EASTON, Pa. — After a successful inaugural Sustainability Movie Night last month, city officials are gearing up for a second screening.
“The Hidden Language of Trees: How Forests Secretly Communicate” will play at 8 p.m. Aug. 22 at The Neighborhood Center, 902 Philadelphia Road.
A collaboration between the city’s Sustainability and Urban Conservation departments, as well as the Nurture Nature Center, the free screening aims to build on the success of the previous event, engaging residents in conservation education, organizers said.
"We can't see them, nor can we hear them, but they are talking, and it's our responsibility to speak for them where they cannot speak for themselves, whether that's through our legislation or our ordinances, or through our individual actions, taking care of the trees on our property or taking care of trees that we plant ourselves.”Easton Sustainability Coordinator Brandon Sullivan
The documentary “really does discuss how trees do talk to each other — the thing is, we just can't hear them,” city Sustainability Coordinator Brandon Sullivan said.
“It really comes down to trees talk to each other through their roots, through their natural systems underground. We can't see them, nor can we hear them, but they are talking.
"And it's our responsibility to speak for them where they cannot speak for themselves, whether that's through our legislation or our ordinances, or through our individual actions, taking care of the trees on our property or taking care of trees that we plant ourselves.”
‘Super inspirational’
The 45-minute documentary, also available on Youtube, is inspired by the work of Peter Wohlleben, a German forest scientist and author of “The Hidden Life of Trees: What they Feel, How they Communicate,” and Suzanne Simard, a Canadian forestry scientist and conservationist.
Simard also has written several books, including “Finding the Mother Tree” and “When the Forest Breathes.” Her research is credited with inspiring the Tree of Souls in James Cameron’s 2009 sci-fi movie, “Avatar.”
Simard pioneered “The Mother Tree Theory,” in which one older tree will take care of its nearby offspring, Sullivan said.
“They look for struggling offspring, and these communication signals that I mentioned are active — they're constantly going back and forth,” Sullivan said.
“Let's say a sapling is lacking nutrients. That ‘Mother Tree’ will end up actually sending nutrients through that root system to that sapling to ensure that it can still survive.
“I think it would be super inspirational if kids know that, because you know how awe-inspired they are — if they know that this is going on, even if it changes one kid's life, they could grow up to be another Suzanne Simard,”Easton Forester Rob Christopher
“So when I say trees take care of each other, I genuinely mean they provide actual food and water to each other to survive, and they also will end up aborting things like toxins or poison to their own systems.”
The hope is that movie-goers will leave with a better understanding, and maybe even a greater appreciation, for trees, city Forester Rob Christopher said.
“I just think that it will really help people look at trees in a completely different light,” Christopher said.
“I think probably 99 percent of the public doesn't realize that all of this is happening with trees, especially this whole underground network where they're communicating, and there's actually a level of intelligence.
“I don't think people really know the depth of the piece of [the] puzzle that they are in the environment, and they might really look at trees and plants and things much differently after they realize how intelligent and helpful they are and almost, you know, sentient in a certain way.”
Trees are a “vital piece” of Earth’s health, he said. He said Simard and “Avatar” have similar messages — that wealth is in the knowledge of the planet, its landscape and peoples, not in harvesting and mining its resources.
“I think it would be super inspirational if kids know that, because you know how awe-inspired they are," Christopher said.
"If they know that this is going on, even if it changes one kid's life, they could grow up to be another Suzanne Simard.”
‘Well-received and well-welcomed’
This will be the city’s second Sustainability Movie Night, following an event at Historic Easton Cemetery, 401 N. 7th St., last month.
Following the theme of Plastic Free July, an international effort to lessen plastic pollution, officials screened “Microplastic Madness,” and included an educational program from NNC on microplastics.
Because plastics don’t decompose, over time they break down into smaller pieces, called microplastics, that can contaminate water and seep into the food chain.
Twenty-three people came out for the screening, Sullivan said. He said that with less than three weeks of advertising, he considers it a success.
“The night was honestly gorgeous … As it transitioned into dusk and into darkness, the fireflies started to come up,” Sullivan said.
“So you had this absolutely beautiful, scenic, picturesque landscape behind this movie, with fireflies buzzing in the background near all of these tombstones and graves.”
After the educational program, Sullivan gave a short talk about the harms of microplastics and efforts to combat them
“But how do we remove microplastics, these tiny, little things that we can't see without a microscope?” he said. “So, really, it comes down to combating the source itself, which is plastic.”
Feedback from the event has been positive, he said.
“It seemed like it was well-received and well-welcomed,” Sullivan said. “The cemetery responded really well to that as well.
“And, just in general, people reached out to me on Facebook, or people in the community that I've already interacted with on other projects, or even just as I'm walking around the town, have also shown great appreciation and love for the event.
"So it is very satisfying, not because of ego, but because I know that Easton cares about these issues and believes in these issues.”
For more information, go to the city’s website.
