Holly's Hemlocks

by Holly Dobbs

Growing up, my dad often told me about his love for the elm trees in his childhood neighborhood of Auburn, NY. He described the beautiful yellow color of the leaves, the shape of the trunks, how the street glowed with light in the fall, like stained glass. He remembered efforts to arrest the spread of Dutch Elm Disease in the 1970’s leading to every mature tree in Auburn being brutally cut down.

​My special childhood tree was the deep velvety green, tiny needled, shadowy, hushed, and sweet-scented hemlock tree. I remember walking through the woods and feeling the quiet increase as I entered a grove, and a soul-deep relief as the scent reached my brain.

 
Due to climate change, the hemlock trees in my neighborhood have died from an onslaught of wooly adelgid--tiny insect parasites that suffocate the trees. There are still hemlocks north of my home town, but every year the line of brown and dying trees inches north. Witnessing this process is painful.  I feel angry, resigned, or helpless about all the environmental problems: the floating trash islands in the oceans, the death of the last male Northern White Rhino, burning forests, and so much more. It is overwhelming.

We have an opportunity to deepen our engagement with our wounded world through the newly-organized Ecosattva sangha, an affiliate of BoWZ that is being developed for those of us who care about environmental issues. We had our first meeting a few weeks ago and participants shared the issues they were interested in tackling.
 
Sensei Diane Fitzgerald’s group in DownEast Maine has made significant progress fighting plastic waste in the ocean. She is willing to share the blueprint of how they did it! Michael Cerone of Greater Boston Zen Center talked about making nature more accessible to lower income city dwellers, addressing both environmental and social justice issues.  Cindy Bapties of our own Benevolent Street Sangha is involved in serving the RI Beekeeper Society. I am a member of a community garden and I care about food sustainability.
 
How about you?  What voice in our wounded world calls to you?  Let us know and as Ecosattvas we’ll look for ways to support your passion in caring for a planet that has cared for us for so long.