“Giving Back” by Roshi Robert Althouse

I recently watched a NOVA film called “Secrets of the Forest” . It was so inspiring I watched it again, and then wrote this review. of the film.

There is a tradition among some Zen temples in Japan of reciprocity where monks, when drawing water from a well, are careful to leave some water that they pour back into the well. When June Roshi studied Lau Lapau with Papa Henry in Hawaii, he too taught this principle of reciprocity instructing his students, when gather medicine from plants and flowers in nature, to never take all the medicine from the plant, but to leave some.

Author and member of the Potawatomi tribe, Robin Kimmerer says, “In Potawatomi ways of thinking, we’ve always said, ‘Well, how do I give back in return for what I’ve been given?’ We have a worldview that says that the forests are our relatives, they are our providers, they take care of us, and we have to take care of them.

But we also need wood for our homes, and we need firewood, and we need berries, and . . . so the ethic is not that you don’t take because we have to take. Only take what you need. Be in reciprocity, give back for what you’ve taken.”

This film begins with the hypothesis: Could forests offer a natural way to help cool our planet by removing carbon from the atmosphere? It then interviews Tom Crowther, an ecologist based in Switzerland who has spent his who life trying to answer this question. The film proceeds to interview other scientists and ecologists working around the world to help save and restore old-growth forests. They believe that healthy, thriving forests hold the key to keep our planet from overheating.

“Many of us live today in cities which in terms of ecological foot print can be a really good thing,” says Robin Kimmerer. “But that does mean that we feel disconnected. We don’t see the way that our food is coming from the land. It becomes invisible to us.”

Tom’s initial attempt to publicize this idea was a complete failure because he said planting a trillion trees could help us fight climate change. This massive figure of a trillion trees captured the imagination of many who promptly began planting hundreds of trees, which was a big mistake. A mono-culture tree farm does not contain the biodiversity of a natural forest and in no way will help us cool the planet. A tree is not a forest. This kind of reductionist error is common in our culture. Tom went on to correct this error by working to save, support and restore old-growth forests throughout the world which he and his collegues believe can store massive amounts of carbon that can help cool the planet.

A forest is a complex, eco-system containing a rich biodiversity of organisms all working together in relationship to each other. Indigenous people have long appreciated this aspect of our world. “There are places on this planet where biodiversity continues to thrive,” says Robin Kimmerer. “And those places are, by and large, in Indigenous homelands. Biodiversity is the sum total of all of the organisms that are here. And you think, ‘Well, why does it matter?’ In a forest which is self-generating, you get all the different forms of trees and the understory and the mosses and the fungi and the birds, all in relationship. It’s this beautiful web that doesn’t really exist in a monocultural plantation.

Tom and his colleques began building a more accurate computer model that shows the potential of the whole forest to capture carbon. Working with over 200 scientists around the world, they set out to estimate how much carbon could be stored in each part of the forest ecosystem.

The film then sets about explaining how many species interact with and support each others, from the trees, fungi, soil, insects, animals, and birds. Even the loss of one species can have a serious impact on the over-all health of a healthy forest.

What’s so inspiring about this film is to learn about scientists who are working all over the world in ways that are harmonious with nature. “We’re in a whole new era of science right now,” says Evolutionary Biologist Toby Kiers. She says, “I get goose bumps just thinking about it. We used to categorize things, but now we’re in an era that studies interactions. It’s not going to be about one solution, like planting trees. It’s going to be about understanding the interactions between all organisms in an ecosystem, and saving those interactions.”

You can learn more by visiting Tom Crowther’s web site . Check out his mapping software at the Restor website which is free for anyone to use anywhere in the world, to determine the carbon-holding capacity of any eco-system.

I hope you enjoy the film and tell others to watch it as well. We are all in this forest together.

respectfully,

Roshi Robert Althouse