Wise Trees

“I speak for the trees, for the trees have no tongues,” declares the Lorax. After thirty‑four years of living in the woods, I’ve come to understand exactly what he meant. Trees have become my closest companions.

They have survived more than 360 million years, yet climate change is accelerating our awareness of how fragile forests have become. Here in my corner of Virginia, even the mighty hundred‑year‑old oaks are falling. On my four acres grow aspen, ash, cherry, locust, oak, hemlock, cedar, pine, and many others—each one part of a living community. My hometown is also home to Camp Roosevelt, the first Civilian Conservation Corps camp. During the Great Depression, more than two million young men planted nearly three billion trees, helping restore both land and livelihoods.

Today, plant scientists document what many forest dwellers have long sensed: trees share nutrients, communicate stress, and sustain one another through intricate underground networks. Yet our global forests are shrinking—lost to disease, fire, development, and neglect.

Dr. Seuss’s The Lorax offers a timeless warning. A child wanders through a gray, barren landscape and asks what happened to the Lorax. The Once‑ler recounts how abundance was squandered when profit eclipsed stewardship, and how the felling of one Truffula Tree became the felling of them all.

The Lorax’s plea still echoes: “I speak for the trees.” May we answer that call—by planting, protecting, and honoring the forests that sustain life. Be a Lorax.