To “see the forest through the trees” is a timeless idiom that simply means to be able to see the big picture, the overall patterns and outcomes at play, through all of the details.
Thanks to the ground breaking work of researcher and Professor Dr. Suzanne Simard, we are able to “see” and understand the symbiotic relationships between the fungus and roots of a plant, or mycorrhiza, that stretches for 100’s of miles under the forest floor. Through this work with trees, we have the ability to see the big picture, which is that our forests and their mycorrhizae filled soils have the ability to store carbon in large quantities and reverse some of the effects of climate change.
These incredible findings, which have been on the peripheral for years, are complete game changers of course to the destructive path we are on and have been on for far too long. But what do we do? We can’t simply knock down the built environment and wish the forests we once had back into existence. To stop the earth from heating up so quickly and to protect our waterways from human pollution or eventually drying up we had to come up with much more realistic solutions. Many groups are doing such work locally and globally but we would like to highlight one group in particular, TreePeople of Los Angeles, California.
“ In places we can’t plant trees – e.g., where buildings and parking lots cover the land – what else can we do to green our city? Earth’s life-giving forests inspired a solution! We can protect our natural resources and ensure clean and abundant water in our city by using solutions that re-create the functions of a healthy forest in an urban setting. Examples of these nature-based solutions include permeable paving, French drains, swales, rain barrels, cisterns and other relatively simple “forest-mimicking” innovations.” ~ Tree People.org Who We are
TreePeople’s main function as a non-profit organization is to assist communities in putting these nature-based solutions into action alongside healthy, well-cared-for trees in order to create a Functioning Community Forest in every neighborhood of L.A.
We are so pleased, to have the founder and President of Tree People Andy Lipkis joining our conversation at the Soil Summit, the first international conference focused on the role of soil biology in reversing climate change in urban environments. He will be kicking off day one of our program and we couldn’t be happier.
