FOREST|ARBOREALITY: A Guest Blog by Jade Blackwater
February 11th, 2011
TreeStory welcomes Jade Blackwater, our first guest blogger!
Jade is a prolific writer and artist from the Pacific Northwest. When Jade isn’t writing she can usually be found getting dirty in the garden or hiking the local forests.
Visit her blog Forest|Arboreality at http://brainripples.com/home/blog/forest/
1) What sparked your passion for trees?
I spent a lot of time with trees when I was a kid. I still do. Some of my earliest and oldest friends include Western red cedar, Big leaf maple, Douglas fir, Red alder, Black cottonwood, Red huckleberry, Pacific madrona, Pacific dogwood, Coastal rhododendron, Salal, Oregon grape, Red flowering currant, and many others both native and ornamental. When I’m in need of clear thinking, I sniff out cedar duff trails.
2) Is there a species of tree that you feel a unique connection to?
Japanese maple (Acer palmatum) & Western hemlock (Tsuga heterophylla)
3) What are three words describe how trees make you feel?
welcome
awake
contemplative
4) Is there one individual tree who had played an important role in your life?
Well… not just one. I can share this: for every place I’ve ever worked, studied, lived, or visited, there are a few particular trees which have been my closest friends – the ones I knew best and spoke with most often during my time there. Whenever I return to old haunts, I rarely look up people, but I always visit the trees of past sunrises, lunch-hours, and midnight-walks.
5) What is the main threat to trees where you live?
I believe the sustained lack of equilibrium between urban development and healthy green space is the primary threat to trees (and wild spaces) where I live. Western Washington is a beautiful place to live and work, but as the cities and suburbs grow, the forests and farmlands shrink, and the surrounding ecosystems bear the effects. As the trees go, so goes the wildlife.
6) If you ask each of us to do one thing to protect trees, what would it be?
Live with less stuff, and more trees: make room in your life to grow personal connections with the trees, forests, gardens, orchards, backyards, parks, urban trails, or wide open wilderness where you live; educate yourself on the different uses of the land, water, and sky in your region; understand what makes trees and wild spaces truly important to you.
7) When you listen to the trees, what do you hear them say?
“…………Listen…………”
Thanks again for inviting me, I love a good excuse to talk tree.
I’ll be looking forward to future releases from TreeStory!
Sincerely,
Jade
