Synopsis: In this 3-part online-based participatory retreat/workshop we will explore the deep connection human cultures have forged with trees and forests and how these ‘arboreal’ cultures are expressed today. We will investigate the evolutionary past of tree-beings and explore their importance to the world’s religious and mythological systems. We will track the history of the modernist camps of agricultural, conservation, wilderness and Indigenous approaches to forestry practice. And end the workshop with an imaginative exploration of the future of forests. Along the way we will ask participants to examine their own relationship to trees and ask how they understand the role of trees in a changing global civilization and climate.

Learning/Exploration Outcomes

• Explore the relationship between trees, forests and human societies.
• Learn about how trees and forests show up in the world’s religious and spiritual traditions.
• Understand the cultural history of forestry, natural resources and ecological sciences related to trees and forests.
• Deepen one’s personal relationship to trees and forest spaces.

Workshop Outline:
One-and-a-half-hour, weekly format with short slide presentation, group discussion and weekly field journal invitations:

• Week 1: The Primeval Forest: The role of trees and forests in religion and mythology.
• Week 2: The New Forest: The rise of conservation, wilderness and the new science of tree communication and ecology.
• Week 3: The Known Forest: The ways in which we relate to and understand trees and forests on a personal level

Date: April 15, 22, 29
Time: 4:00 – 5:30 p.m. PT / 5:00 – 6:30 p.m. MT / 6:00 – 7:30 p.m. CT / 7:00 – 8:30 p.m. ET

To learn more and register, visit https://foreststewardsguild.org/event/tree-people-trees-forests-and-the-human-imagination-virtual-retreat/.