Making the Global Connection: Remarkable Trees and Forests

In October, I found the oldest tree in Paris.

The giant black locust tree was hidden in plain sight, surrounded by a small fence in the Viviani Square across the river from the Notre Dame cathedral, just steps from Sylvia Beach’s famous Shakespeare and Company bookshop.

Millions of people in Paris walk, drive, bike, and boat right by this massive tree planted in the year 1602. Known as the “Robinier tree” to honor the men who planted it more than 400 years ago, a small green sign attached to the tree trunk declares this to be one of France’s great natural treasures, “les arbres remarquables.” *

Remarkable trees!

Once you start looking, remarkable trees and forests are everywhere.

• Your armchair journey might begin by paging through the wonderful book Remarkable Trees of the World by Thomas Pakenham.
• For something closer to home, you might visit the Remarkable Trees of Virginia by Nancy Ross Hugo and Jeffrey Kirwan. (Dr. Kirwan is a well known PLT workshop facilitator in Virginia.)
• Today, many states and communities have identified their remarkable trees with special designations such as “champion trees” or “heritage trees.” You can usually get a list and map from your local or state park, forestry, or natural resources department.

Maintaining the list of remarkable trees is usually a labor of love and in many cases “new” trees are nominated by citizens and honored every year. Maybe you and your students can get involved? Is there a remarkable tree near you?

Or a remarkable forest?

To discover the remarkable forests, a good place to start is with the Project Learning Tree Global Connections: Forests of the World activity guide.

Maps, background information, case studies, and nine student activities are included in the guide to help teachers navigate their way around what the guide calls “the forest planet.”

Global Connections and Remarkable Forests

Activity # 9 "Researching Forests Around the World" provides an excellent path for students to zoom into a country they select, design an investigation, and report out on the “State of the Forest,” including critical environmental, economic, and social issues they discover. This activity works very well with environmental studies, international studies, social studies, and even foreign language classes (e.g., “les arbres remarquables”).

Activity # 7 "Exploring the World Marketplace" allows students to create their own country, establish priorities, and manage their own natural resources in a global context.

Activity # 6 "Seeking Sustainabilty: A Global Response" helps students clarify the meaning of “sustainability” and shows how countries can monitor and respond to changes in their forest resources. This activity also includes a critical study of the international Montreal Process where 12 countries, including the United States and Canada, are working together to promote forest protection and sustainable use of forest resources.

Global Connections: Forests of the World features 50 countries and provides teachers and students with a real-world collection of topics and case studies based on research and projects conducted by the nonprofit World Forestry Center in Portland, Oregon.

The popular World Forest Tour cards included in the guide (pp. 22-30) can be used for a variety of stand-alone activities to engage students and connect the dots between people and forests. A series of slides to support each of the activities and copies of the student pages, including the World Forest Tour cards, are available at http://www.plt.org/forests-of-the-world.

Project Learning Tree Global Connections: Forests of the World workshops are offered in many states. Contact your PLT state coordinator for the schedule or to propose to a host workshop for you and your colleagues.

Other Resources

In addition to the resources for teachers found in Global Connections: Forests of the World, there are many excellent, user-friendly sources of credible information available about the current state of forests in the United States and around the world.

For example, in June 2011, the USDA Forest Service released the U.S. National Report on Sustainable Forests. This important document defines sustainable forestry and showcases the criteria, indicators and trends in monitoring forests and forest use in the United States.

In broad strokes, the National Report of Sustainable Forests report follows up on the statistic-rich 2009 Forest Resources of the United States summary, which contains excellent maps, charts and graphics. 

Recently, the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) published the 2010 Forest Resource Assessment (FRA 2010). This comprehensive survey of the world’s forests over the past decade is a rich, country-by-country mother lode of forest facts, trends, and important information about issues facing people and forests around the world. Country profiles, interactive maps, charts, and other amazing graphics are available in many different languages, online and for free.

As the 2011 International Year of the Forest comes to an end, the thrill of finding and learning about remarkable trees and forests goes on. This can include trees and forests far away or close to home.

So, there I was last month standing next to the oldest tree in Paris.

What in the world could those people have been thinking 400 years ago when they planted this tree?

Could they have imagined how their city and the world would change? Maybe they just wanted to add a little green to the neighborhood? Or to provide some shade on a hot summer day? Maybe their plan was simply to show off the “trophy tree” they recently imported from the new world?

Clearly, they had a vision for something remarkable.

Sometimes, we all do.

Rick Zenn is an internationally recognized environmental educator. He is Senior Fellow at the nonprofit World Forestry Center in Portland, Oregon. He is a long-time PLT facilitator and serves on PLT's national education operating committee.

* Interestingly, the Latin name for locust, Robinia, is similarly attributed to the royal French gardeners and “herbalists” Jean and Vespasien Robin. See photos, profiles, and an interactive map of the remarkable trees in Paris, including the Robiniere tree.