Download Witness Tree: Seasons of Change with a Century-Old Oak AudioBook Free
Climate technology can seem thick, remote control, and abstract. But through the lens of the one tree, it becomes immediate and seductive. In See Tree, environmental reporter Lynda V. Mapes requires us through her 12 months coping with one red oak at the Harvard Forest. We learn about carbon cycles and leaf physiology but also experience the seasons as folks have for centuries, enjoying for each new bud and hearing for each new bird and frog contact spring. Lynda requires us along as she climbs high into the oak's swaying boughs and scientists core deep into the oak's heartwood, dig into its root base, and probe the teeming life of the garden soil. She brings us eyeball level with garter snakes and newts and alongside the squirrels and jays devouring the oak's acorns. Season by season she uncovers the secrets of trees and shrubs, that they work and support a vast community of lives, including our own. The oak is a living time range and witness to climate change. While stark in its implications, See Tree is a lovely and lyrical book, rich in fine detail, sweeps of weather, record, people, and pets. It is a tale rooted in wish, beauty, wonder, and the possibility of renewal in people's link with nature.
