Robert Moses & The London Plane Tree

How can trees be political? they don’t vote, they don’t run for office, they can’t make a good protest sign…but there are many many ways that our woody cohabitants are part of making the world around us in ways might think of as political…as part of conflict, as part of one groups domination over another, building places and cities…
And being a person that lives in New York City one of best demonstrative examples that comes to mind is how a man and his favorite trees help reshape New York. That man, Robert Moses, that the London Plane.

The Queer Ecology of NYC's High Line and Tree of Heaven

What does this notorious weedy tree, Tree of Heaven, have to do with gay cruising spaces in New York in the 80s and 90s and The High Line, now of one the city’s now most well-known green spaces?

J. Sterling Morton, The Pro-Slavery Founder of Arbor Day

Did you know that the founder of Arbor Day was also a loud advocate for expanding slavery in US? J. Sterling Morton, a newspaper man, governor of the Nebraska territory, and eventually Sectary of Agriculture, didn’t just want to plant trees for a love of nature, but also because

Cherry Trees and Anti-Immigrant Sentiment

The striking colors of Japanese flower cherry trees are one of the hallmarks of Springtime in the US, so how did these plant immigrants go from being reviled and even publicly burned in the US capital to being celebrated.

Whites pines and white nationalists

What do white pines trees have to do with white Christian nationalists? How an English colonial policy on the cutting of Eastern White pine trees led to one of flags waved on January 6th and by white Christian nationalists alike.

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The Queer Ecology of NYC's High Line and Tree of Heaven

J. Sterling Morton, The Pro-Slavery Founder of Arbor Day

Cherry Trees and Anti-Immigrant Sentiment

Whites pines and white nationalists