-object-descrip=\"02-organisms\/article\/featured-media\">\n<div class=\"container-fluid\">\n<figure class=\"figure \" data-dev-object-descrip=\"01-molecules\/blocks\/figure\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"responsive-img\" src=\"https:\/\/thetyee.ca\/News\/2018\/10\/22\/DianaBeresfordKroegerTree.jpg\" alt=\"DianaBeresfordKroegerTree.jpg\" width=\"960\" height=\"540\" \/><figcaption class=\"caption\">Diana Beresford-Kroeger: The global forest \u2018forecasts our future in every breath it takes.\u2019<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/section>\n<article class=\"article__body main-col-container\" data-dev-object-descrip=\"organisms\/article\/article__body\" data-dev-status=\"IN-PROGRESS\">\n<div class=\"container-fluid clearfix \">\n<p>I have called up Diana Beresford-Kroeger, the famed Irish botanist and bestselling author, to ask about the megafires that carpeted much of North America in dense smoke last summer.<\/p>\n<aside class=\"aside hide-on-narrow-vp\" data-dev-object-descrip=\"01-molecules\/blocks\/aside\" data-dev-status=\"IN-PROGRESS\"><\/aside>\n<p>In British Columbia alone, wildfires released between 150 and 200 megatonnes of carbon dioxide in 2017. That\u2019s more than twice the volume created by human activities in the province.<\/p>\n<p>Beresford-Kroeger, who calls herself a renegade scientist, has been studying forests all her life and is one of the world\u2019s leading experts on the many medicinal properties of trees.<\/p>\n<p>Coming from a strong Celtic tradition, the 74-year-old plain speaker delivers a good dose of traditional knowledge with her science, combining data with old-fashioned wisdom.<\/p>\n<p>The global forest, which keeps the atmosphere rich in oxygen and low in carbon dioxide, \u201cforecasts our future in every breath it takes and every seed it releases into the leaf mold of the forest floor,\u201d she has written.<\/p>\n<p>On the day when I reach her to discuss the megafires that consumed parts of California, Chile, Sweden and B.C. last summer, she says she has both good and terrifying news.<\/p>\n<p>But first Beresford-Kroeger tells me she has just walked into her house just south of Ottawa from her research garden, where native and endangered trees thrive, and is covered in mud.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYou should know,\u201d she begins with a laugh, \u201cthat you are talking to a dirty woman.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>And then she plunges into the subject of wildfires, which burned almost 3.4 million hectares of forest last year across Canada \u2014 a nearly threefold increase over 2016.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Fires foretold<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The first point Beresford-Kroeger wants to make is that the fires consuming places like California and B.C.\u2019s Interior were foretold by Indigenous people thousands of years ago.<\/p>\n<p>\u2026click on the above link to read the rest of the article\u2026<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/article>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>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 \u2018forecasts our future in every breath it takes.\u2019 I have called up Diana Beresford-Kroeger, the famed Irish botanist and bestselling author, to ask about the megafires that carpeted much of [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[5549,141,22785,4553,5499,4554,4849],"class_list":["post-40146","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-environment","tag-andrew-nikiforuk","tag-climate-change","tag-diana-beresford-kroeger","tag-forests","tag-the-tyee","tag-trees","tag-wildfires"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40146","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=40146"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40146\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":40147,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40146\/revisions\/40147"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=40146"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=40146"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=40146"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}