The above of course reminds many of us of Wangari Maathai of Kenya, and the Green Belt Movement she established.

I stumbled on this train of thought on a Sunday evening after Carmen Artigas, who runs the Ethical Fashion NY Facebook page, among countless things, posted about Jadav Payeng, who created a 1,360 acre forest in India. It reminded me of a TED talk by Allan Savory that I watched a few days ago, that focuses on restoring grassland habitats and reversing desertification with the aid of strategic livestock grazing:

It seems that Savory’s ideas haven’t received unanimous support – and the comments are quite impassioned. To be clear, I’m posting because the idea of revitalising damaged soil inspires me. I was equally inspired when I read about terra preta for the first time, in Charles Mann’s ’1491: New Revelations of the Americas Before Columbus’. And it all reminds me of grandad. In the late 1950s he bought a plot of forest on a lake in Finland, as so many Finns have done. When time came to plan and build the house, he marked every single tree he wanted to save on a map. Now that I’m the guardian of that place with my sister, I feel utter responsibility for those trees. Almost all of them still stand. We still have grandad’s map.

So what is it about trees? For me, they ground me in time; they give me perspective. The trees on grandad’s map were mature 50 years ago. They are likely to be there 50 years after I’m gone. Any of the things I stress about, worry about – they pale in significance when I’m amongst those trees. And so, all men and women who plant trees, I thank you.