Ecology, Conservation and Poetry

I couldn't resist sharing a little extract from this Science and poetry inspired contribution to the Autumn Kew Magazine by Kew's director, Professor Stephen D. Hopper, who says:

'... it is remarkable to me how much more we have to learn about tree diversity, conservation and sustainable use. There is a lot known about a few, including timber- and food-producing species. However, many trees are used or felled without there being much understanding of their basic biology or capacity to regenerate. Large numbers are simply pushed aside, burnt and forgotton about, as people convert forested land to other purposes, primarily agriculture and urban or industrial expansion.

Although much attention is correctly focused on the plight of tropical rainforests, we shouldn't forget that temperate rainforests are the most productive on Earth, and immense areas of forest and woodland have been cleared of their trees over many centuries in countries enjoying temperate climates. There is an increasingly urgent need to devise economic, financial and political systems that value trees more as living organisms than as dead and felled. Trees provide so many things that enrich our lives, from the oxygen we breathe to the timber we use for everything from musical instruments to sculptures, buildings and boats. They also provide vital habitats for other plants, invertebrates, birds, mammals, fungi and lichens. Our ongoing use of trees will remain essential, particularly in a changing world, so applying the best science possible to ensure that such use is sustainable remains a fundamental challenge.

In Hyperion: a fragment, Keats encapsulated the unbreakable tie between ourselves and oak trees with the memorable words:
As when, upon a tranced summer-night,
Those green-robed senators of mighty woods,
Tall oaks, branch-charmed by the earnest stars,
Dream, and so dream all night without a stir.
Hopefully, we will again come to revere trees in this way and conserve them and use them sustainably'

The wisdom of trees suggested by the idea that they are 'senators' seems a bit of a fancy metaphor but it just shows how much we have to learn and that we should learn these things!