I recently finished The Overstory by Richard Powers, a novel that intertwines the lives of trees and humans in ways both heartbreaking and beautiful. Your story stirred something similar in me—the quiet grief of what is lost, and the hope contained in every act of planting. Thank you for planting. Thank you for sharing 🌱
Here in Hungary, the Great Plain is our main agricultural region. It is drying out and gradually heading toward desertification. The reason is not only climate change. About 150 years ago, rivers were straightened, and floodplains were cut off by dikes so that humans could claim more land for cultivation.
Today, there are efforts underway—though progress is slow—to give floodplains back to the rivers. But that alone is not enough. We also need to plant trees, just as you are doing. And we need to plant them in the floodplains.
Trees function like the heart of the landscape: they help raise the groundwater table and keep water moving through the ecosystem. They drive the small water cycle that creates regular, gentle rainfall.
From foresters I have learned that oaks should be surrounded by drought-tolerant pioneer species, such as birches. These grow quickly, provide shade, and create leaf litter. In that layer of organic matter, fungi can thrive, including the mycorrhizal networks that help trees and other plants access and share water.
The work you're doing is both beautiful and deeply important. It sets an example for others. Thank you for writing about it and helping to spread this knowledge.
Angell, one more thing: simply providing water may not solve the problem. What really needs to be restored and strengthened is the mycorrhizal network that supports the trees. As one passage from a study I commissioned puts it:
"The hyphal network of mycorrhizal fungi substantially extends the root system of the tree. While a typical root hair absorbs water within a zone only 1–2 millimetres wide, the fungal hyphae living on it can transport water and nutrients within a radius of metres—even tens of metres. This is decisive especially during drought: when the upper soil layer dries out and root water uptake decreases, the fungal hyphae can still reach deeper, moister layers."
If you'd like, I'd be happy to send you the full study.
I hear you and I empathise. All the work, and it is sad when our care is not enough to keep everything alive. They used to say to plant native trees etc. But those are not used to what is to come. At the moment they are still ok, but I have seen and felt them struggle over the last year at times. Here the problem are more the extremes of very hot and dry, then cool and very wet for prolonged periods of time. It is 28 °C here in Plymouth today, and it looks like we will stay under 30 °C. The rest of the country is well over that temperature, but not as hot as the continent - yet. When I checked the weather map it was shocking to see all red in Europe, like it is on fire. And it feels like it is. My family is in Germany, and partly in Greece. It is only June. What will it be like in July and August? Especially in Greece ... I remember holidays there in August with temperatures just above 40°C, and that was in the hilly North about 40 years ago. I hope and pray for some cooling down and rain for you. Too much to take care of already. Hugs
Yes, but we do what we can and for me now that means with integrity (seems to be lost nowadays). As we do not know exactly what the outcome will be, we just do our best. But don't forget some self-care, too. I do hope you get some rest.
This is the first time I have read anything anywhere that gives history or context to all of the writing about "what's coming" [what is here already]. Thank you for that. And I will send prayers of health to your wells that remain vibrant and refilled to srrve your trees and the more than human world tha tdepends on the waters flowing. 🙏
Thanks Angell for your feeling and story. Because you share here a little of tree planting reality in present days I would like to share with you a few ideas that also may help others too. (with all respect) When the Natural landscape has bee removed, the communication of above and below diminishes dramatically. Water bridges Earth and Sky; inhabits them both and we too. To plant now is not enough as you say, but to plant trees alone when the landscape has been returned to a primitive state of grasses and herbs, is almost suicide.
Herbs with deep roots guide those of longer lived tree species. Not just herbs like we know them but wild plants with deep roots native to the region ; maybe Mullein, Evening primrose, you will find them there if you look around; at least some comfrey root or something that can go deeep and let the water below, know that there is life above.
The communication has been sundered by agriculture all over the world and part of our rituals now on the land are to be creatively different using polyculture techniques. Plant the trees down in the holes, like a bowl so that its rim, creates shade for part of the day; We can use geometry to recreate possibilities of tree survival, but mix the species too. (I am Australian, but now live in the Italian Alps, after years in Brasil). The future of plants (and our own) is threatened enormously now if we just stay with traditional species. Mix and match. I would love to help you and others however I can. Love Peter
Yes we plant in respect and balance of the wild prairie. Letting Her guide the forest she is aiming to grow in decades. Preserving the pioneer species, making space for the one helping, dancing together… xxx
Angell, your commentary breaks my heart but it is truth, brutal and so necessary now. I’m trying to balance anger and peace of mind. It is so not easy but I’m realizing shutting down is not the answer. Sometimes it may be necessary but it’s not a healthy long term option. I have such respect and admiration for you and Rose. Sending ❤️. Wish I could send rain. With changing climate we are having record rainfall in eastern Oklahoma for this time of year.
I have been part of watershed groups in NW PA. I’ve grown up following the creek down to the lake. I used to run in it for a couple miles with Duece, my trusty mutt, a black Shepherd . During a few consistently cold winters My friend had I skated those same couple miles when it froze just right. One time in the spring we had so much rain it was raging… which was 2-3 ft deep compared to maybe a foot deep at 100 ft across. Grandma went and bought so e truck intertwined and tubed down to the lake. If you werent warning jeans your ass was at risk for getting grated on the bottom in shallow areas. Good times.
Sadly SO TRUE.... some of us have been calling for years, donating for years... and now we are not well prepared at all... and STILL people are 'enjoying the Summer sun' at a nearby man-made lake... seemingly unawares of the DANGER ZONE we live in...
I have lived in the white mountains of Arizona for 30 years, snow used to fall and it seemed as though it would never end, 5 feet at a time, the last few years there has been only a dusting. The trees are stressed and turning brown, acres of forest land that is a tinder box. Sometimes when I feel desperate for the ions, I play native raindance music and pray for it. As you say, to sit and watch it all go away is a travesty.
You have reminded us, in such poetic sadness, about the suffering of our plant friends who cannot move into the shade, even if some of them become a shade for others.
We have our own version of the heat here, making it difficult to tend to anything young and fragile. I leaned toward the nature around me, to Wildcraft herbs, rather than trying to grow them in places that have water insecurity.
My friend in Arizona writes me that the lakes of New Mexico and Arizona have lost most of their water, and there are water wars now with who gets the rights to what is left.
Our job is to live in harmony with the world we have inherited and the world we want to create. What does this mean if the Sky does not offer Rain?
My meditations are more meaningful if I sit on the ground, feeling earth and sky above.
I wish I had some answers for us all.
Thinking with the goodness of my heart is what I can do right now.
Yes Angell- I remember sitting with Hopi and Dine’ elders who had a vision back in 1980 that the world as we know it would end when people would be walking around looking into little boxes and would forget that they are the elementals, the four winds and the earth. No one had yet even thought about cell phones yet . . .and here we are.
Thank you for loving Mother Earth and all her manifestations 🙏🏽
A story all around the world. My local government has cut down some 600 mature trees to make way for the redevelopment of a golf course for some dodgy golf event that’s in financial trouble.
Now they want to build AI data centres despite the fact we don’t have reliable electricity nor enough water.
It’s all about the money. No thought about the consequences to the environment!
I recently finished The Overstory by Richard Powers, a novel that intertwines the lives of trees and humans in ways both heartbreaking and beautiful. Your story stirred something similar in me—the quiet grief of what is lost, and the hope contained in every act of planting. Thank you for planting. Thank you for sharing 🌱
Thank you for sharing this
Angell, you're making a very important point.
Here in Hungary, the Great Plain is our main agricultural region. It is drying out and gradually heading toward desertification. The reason is not only climate change. About 150 years ago, rivers were straightened, and floodplains were cut off by dikes so that humans could claim more land for cultivation.
Today, there are efforts underway—though progress is slow—to give floodplains back to the rivers. But that alone is not enough. We also need to plant trees, just as you are doing. And we need to plant them in the floodplains.
Trees function like the heart of the landscape: they help raise the groundwater table and keep water moving through the ecosystem. They drive the small water cycle that creates regular, gentle rainfall.
From foresters I have learned that oaks should be surrounded by drought-tolerant pioneer species, such as birches. These grow quickly, provide shade, and create leaf litter. In that layer of organic matter, fungi can thrive, including the mycorrhizal networks that help trees and other plants access and share water.
The work you're doing is both beautiful and deeply important. It sets an example for others. Thank you for writing about it and helping to spread this knowledge.
Thank you for sharing this and this example. Beautiful...
Angell, one more thing: simply providing water may not solve the problem. What really needs to be restored and strengthened is the mycorrhizal network that supports the trees. As one passage from a study I commissioned puts it:
"The hyphal network of mycorrhizal fungi substantially extends the root system of the tree. While a typical root hair absorbs water within a zone only 1–2 millimetres wide, the fungal hyphae living on it can transport water and nutrients within a radius of metres—even tens of metres. This is decisive especially during drought: when the upper soil layer dries out and root water uptake decreases, the fungal hyphae can still reach deeper, moister layers."
If you'd like, I'd be happy to send you the full study.
Yes we working on that too introducing mushrooms in the mulching and between trees and hedgerows xxx thank you
I hear you and I empathise. All the work, and it is sad when our care is not enough to keep everything alive. They used to say to plant native trees etc. But those are not used to what is to come. At the moment they are still ok, but I have seen and felt them struggle over the last year at times. Here the problem are more the extremes of very hot and dry, then cool and very wet for prolonged periods of time. It is 28 °C here in Plymouth today, and it looks like we will stay under 30 °C. The rest of the country is well over that temperature, but not as hot as the continent - yet. When I checked the weather map it was shocking to see all red in Europe, like it is on fire. And it feels like it is. My family is in Germany, and partly in Greece. It is only June. What will it be like in July and August? Especially in Greece ... I remember holidays there in August with temperatures just above 40°C, and that was in the hilly North about 40 years ago. I hope and pray for some cooling down and rain for you. Too much to take care of already. Hugs
There is a lot ahead that will either wake us up, or bury us.
Yes, but we do what we can and for me now that means with integrity (seems to be lost nowadays). As we do not know exactly what the outcome will be, we just do our best. But don't forget some self-care, too. I do hope you get some rest.
Thank you....
This is the first time I have read anything anywhere that gives history or context to all of the writing about "what's coming" [what is here already]. Thank you for that. And I will send prayers of health to your wells that remain vibrant and refilled to srrve your trees and the more than human world tha tdepends on the waters flowing. 🙏
Thank you Angie ❤️❤️🩹❤️
Your writing is so beautiful. And the wisdom beneath it is humbling. Thank you for sharing.
Thank you xx
Thanks Angell for your feeling and story. Because you share here a little of tree planting reality in present days I would like to share with you a few ideas that also may help others too. (with all respect) When the Natural landscape has bee removed, the communication of above and below diminishes dramatically. Water bridges Earth and Sky; inhabits them both and we too. To plant now is not enough as you say, but to plant trees alone when the landscape has been returned to a primitive state of grasses and herbs, is almost suicide.
Herbs with deep roots guide those of longer lived tree species. Not just herbs like we know them but wild plants with deep roots native to the region ; maybe Mullein, Evening primrose, you will find them there if you look around; at least some comfrey root or something that can go deeep and let the water below, know that there is life above.
The communication has been sundered by agriculture all over the world and part of our rituals now on the land are to be creatively different using polyculture techniques. Plant the trees down in the holes, like a bowl so that its rim, creates shade for part of the day; We can use geometry to recreate possibilities of tree survival, but mix the species too. (I am Australian, but now live in the Italian Alps, after years in Brasil). The future of plants (and our own) is threatened enormously now if we just stay with traditional species. Mix and match. I would love to help you and others however I can. Love Peter
Yes we plant in respect and balance of the wild prairie. Letting Her guide the forest she is aiming to grow in decades. Preserving the pioneer species, making space for the one helping, dancing together… xxx
Angell, your commentary breaks my heart but it is truth, brutal and so necessary now. I’m trying to balance anger and peace of mind. It is so not easy but I’m realizing shutting down is not the answer. Sometimes it may be necessary but it’s not a healthy long term option. I have such respect and admiration for you and Rose. Sending ❤️. Wish I could send rain. With changing climate we are having record rainfall in eastern Oklahoma for this time of year.
Yes pray for that rain to come to us and all thirsty lands xxx thank you
I have been part of watershed groups in NW PA. I’ve grown up following the creek down to the lake. I used to run in it for a couple miles with Duece, my trusty mutt, a black Shepherd . During a few consistently cold winters My friend had I skated those same couple miles when it froze just right. One time in the spring we had so much rain it was raging… which was 2-3 ft deep compared to maybe a foot deep at 100 ft across. Grandma went and bought so e truck intertwined and tubed down to the lake. If you werent warning jeans your ass was at risk for getting grated on the bottom in shallow areas. Good times.
Beautiful xxxx
Sadly SO TRUE.... some of us have been calling for years, donating for years... and now we are not well prepared at all... and STILL people are 'enjoying the Summer sun' at a nearby man-made lake... seemingly unawares of the DANGER ZONE we live in...
Yes…….
I have lived in the white mountains of Arizona for 30 years, snow used to fall and it seemed as though it would never end, 5 feet at a time, the last few years there has been only a dusting. The trees are stressed and turning brown, acres of forest land that is a tinder box. Sometimes when I feel desperate for the ions, I play native raindance music and pray for it. As you say, to sit and watch it all go away is a travesty.
Thank you Brenda. We are grieving together xxxxx
You have reminded us, in such poetic sadness, about the suffering of our plant friends who cannot move into the shade, even if some of them become a shade for others.
We have our own version of the heat here, making it difficult to tend to anything young and fragile. I leaned toward the nature around me, to Wildcraft herbs, rather than trying to grow them in places that have water insecurity.
My friend in Arizona writes me that the lakes of New Mexico and Arizona have lost most of their water, and there are water wars now with who gets the rights to what is left.
Our job is to live in harmony with the world we have inherited and the world we want to create. What does this mean if the Sky does not offer Rain?
My meditations are more meaningful if I sit on the ground, feeling earth and sky above.
I wish I had some answers for us all.
Thinking with the goodness of my heart is what I can do right now.
Thank you Annie for this beautiful and tender weaving… xxx
Yes Angell- I remember sitting with Hopi and Dine’ elders who had a vision back in 1980 that the world as we know it would end when people would be walking around looking into little boxes and would forget that they are the elementals, the four winds and the earth. No one had yet even thought about cell phones yet . . .and here we are.
Thank you for loving Mother Earth and all her manifestations 🙏🏽
They always knew… Know…
A story all around the world. My local government has cut down some 600 mature trees to make way for the redevelopment of a golf course for some dodgy golf event that’s in financial trouble.
Now they want to build AI data centres despite the fact we don’t have reliable electricity nor enough water.
It’s all about the money. No thought about the consequences to the environment!
💔💔💔💔💔
Yes xxx
Its an illness
It pains the soul.
yes….
all to frightening and relatable...feeling powerless these days...
Maybe it is where our power is, in feeling more deeply xxx