The Global Forest: 40 ways trees can save us by Diana Beresford-Kroeger
Reading this book is like entering into a kind of altered state, which is entirely in keeping with my own experience of entering woods and forests. The book comprises forty very short sections, these read as what she calls 'refrains' : appetisers, provocations, wisdoms. The author is a respected tree expert, albeit a renegade one, so perhaps we can take some of the more outlandish assertions on trust, or suspend judgement in the context of a book which is self-declaredly part science but also part poetry, part 'spiritual' exposition.
I never really know what the word 'spiritual' means beyond platitudes, but an encounter with trees and the 'natural' environment, must be close to the intended meaning , if it really means anything at all.
Some things in this book are mystifying, for example the assertion that black and green walnuts can respectively protect against diabetes and childhood leukemia. Merely by holding them humans can be healed via some form of biochemical transfer. I'd like to understand what this means, but there isn't time for more detail, perhaps the book really should be read as a kind of research appetiser?
The author, Diana Beresford-Kroeger has also been involved in the Archangel Ancient Tree Archive, in which cuttings are taken from 'Grandmother trees', our regal elders, some of whom are 4000 years old. The future of our beautiful trees is constantly threatened by pollution and land grabbing. This is vital work, confirmed by such horrible things as the story I read recently about the 400 year old Oaken Wood in Kent. The government has given a company called Gallagher Aggregates permission to destroy this woodland in order to build a quarry. Government ministers should read this book and begin to understand the wider implications of destroying our arboreal heritage.
Link to news story about Oaken wood:
http://www.theguardian.com/education/2013/sep/22/oaken-wood-kent-uprooted-quarry
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