2. Socrates and a Loblolly?

3. History and Tree Climbing?

5. The Dilemma

6. Descartes, Discourse on the Method
In this I would imitate
travelers who, finding
themselves lost in a forest,
ought not to wander this way
and that or, what is worse,
remain in one place, but ought
always walk as straight a line
as they can in one direction
and not change course for
feeble reasons, even if at the
outset it was perhaps only
chance that made them
choose it; for by this means, if
they are not going where they
wish, they will finally arrive at
least somewhere where they
probably will be better off
than in the middle of a
forest.

7. Jacques Ellul, The Technological Society (1964)
In our technological society,
technique is the totality of
methods rationally arrived at
and having absolute
efficiency (for a given stage
of development) in every
field of human activity …
Modern technology has
become a total phenomenon
for civilization, the defining
force of a new social order in
which efficiency is no longer
an option but a necessity
imposed on all human
activity.

8. Gifford Pinchot (1865-1946)
First Chief of the U.S. Forest Service
The outgrowth of
conservation, the
inevitable result, is
national efficiency.

9. John Muir (1838-1914)
Founder, Sierra Club
“Conservation,
conservation,
panutilization,”
that man and
beast may be fed
and the dear
Nation made
great.

10. Thomas Cole, Garden of Eden (1828)

11. Thomas Cole,
Expulsion from the Garden of Eden (1828)

12. Gilgamesh: The Land of the Living
“O Utu, I would enter the ‘land,’ be thou my ally,
I would enter the land of the cut-down cedar, be thou my ally.”
Utu of heaven answers him:
“…verily thou art, but what art thou to the ‘land’?”
“O Utu, a word I would speak to thee, to my word thy ear,
I would have it reach thee, give ear to it.
In my city man dies, oppressed is the heart,
Man perishes, heavy is the heart,
I peered over the wall,
Saw the dead bodies … floating on the river,
As for me, I too will be served thus; verily ’tis so.
Man, the tallest, cannot stretch to heaven,
Man, the widest, cannot cover the earth,
Nor (yet) have brick and stamp brought forth the fated end,
I would enter the ‘land,’ I would set up my name” (Kramer).

13. Proctor, “Whose Nature?” (1996)
“Intrinsic value in nature
implies that its worth is
independent of its value
to humans . . .”
“Instrumental value implies
that its worth depends
on its ability to serve a
human end.”
“Non-anthropocentric
ethics . . . are those in
which people primarily
value nature
intrinsically…”
“An anthropocentric ethic
is suggested in
situations where people
value nature
instrumentally…”

14. Gilgamesh Redux?

16. Trees and Forests

17. Trees and Forests
Readings and Films
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Flannery O’Connor, “A View of the Woods”
Gilgamesh
Euripides, The Bacchae
Vergil, Aeneid 6
Ginger Strand, “The Ecology of Empire”
Simon Schama, Landscape and Memory
Robin Hood folktales
Shakespeare, A Midsummer Night’s Dream
Bernd Heinrich, The Trees in My Forest
Doug Wolens, Butterfly
Hayao Miyazaki, Princess Mononoke
James Proctor, “Whose Nature?”
Janisse Ray, Ecology of a Cracker Childhood

18. Trees and Forests
Personal Ecology

19. Trees and Forests
Personal Ecology
 “Not again with the drinking and the fistfights and yelling, no
more. So I ran. I found shelter in the woods between the palmetto
and the pine... Ecology of a Cracker Childhood reminded me so
much of my own life that I was chilled to read some pages… Like
Janisse Ray, I was able to find something majestic about my
simple pinewood forests and relate that to my own family.”
 “Like rings in a tree, we all have a past etched into our palms.
And when we are cut open, everything is revealed. Our
hardships, our struggles, our stories. Our wounds become
embedded into our memories and are hard to overcome. Hard to
forget. We try to disconnect from them, try to barricade them
from our minds and grow around them, but they are always
there.”

20. Trees and Forests
Personal Ecology
 “This place provided a world of adventures for our young
minds. A low vine that stretched over the ground from one
tree to another became an instant throne for the queen of
the forest. An old vine-covered well was nothing of the
sort, but actually a portal to a demon world. The morning
glories that grew all around were little homes for fairies …”
 “I could not take it anymore. So, as soon as I finished the
required group activities, I went running on the backwoods
trails. I ran until I could not breathe, until I felt like my
entire body would crumble if I did not stop… I made it to a
cove of nothing but trees and a random log in the center. I
sat down, and for the first time since her funeral, I cried.”

21. The Philosophy of Trees
A sense of wonder

22. Diversity

23. Replenishing Canopy

24. Pruning of Mature Trees

25. Pruning of Young Trees

26. Pruning of Young Trees

27. Clearing Vines

28. Proper Planting

29. Ensuring Tree Health

30. Agnes Scott Arboretum

31. Agnes Scott Arboretum
Biodiversity
Carbon Sinks
Dedication & Memorial
Trees
Dieckmann Magnolias
Forest Succession
Georgia Trees
Historic Ash Tree
Incense Cedar
Living Fossils
Native Trees
Natural Communities
Practical Benefits
Psychological Benefits
Sacred Trees
Shape & Structure
Tree Canopy
Trees & Disease
Trees & Water
Trees in the Arts

32. Desktop Tour

33. Mobile Tour

34. Agnes Scott Arboretum

35. Credits
Bust of Socrates, Louvre, Paris, downloaded from http://www.livius.org
Black-and-white photograph by Jack Leigh, photo from print in private collection of speaker, © jack leigh
Oak sp., Joy Viola, Northeastern University, Bugwood.org.
Slash pine seedlings, David Dickens, UGA, Bugwood.org.
Thomas Cole, Garden of Eden and Expulsion from the Garden of Eden (1828), downloaded from Wikimedia Commons.
Rene Descartes, Discourse on Method, trans. D. A. Cress (Indianapolis, IN: Hackett Pub., 1980) 13; quoted in R. P.
Harrison, Forests: The Shadow of Civilization (Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1982) 110.
Jacques Ellul, The Technological Society, trans. J. Wilkinson (New York: Vintage Books, 1964) xxv, 17.
Gifford Pinchot portrait, Grey Towers NHS, U.S. Forest Service, downloaded from
http://www.pbs.org/nationalparks/people/historical/2/
John Muir portrait, downloaded from Wikimedia Commons.
Andy Goldsworthy, Storm King Wall, 1997-98, Photo: Jerry L. Thompson, © Storm King Art Center,
Mountainville, New York, © Andy Goldsworthy, Courtesy Galerie Lelong, New York, downloaded from
http://seaaroundyou.com/waves-in-the-mountains/
“Gilgamesh and the Land of the Living,” trans. S. N. Kramer, in J. B. Pritchard, ed., Ancient Near Eastern Texts
Relating to the Old Testament (Princeton: Princeton Univ. Press, 1969) 47-50; quoted in Harrison, Forests, 16.
James D. Proctor, “Whose Nature? The Contested Moral Terrain of Ancient Forests,” in William Cronon, ed.,
Uncommon Ground Rethinking the Human Place in Nature (New York: Norton & Co, 1996) 281.
Pines and pine straw, David Dickens, UGA, Bugwood.com.
Snow-covered trees at Agnes Scott College by Jim Diedrick