Tree Speech

Tree speech is a play on words, coined by my partner who easily could have devoted his career to the study of botany instead of law.

Most of us hold dear the concept of free speech, a fundamental human right that allows individuals and collectives to express their beliefs and opinions without fear of reprisal. This revered right has enduring historical origins and is recognized in many countries’ constitutions as well as international human rights law. Even so…freedom of speech as well as freedom from bodily harm are still a daily struggle for far too many precious humans among us. And I am grateful to those who champion and restore these freedoms.

At the same time, what many of us find harder to see is how these sacred rights have also been wholly denied in every legal and literal sense to most of the natural world and her astonishing array of flora and fauna inhabitants who have broadly been declared, and thereby rendered, voiceless. 

An apt segue to talking trees.

It might surprise you to learn that trees utilize an ancient extensive and efficient means of language made possible by the mighty mushroom, or mycorrhiza, a symbiotic fungus network that thrives in the root tips of every plant and tree on planet Earth.

In exchange for receiving necessary sugars and carbon, mycorrhiza fungi supply life-giving water and/or nutrients to their myriad hosts. There are thousands of species of mycorrhiza and they are thought to have existed for 500 million years—since plants evolved to grow on land—functioning as a highly dynamic labyrinthian underground nutrient- and communications-network that allows trees of every variety to share sustenance, care for and even warn each other instantaneously of danger, form forest families and advantageous allegiances, and flourish in community for many miles.

Some trees have been found to be so interconnected and bonded in symbiotic benevolence, if one of them becomes diseased or dies the other soon follows—a phenomenon documented widely in many mammal species too. I will never walk in the woods in quite the same way after learning more about this kinetic and expressive system that interweaves and provisions the forest canopies I adore, pulsating mere inches beneath the soil my feet stand upon.

That’s a lot to take in. In fact, for many of us it might require a total shift in thinking in order to acknowledge the sheer significance of it. Because if trees can talk, are capable of establishing friendships and nurturing their young, it turns the modern paradigm on its head. As well it should. 

As a writer, language is as meaningful to me as the right of utterance, deserving of far more intentionality than it receives. The way we use, even wield, our words can be akin to a weapon capable of both grievous harm or powerful protection. Language is symbolic and foundational, continually shaping, guiding, and instructing who we are—to ourselves and each other. Just as trees illustrate in their split-second warnings to forest-dwelling kin when danger or disease are nigh, language can save entire ecosystems. But it can also be leveraged for destructive ends which is why the right to free speech is rightly not considered unconditional.

Robin Wall Kimmerer—member of the Potawatomi Nation, revered ecology author, and Ph.D botanist—speaks eloquently in her inspiring body of literary work (robinwallkimmerer.com/b…) about the language of her ancestors and how it illustrates many indigenous beliefs that the entirety of creation contains the essence of life. Unlike English which is replete with nouns to designate living beings as things, Potawatomi language primarily denotes action-oriented verbs reflecting an inherent aliveness.

A river, butterfly, glade of wildflowers, or a coyote are all preceded by the word being—“being a river” or “being a coyote.” Only inanimate human-constructed objects like tables or a woven carpet are the exceptions. Imagine how differently we would interact with the world around us if we conceived of, and referenced, the world around us in this alternate way. It might change everything.

It’s no wonder we find ourselves in a present-day ecological crisis.

Which brings me back to tree speech and the seedling from which this new creative endeavor sprouts. I’ve devoted my life for three decades to exposing injustice and speaking out against the exploitative template embedded in the bedrock of most modern day so-called “civilized” societies.

Listening deeper to the voices of the natural world on my continued advocacy/expression journey feels paramount. My aim is to explore and merge my love of language with my yearning for a more compassionate and reciprocal relationship with all of creation, including each other.