Spoiler: It’s Swedish for “That Way”… :)

I finally made my first sign for the woods. From a scrap of cedar milled by a friend, and some paint made from linseed+graphite. It’s in Swedish. Whatever else you know about me, you probably know that I am not Swedish, do not speak Swedish, and have never been to Sweden.

But in a sincere effort at “imitation is the sincerest form of flattery”, I based this sign on one found in the forest of Maria “Vildhjärta” Westerberg. I recently watched a film about Maria, and her attempt to rewild and replenish her bark-beetle afflicted spruce woods. Made monoculture by her grandfather, for the immediate gains of her mother’s generation…

“…And now comes the bill, to my generation and to the younger ones…”

The planet is tiny and the problems are shared. We see much of the same devastation here in Canada’s woods. Where the skin of many different trees blisters and weeps. Where so many of the ash, their branches like the tines of a fork, stand tall and bold and dead.

“They were supposed to live long after I have died, and they all started to die before me”

But action is a great balm for pain. So each year, we pull up DSV and prune away buckthorn. And in the disturbed spaces, along the edges and where holes have been punched through the forest, we plant more baby trees. Add more possible futures. A diverse forest is a far better forest manager than we are of course, and well-suited seeds will find their own way to fertile openings. But from time to time, we dig in a little hope too.

“After my 100th planted tree, I had stopped crying, because I was so tired physically.”

If you do nothing, despair is guaranteed. If you do something, you crack the door open, and hope might be able to find a way in.

“…At my 800th tree, I started to feel some kind of strength and hope. And I was eager to wake up in the morning...”

I highly recommend the film featuring Maria, “Once Upon A Forest” by Campfire Stories.

Happy Friday everyone 🌳