Ain't Trees Brilliant!
(Suggested listening: 'Feed the Tree' - Belly)
Trees. They totally rock, which is a strange mixture of vegetable and mineral to start this article with, but it's the best I can do without another cup of tea. I'll build the soliloquy about them as we go.
This morning I had the rare pleasure of being in a forest at dawn, watching the sun rise from behind hills, painting the sky a light blue with pink and yellow clouds. The forest wasn't silent; the proximity of the A9 and insistent rumbling of waterfalls made sure of that, but just a couple of minutes of walking left the drone of vehicles behind. Recent rainfall (it feels like it has rained pretty much all 365 days of January this year) meant the river was trying it's best to roar the rocks of the Black Linn Falls aside; standing on the viewing platform guaranteed a steady prickle of spray and the inability to hear what anyone said properly. It even masked the sound of a satisfying fart - the Costa plant based spicy wrap was not my wisest breakfast choice, but I digress (disgustingly).
I have always felt at peace wandering among trees. I am not sure if this an innate human reaction - shelter, food, water - or a result of parents being unable to afford anything other than holidays to Forestry Commission campsites when I was a kid. Perhaps the innate desire drove my city-born parents to maximise their forest exposure once they moved to Scotland? Who knows, but what I do know is what appeals to me now. I love how trees deaden sound. The stillness, even on a windy day, when you are in the heart of a forest. The canopy moving above, as if there is a conference going on that you are not quite close enough to hear clearly. The abundance of wildlife which, unlike many other countries, has minimal chance of killing you unless you decide to eat a red and white spotted mushroom or moon a stag in rutting season (the woman in this article didn't do that, as far as I know!). There isn't much else that can kill you, other than your own stupidity. Yep, all round, we're pretty lucky in Scotland. No bears to dodge, well, not of the Yogi variety, anyway.
The Japanese have long extolled the benefits of bathing in the woods, shinrin-yoku, and like anything long-established in any culture, commercial interests have tried to commodify it, label it and make it into a 'thing'. Recent news articles about the benefits of forest walking on stress, anxiety and depression have been interesting, but have left me feeling personally attacked. I've always loved walking in forests and it hasn't stopped me joining team Sertraline on account of me being slightly bat-shit crazy. If I could live in a forest full-time, without any concern for how to actually make an income and survive, then I could kiss the medication goodbye. But then, everyone would be living in forests and very soon they'd become a medieval, chemical toilet filled hellscape. There'd be the one person making pine leaves spirit that make you blind and violent. Another obsessed with making bows, spears and Rambo-esque traps. Before you know it, someone would lose an eye and be buried head first in a bog. The Japanese may love skinny-dipping among trees, but it's not the solution to low mood and weirdness people would have you believe. Forests are great, but being crowded with people seeking peace and solitude guarantees nobody will. As with all these fads, the key motivation is to find anything that will keep people working and payhing taxes.
Think of the trees Carrumba, think of the trees. You are in a green-lit peaceful clearing surrounded by swaying pines - oi! Who threw that spear?!
To be fair, Scotland has plenty of forests to go round, partly due to the work of the Forestry Commission and the post-WWI tree planting initiative. The fast-growing pine trees that were favoured might not have been the best choice (their density of planting and the acidic mat the needles create guarantee nothing grows beneath their canopy) but that is changing as landowners and commercial growers move to a better mix of native and commercial species. The Scottish government had committed to ensuring 25% of the Scottish landmass was returned to forest, but the funding for that has recently slipped, leaving those growing trees to meet the old target facing the choice of destroying seedlings that are no longer commercially viable. It should be easier for Scotland to meet their targets for reforestation with more land not viable for agriculture than England, for example, so it's disappointing that economic issues have felled these ambitions. See what I did there?
How do we fill the void that commerce leaves (ha ha!), in order to make the environment better in a time of global climate change? Well, environmental activism is one possibility. Though small scale by its very nature, if it got the rockstar, Tik-Tok treatment, it could be a fantastic 'problem' for authorities. I stumbled across this character (on his appropriated electric scooter - "I like to think of it as enforced sharing") operating in California, raising plants from seed and improving the site of a collapsed overpass where the local authority appears to have no clue on what grows well in their part of the world. His knowledge is impressive to listen to, and interspersed with a gloriously articulate use of swearing.
Funnily enough, environmental activists are pretty hard to come by through a Google search, but the most recent example of illegal rewilding in my neck of the woods was the unplanned reintroduction of beavers to the River Tay. As expected, farmers and land owners were up in arms, and we had the ludicrous situation of farmers shooting beaver on sight because, officially, they were not there - a typically nasty use of bureaucratic loopholes to salve the conscience of decision makers. Thankfully, they continue to live on the Tay and can be found not far from the city centre, where there are fewer red-faced shotgun wielders to limit their ability to breathe in and out. The law also changed in 2022 to require a licence in order to dismantle established dams, burrows and, well, beavers. As many of you will probably be muttering into your tea or coffee, it didn't do much good for bird of prey in the early days. It's a start, but when it comes to crops and money, laws tend to get bendy Even now, Red Kites are illegally killed by landowners keen to ensure there are enough grouse to be shot by plus-four wearers with more teeth than braincells. We simply don't have the compassion to accommodate natural predation and processes in commercialisation of the countryside and changes to farm funding after Brexit has undoubtedly made the margins tighter for those in agriculture.
So, what's the answer? Personally, I am all for more guerilla tree planting. Seeding flowers in potholes, finding as many ways to return nature to human habitats and beyond where those in charge are asleep at the wheel. Humanity has done an excellent job of abusing the environment they live in for hundreds, if not thousands, of years with no sign of meaningful behavioural change even when evidence clearly points to an urgent need to do so. Perhaps it's time for the silent majority to form small friendly cooperatives of smiling, cheerful, action. Go plant a native tree and enjoy many years of hugging it!