Getting back to our forests

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What if forests were trying to tell us something

Getting back to our forests means reconnecting with an in-depth understanding of life forms, recognizing their complexity and no longer envisaging nature as scenery or resource but as a veritable model. Forests are interwoven with unexpected alliances, surprising opportunism and discreet but powerful forms of reciprocity. Being inspired by this silent, collective intelligence means paving the way for cities with a closer connection to the living world.

This conference is intended as a prelude to the exhibition entitled La forêt. Solitudes et solidarités (The Forest. Solitudes and solidarities), which will open in the Cercle Cité in October. An invitation to a broader vision of these vegetal worlds, too often viewed as remote, whereas they flank our cities and can, if we listen to them, profoundly enrich our ways of living.

We have an idealised and static vision of trees and forests. Idealised because we see trees as strong, without imagining their weaknesses, particularly the cost of their trunks and longevity, especially in terms of parasites. Moreover, we know nothing about their roots, which represent a third of their mass. As for forests, we cannot imagine the hidden alliances and interactions involving much more than just the trees themselves. For example, the fungal allies of tree roots develop connections that are vital for the roots; animals enable plants to defend themselves or to move from generation to generation. In addition, our eyes can scarcely grasp what makes up a tree, providing us with a feeble representation of what they do, leaving us with a static vision of trees. Trees weave their floors, structuring the microclimate, outlining the water cycle and shaping the habitats of thousands of other species: rather than serving as silhouettes, trees represent major ecological functions.

Our underappreciation of trees, forests and the processes running through them leads us to neglect what they can offer us. This is true of hedges and forms of agroforestry, which are underdeveloped in our landscapes, in spite of their multifunctionalities. This is especially true of our cities, which have turned their backs on nature, walling it out since the medieval period at least. Here we come to one of the perverse effects of our vision of the bonds between nature and society: seen as juxtaposed if not in downright opposition, nature and society are not seen as complementary, thus depriving us of the functionalities that synergies could awaken. Providing flood management, cooling shade, occasions for social interaction, alongside visual and environmental well-being, sound barriers and air filters, but also sources of nourishment: it is time to rediscover trees and urban forests. But not without including an ecological dimension: because what we have said of forests in general also applies to trees and urban forests.

We can and must get back to our forests, everywhere, in forests and in cities: but not without a vision of what they constitute on a deeper level.

Lecture organized as part of the off-site program of LUGA – Luxembourg Urban Garden. 

Free entry, registration required