This SDG will focus on Daniel Lewis’ book, Twelve Trees- The deep roots of our future. Lewis is a writer and environmental historian. His book masterfully combines science, history, poetry, and practical approaches to the challenges of climate change and the complex relationship between people and the natural world. The book illustrates how trees are intertwined with human history, myths, art, and cultural practices.
The book features 12 trees. We learn about them from visits all around the globe to plant breeding labs,
museum collections, botanical gardens, research facilities and to the trees themselves from the tops of tall trees to under water to the jungles of S. America and the US. deserts. Trees, like humans, live complicated lives and contribute to the health of their ecosystems. Both serve as community builders, chroniclers of history and exemplars of resilience and cooperation. Trees are “a precious resource; refugees and invaders; recorders, victims, and perhaps solvers of the changing climate.” In the face of environmental transformation, Lewis shows us how the salvation of trees is intertwined with the salvation of humanity.
As one reviewer said, if you are interested in trees, you will love this book. If you are not interested in trees, this book will show you why you should be.
In addition to this text, the SDG will read What Tree is That? by the Arbor Day Foundation. One session of the SDG will take a field trip to UCLA grounds to practice tree identification.
Week 1: A Book Older Than God: The Great Basin Bristlecone Pine (chap. 1)
Awesome Matters: The Coast Redwood (chap. 2)
Week 2: Earth Work: The Nearly Lost Tree of Easter Island’s (chap. 3)
How to Identify Trees (Arbor Foundation)
Week 3: Finding Time: Amber, Insects and a Fossil Tree (chap. 4)
Understory Alliance: The longleaf Pine and Its Fiery Partners (chap. 5)
Week 4: Making Folk Medicine Modern: East Indian Sandal Tree (chap. 6)
How to Identify Trees (Arbor Foundation)
Week 5: Field trip to UCLA to identify trees
Week 6: A Lawful Lot of Wood: Forest Ebony (chap. 7)
Belonging and Beyond: The Blue Gum Eucalptus (chap. 8)
Week 7: Slippery Slopes: the Olive Tree (chap. 9)
Elephantine: The African Baobab (chap. 10)
week 8: Waterlogged: The Bald Cypress and Wonders of Wetlands (chap. 11)
Tall Stories: the Mighty Tree (chap. 12)
Week 9: In Praise of Recording, Reporting, and Remembering (chap. 12)
Wrap up on identifying trees.
Daniel Lewis, Twelve Trees. The Deep Roots of Our Future (New York: Avid Reader Press, 2024)
Arbor Foundation, What Tree is That? (Lincoln Nebraska, Arbor Foundation, 2009)