Tree Sense: Ways of thinking about tress: Ways of thinking about trees

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 threatens our existing arboreal resources and leads 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.

Dr Susette Goldsmith is of Ngati Mahanga and Pakeha descent. She is an independent writer and editor of non-fiction, and Adjunct Research Fellow at the Stout Research Centre for New Zealand Studies, Victoria University of Wellington Te Herenga Waka. She has edited numerous museum, art gallery and scholarly books, essays and monographs, has published several natural and social histories, and has contributed articles and regular columns for diverse publications. Her scholarly research explores ways of perceiving, interpreting and safeguarding natural heritage in Aotearoa.