By Russ Stoddard in Trees — 15 Sep 2026

More Trees, Please

Godspeed: good fortune; success (used as a wish to a person starting on a journey, a new venture, etc.)

Why yes, I did play hooky from writing Godspeed the last couple of weeks to go vagabond in the wilderness on the Middle Fork of the Salmon River.

This time of year, the upper reaches of the river are skinny on stream flows, so I flew in a small plane over the Frank Church-River of No Return Wilderness to our put-in 24 miles downstream at Indian Creek. I was struck on the flight by the patchwork of green forest, rocky outcrops, and the large swaths of charcoal forests burned over the past couple decades.

Up high, you get the big picture of the devastation that has occurred to the forest.

Down low, on the river, you find out what that devastation means: erosion from climate change’s increasingly intense rain events and the subsequent gully washers – flash floods stampeding boulders and sediment down watersheds into the main stem river, changing the ecosystem in an instant and ruining wildlife habitat.

That got me to thinking about trees, as did Boise’s extended smoke season this summer from the region’s monstrous wildfires.

We all love trees, right? So, I’ve spent some time digging through my notes and the interwebs and am giving over this issue to them – as the headline says, “More Trees, Please.”

Godspeed, friends.

Russ

🤔 Think About It

“The clearest way into the Universe is through a forest wilderness.” John Muir

🤷‍♂️ Word of the Day

Ever heard of the word “copse? Perhaps in the verse of the transcendentalist poets? Even MS Word spellcheck doesn’t recognize it, offering up “cope,” “corpse,” and “cops” as alternatives. A copse is a thicket, grove, or growth of small trees — also called “coppice.” Capeesh?

✍🏼 The Poetry of Trees

Well, “Word of the Day” provided a proper a segue to poetry, now didn’t it? Here are three poems to get you in an arboreal state of m

When I Am Among Trees by Mary Oliver – Mary captures trees as our saviors, on the daily.

Manifesto: The Mad Farmer Liberation Front by Wendell Berry – Wendell doesn’t get to trees until the third stanza, but I’m along for the entire ride on this poem about redefining profit. (RIP: Wendell died just last week.)

When Great Trees Fall by Maya Angelou – Maya conjures in this poem the way I felt when Dolly Parton just passed away.

This poem has occupied this tree on a wide spot in the road for decades, on Highway 93 between Challis and Salmon, Idaho.

💥 Quick Hits

Importance of saving old trees in cities. Turns out, historical preservation extends to old trees, too.
Big trees, big money – The latest flex for the ultra-wealthy? Buying and moving big trees.
Fires are bigger, hotter – from thickly carpeted towering pines to brown, open spaces with spiky shrubs, a new brand of fires is erasing our nation’s forests.
If YOU think it’s hot – so do England’s ancient oaks, which are dying from the heat.

📗 Books to Leaf Through

Here are some of my favorite books with trees in a starring role:

The Overstory by Richard Powers. Hands down, one of the best books of fiction I’ve ever read.
The Golden Spruce by John Vaillant. One man’s obsession and the world’s largest Golden Spruce; had a hard time putting this one down.
The Hidden Life of Trees by Peter Wohlleben. Explore the underground world of trees.
In Trees: An Exploration by Robert Moor. Discover the art of “treethinking.”

🫡 Best Follows For Trees

Well, if not THE best, among the best – here are some socials to follow for tree insights and beautiful tree sights:

American Forests: Everything from tree-planting starter packs to urban soundscapes.
TJ Watt: A conservation photographer and big tree hunter protecting ancient forests in British Columbia.
Big Tree Hunters: Dedicated to protection, preservation, documentation, and appreciation of the biggest trees and oldest forests.
Julia Butterfly Hill: An OG of the tree protection movement, 29 years ago she spent 738 days living in an ancient redwood to keep it from being felled (and was inspiration for Richard Powers to create a character in The Overstory, mentioned above).

🙋🏽 Trivia

When I come upon a ponderosa pine I love to wrap my arms around it, put my sniffer up to its bark, and take a big inhalation.

So, today’s trivia question for you: What scent is most associated with a ponderosa tree’s bark?

Vanilla
Wintergreen
Cinnamon
Fennel
Cloves

🙌🏽 Local Shout-Out

I would be remiss without mentioning my good friends at Trees Idaho, who work to promote tree planting, stewardship, and education in our state's communities. Search out a similar nonprofit in your community and see how you can help them.

🎧 Soothing Sounds

Let’s take a trip, shall we, into the forests and listen to their sounds at four different websites.

Tree.fm lets you listen to random forests. The first one forest I listened to was in Mount Raschio, Italy.
Another site from the U.K. allows you to listen to specific forests around the world, so you can dial in something closer to home or go more exotic. Me, I tuned into one close to home from the Jarbidge Wilderness on the Nevada-Idaho state line.
“Chirps, trills, and clicks.” – Ever wondered what a forest in the Jurassic period sounded like? You can listen in here.
And last – if soothing sounds help bring on a restful night’s sleep, here’s a loop to camp out with including nine hours of forest sounds night.

🌲 Don't Forget

We've written previously about Ecosia, the web browser that puts 100% of its profits toward environmental impact. So far it's planted more than 250 million trees and generated $120 million for climate action initiatives. It's an easy switch to make with no decrease in performance. Change today.

Trivia Answer

If you guessed “vanilla,” you’re spot on – though others will argue that the scent more closely smells like butterscotch (and I don’t hold it against them). Either way, you’re a winner!