Tags
botanical, Climate change, Common Ground, environment, Ghana, ghost forest, List of unusual units of measurement, National Botanic Garden Wales, nature, Size of Wales, trees, Wales, Wendell Berry
How long does it take to make the woods?
As long as it takes to make the world.
The woods is present as the world is, the presence
of all its past, and of all its time to come.
It is always finished, it is always being made , the act
of its making forever greater than the act of its destruction.
From Sabbaths, by Wendell Berry
UK-based artist Angela Palmer had a mission. Together with the Size of Wales charity she has brought these magnificent mighty trees to a final resting place in the National Botanic Gardens in Wales. They have come from the forests of Ghana where they had fallen naturally or in adverse weather. Some are 300 years old. A mixture of species, they include trees of the Mahogany, Coca, Bean and even Elm families.
Their journey has been circuitous over the past few years. The trees have been touring around the world, promoting their own cause. Ghana now manages its trees sustainably, but many countries do not and it was hoped to draw attention to this as well as raising funds for preservation projects by the Size of Wales charity. It was set up by Welsh environmentalists and called this as a reaction to Wales being commonly used as a standard size comparison for areas of rainforest being lost.
The Size of Wales charity announced on St David’s Day last week that it has achieved its target. It has raised over £2 million to protect an area of African rainforest the size of Wales.
Under unending interrogation by wind
Tortured by huge scaldings of light
Tries to confess all but could not
Bleed a word
Stripped to its root letter, cruciform
Contorted
Tried to tell all
Through crooking of elbows
Twitching of finger-ends.
Finally
Resigned
To be dumb.
Let what happens to it happen.
A Tree, by Ted Hughes
The poems are from a wonderful Common Ground anthology, Trees Be Company and I wanted to include a quote from the preface by Susan Clifford and Angela King
‘This book presents evidence of our deep cultural need for trees and woods. Our hope is that it will inspire people to take more care of them……trees stand for nature and culture. We shall stand or fall with them.’
Unfortunately although the book was published in 2001 this is still a necessary hope.
Related articles
- Welsh charity saves an area of rainforest the size of Wales (guardian.co.uk)
- Wales News: Area of rainforest the size of Wales saved by charity fundraisers (walesonline.co.uk)
- Charity reaches rainforest goal (bbc.co.uk)
- Man plants entire forest in northern India ‘by himself’ (metro.co.uk)
Great post, Diana. Trees are so central to our lives, even if we live in a city.
Very nice post! Great photography and as always, most interesting text. I find your blog very inspiring.
Have a lovely day.
Dina
Wonderful post, Diana. As always, I learn something when I visit. I am also a Wendell Berry fan.
Karenj
Lovely stimulating post, as always!
Thanks Matt!
Hi Diana – thanks so much for this! I’ve been digging in some old photos of submerged forest landscapes which you might like. also, perhaps this article:
http://eprints.uwe.ac.uk/13590/
I like how the poem excerpts refer to trees in terms of memory (‘the presence of all its past) and also vocality (‘tried to tell all’). I’m actually fascinated with this – if you look at the local tree registers in the UK – all those books published with titles like ‘Remarkable Trees of Sussex’ etc. – interestingly, subheadings like ‘Silent witnesses’ crop up a lot, which I think taps into this…
x A
Amy, that article looks really interesting – I had not thought of those Paul Nash photos and indeed paintings in this context. I got my interest in tree roots in particular from artists originally – Graham Sutherland was another one. The references in other types of records sound interesting too. I would like to follow up on some of those ideas of memorialising and witnessing which are just touched on here.
Just discovered this. We would have both really liked this exhibition, too!
http://www.domusweb.it/en/architecture/first-the-forests-/
Thanks, Amy – not their usual sort of exhibition either! I did visit once in my architectural days.
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Hi Diana, thought you might like to have a look at this website I came across earlier: http://thetreephotographer.com/author/gabrielhemery/
Thanks Steve – that also led me to another site! http://www.archiemiles.co.uk
Thanks, Diana, for inspiring us once again. The telling phrase here is ‘promoting their own cause’, as though the power of the trees is enough: they remind me of whale skeletons towering over the entrance halls of museums, reminding us of their significance.
Ian
It would be good to think the power of the trees was enough wouldn’t it? I like the whale analogy too.
Great post! I’m unfamiliar with that Hughes poem – thanks for bringing it to my attention. I’ve been reading ‘Conversations with David Hockney’ recently and there’s a great quote by him: “Trees are the largest form of the life-force we have.”
Thanks for the Hockney quote – very appropriate! I didn’t know that Hughes poem either.
Wonderful post, Diana! Tree roots and Wendell Berry. Who could ask for more.
Thanks Lois – Wendell Berry is always worth reading!