Seeing the wood and the trees: Thoughts on rewilding the forest

 

Trees and Woods

We are all unique, all individual, all different. 

Giving space and time to value difference, helps everyone to feel seen.

In any group of people, there will always be some who are more alike than others. This is the same as having similar trees within a wood. Each individual tree is still unique. It brings its own ecosystem, and has a unique role in contributing to the habitat and the identity of the wood. It is not solely the number of trees that makes the wood what it is. Each tree's connections to and between each other, with the land and with other beings in the wood, bring something very important too.

A community of people is also more than just numbers. Each individual brings something valuable and valid to the whole. 

When we understand the importance of difference over the power of numbers in shaping a community, every unique person can know that they have as much right to belong as any other, and that belonging helps the community to thrive. 

 

Roots

As we grow, our roots spread out in different directions and across time. Some are closer to the surface, some go deep, some are big, some are small, all are important to our growth and wellbeing.

This roots of the trees in the wood grow with and alongside others, their direction and size influenced by the space they are in. Any change in the nature of the wood, purposeful or natural, is not due solely to changes at an individual level, it is the result of the changes that ripple out from these entangled connections. Thus, when a tree is lost, perhaps in a storm or through old age, the loss is not simply "replaceable" by just another tree. Multiple species compete at different times and all grow into and re-wild the space in a unique way, each tuning into and attuning to others around them as they grow. This intricate, multi-dimensional woven fabric of shared community, has meanings and consequences wider than any individual, and that change over time. The shape and identity of the wood is never static. It is always in motion, and always relational.

If we use this analogy for human communities and societies, we can see that at any moment, our roots are also further entangled with those of others and the physical spaces we grow within. Our roots carry culture and history alongside our own individual personal stories and experiences. These interconnections nourish us and help to hold us steady. They provide a means through which we can develop, grow and become our unique selves. The individuality of each of us, supported within the space afforded by the whole. We are thus more than just a name or a number. The narrative of our lives- the past, present and future- matters deeply, for our own wellbeing and development, and to those close to us and alongside us.

When we understand this entangled nature of being, it becomes clear that to come in and inflict change to or on an individual, without considering the role of interconnectivity, comes with risk.

To remove of change just a single tree for whatever reason, to isolate its roots or its connections with wider ecosystem by trying to define or alter its borders and boundaries, forged uniquely across time and by virtue of place, shows ignorance of and disrespect for this natural entanglement. We are each of us, no less connected, albeit that our roots may not always be on show. Measuring and judging a person against a predetermined "standard" completely ignores our connections and our roots, it only sees the person contained solely within the physicality of their body. To see a whole person, is to also see and value the weaving of their relations with place, other people and other beings, and how these too are mediated across time.

In rethinking how we see individuals, it is vital that we begin to know, understand and respect simultaneously both the wood and the tree, the community and the person. To know them not as separate entities, but as belonging together.

 

Monocultures

We must be equally wary of creating communities populated by just one way of being. When there is too much focus on a singular experience, the breadth and depth brought by an individual, and their unique ways of being, can be lost. The natural balance that emerges from the richness of diversity is put under stress, or worse, destroyed completely.

• Where efficiency is prized over relations - Wealth too often comes to the fore and overrides wellbeing.
• Where uniformity becomes the norm - Care turns into fixing and maintenance.
• Where only a few experiences are different to the whole - Difference can itself become hidden and go unheard. 

 

 ...and into the forest

These issues are bigger than the wood

• The drive for material wealth threatens much more than just human lives and environments. 
• Maintaining a status quo risks perpetuating outdated and dangerous ideologies. Colonisation is in our past, remains in our present and will continue into the future, unless we work harder to recognise it in all its forms. "Never again" becomes "again and again", just with different actors and across different locations and times.
• Only valuing one voice and one view limits our capacity to see beyond what we are told is truth. We stop being curious, and we begin to lose our way.

These are the issues of the wider 'modern' forest, a metaphor for so much of our modern existence in the Global North. 

This modern forest, fast-growing and efficient, tall and dense, stands seemingly benign in every direction, looking like it has always existed. It has indeed grown from the roots, the trees, and the wood, yet it has morphed into something quite unnatural; its shape known, yet somehow also incongruent. Increasingly dark, and seemingly impenetrable, only a few dare, or have capacity, to try to cut it back, to go against the grain, and disrupt its interconnected ecosystem of power. 

• The protestors calling for action on climate change are told they are 'crazy' by those in power, their messages of an emergency purposefully hidden from widespread public view, discredited, over-ruled.
• A genocide is live streamed to our devices through social mediated routes, yet largely erased or heavily redacted from national media.
• The majority remain unaware of the precarious nature of environmental or humanitarian sustainability. The messages of productivity, efficiency and personal betterment are sold instead as a way forward, with buy-in redeemed in reward points and bonus payments. Those who stray off the familiar track, are too often lost to the forest: silenced and purposefully ignored, punished, or removed permanently from view. 

We are being sold the myth of progress, all while the natural world -the only world that we have- continues to be under threat. Those who stand up for the environment, who protest against a genocide, who advocate for minority rights are too often chastised for their views, squeezed out of the picture, and their contributions overlooked or erased.

Rewilding the forest

Yet, finding a path, a way through the deep, dark forest, is essential if we and the natural world around us, in all its diversity, are to survive and to thrive. We must see the wider connections that weave between the trees, the wood and the forest; we must know that our roots bind us together with the world around us: no borders, no boundaries, just the marvel of existence. 

In short, we must learn to see the trees, the wood and the forest as one.

If we are advocates, we must then be wary of leaning into the harmful ways of those in power, of picking and choosing which roots to value, and which trees to nourish. All roots and trees, all stories and histories and cultures, all beings human and non-human, are created in our single world. All are important to the wellbeing of the whole. The climate emergency, the ongoing social injustices and genocides occurring globally and the importance of individual wellbeing and authenticity are therefore all connected. To stand for one, implies support in equal measure for all. Meanwhile, acts to control or manipulate this world, particularly where this is for personal gain, can have long-reaching consequences and here we should remember that silence is all too often an act of complicity.

Our entangled nature is not a fault, a disease or a weakness. Power is furthermore not achieved through conquering or colonisation, subjugation of many so only a few may flourish. We need to learn to appreciate multiple stories, value connections and weave together action that not only embraces, but emulates this natural and powerful interconnectivity. Our entanglement is our strength, and cherishing and championing it in all forms, is our duty. Only in this way can we begin to rewild the forest, for it to become a place where all are welcome and being respectful with and alongside all others is simply the only way to be.