Trees and forests: A talk with Diana Beresford-Kroeger

by Jennifer Humphries

Last year I saw the documentary Call of the Forest: The Forgotten Wisdom of Trees, a production centred on the work of Diana Beresford-Kroeger. The film was brilliant and the showing I attended featured in-person remarks by Beresford-Kroeger.

Call of the Forest has been nominated for the 2017 Rob Stewart Award presented by the Academy of Canadian Cinema and Television to honour the year’s best television documentary on a scientific or nature topic. TVO supported the film and a short version can be found on the TVO website at www.tvo.org/video/documentaries/call-of-the-forest-the-forgotten-wisdom-of-trees.

Beresford-Kroeger is an internationally renowned medical biochemist, botanist and author who lives in Merrickville in a home surrounded by her own arboretum. She is the author of several books and her expertise in plants and their relationship to human well-being, both physical and psychological, is sought out across Canada and internationally. Her Irish roots and continued connections to Ireland infuse a Celtic spirituality to her thinking.

She is also a passionate advocate for forests. Her Bioplan encourages everyone to get active in the vital work of planting trees and preserving the global forest.

I recently spoke with Beresford-Kroeger to get her insights on the forest’s impacts on individual human health and on the health of the planet.

Human Health

I asked about “forest bathing” which she explores in Call of the Forest. The Japanese have practiced forest bathing for at least 1,400 years. And now it’s gaining popularity in China, Ireland, the United States and Canada because people are realizing that trees are actually medicine for body and mind. And forest bathing isn’t terribly complicated or esoteric. “This May and all summer, here in Eastern Canada, take a walk in the woods,” she advises. “You’ll breathe in all kinds of aerosols that strengthen your immune system and have anti-cancer properties, amongst others. You’ll also see patterns that have been demonstrated in fractal mathematics to have a positive impact on your brain. The dominant green of the forest has been shown to lower the brain’s cortisol levels (cortisol produces the fight or flight response) and give you a sense of peace.”

Scientists have been ringing the alarm bell lately about our societal attachment, even addiction, to our devices because we’re spending far more time indoors than outdoors and we’re less attuned to nature than any earlier generation.

Screens have a particularly negative impact on children, says Beresford-Kroeger. Childhood is the time when a person is open to the world in a special way. “Children have a high metabolic rate and naturally have the ability and desire to move, to reach out to nature and to people,” she says, “but if cornered into the internet, which is a world where they are agreed with, with no discussion and no leadership, and no real human conversation, they lose the opportunity to socialize and play. And socialization, imagination and play are what make a good student, a good scientist, someone who is musically inclined.”

Beresford-Kroeger urges parents to give children the freedom and tools to explore the natural world. Of course there is a place for screen time, but in moderation.

The Planet’s Health

Call of the Forest is an urgent, passionate call for action and legal protections for the primeval forest of which we, as Canadians and world citizens, serve as guardians. “We don’t fully understand the importance of the boreal forest,” Beresford-Kroeger says. “If we lose that, we lose everything.” This is because the northern forest boreal system across North America, Russia and Scandinavia is the largest intact forest left on the planet. It covers underground areas of non-composting plant material–benthic and phenolic compound stores–that keep moisture on the “top of the world.” With climate change, melting and the consequent release of carbon dioxide on a massive scale is possible. Logging and other development in the boreal forest exacerbate the already deadly serious risks.

Beresford-Kroeger’s Bioplan aims to bring back woodlands to our communities, urban and rural, and to support the retention of one of our greatest natural legacies. She urges everyone to plant at least one tree a year for the next six years. If you can’t plant a tree yourself, help or support someone else to do so. She also asks us to protect the trees in our neighbourhood and protect the native forests in our community by getting involved and writing letters to our government representatives. And finally, she urges us to do all that we possibly can to keep the boreal forest intact.

The February 27, 2018 federal budget promised $1.3 billion over five years for conservation. The funding came in response to a call from the Green Budget Coalition that represents 19 nature organizations asking for investment “to deliver on Canada’s commitment under the UN Convention on Biological Diversity to protect at least 17 per cent of Canada’s land and freshwater and 10 per cent of our ocean by 2020” (see www.naturecanada.ca). These targets are not ambitious enough really, nor is the funding sufficient; however, they chart a path to ensuring the sustainability of our country’s ecosystems for future generations.

Now that I’ve talked with Diana Beresford-Kroeger, I’m hoping that I can take a walk with her and get to know and truly feel the great connection with the forest that breathes for the planet, and contribute to keeping it growing for eons to come.

Visit Beresford-Kroeger’s Tree App at www.calloftheforest.ca to learn more about the benefits of trees and to see a great tree-planting tutorial.

Jennifer Humphries is co-chair of the Glebe Community Association’s Environment Committee. You can contact her at environment@glebeca.ca.