Lecture: Sprout Lands: Tending the Endless Gift of Trees

Once, people around the globe did not simply live beside or under trees. We lived with them, taking from them and giving to them. We cut them back, and they sprouted again. Whole woodlands were coppiced, that is, cut near the ground, or pollarded, that is, cut at about 6 feet tall.  Surprisingly, perhaps, this was not an exploitative but a cooperative relationship. Proper human care for the woodlands increased their diversity and promoted the numbers and kinds of insects, birds and other creatures who lived among the trees and the open understory vegetation. The trees themselves lived longer. In return, the trees gave us wood, fodder, medicines, foods, rope, clothes and ships, as well as beauty, fresh air, and cooling shade. Whole cultures were built around such woods. This talk evokes that ancient world, not as an idyl of the past, but as a model for a future, active relationship to our trees. It also suggests a few ways in which we can start this living relationship anew.

William Bryant Logan is a certified arborist, the founder, and president of Urban Arborists, Inc., and a faculty member at the New York Botanical Garden. The author of four books and an award-winning garden writer, he has contributed work to House Beautiful, House and Garden, and Garden Design magazines as well as the New York Times. You can read his July 20th article “The Lessons of a Hideous Forest” here.