Recap: Treekeepers: A Fireside Chat with Lauren E. Oakes

In her latest book, Treekeepers, Lauren E. Oakes takes readers on a journey from the Scottish Highlands to the Panamanian jungle to meet the people working tirelessly to grow, regrow, and protect forests in the face of climate change.

This book summarizes how the trillion tree movement has exploded over the last few years, and features interviews from many key scientists, advocates, and stakeholders in the trillion tree movement. We invited her to sit down for a fireside chat to discuss her research and new book.

About the Author:

Lauren Oakes is a conservation scientist and science writer committed to forests, climate, and our complex relationships with nature. Oakes aims to make “environmental science accessible to non-scientists.” You may know her from her award-winning book from 2018, In Search of the Canary Tree.

She has held various appointments at Stanford University over many years, as a researcher, a lecturer, and an adjunct assistant. For past research published in peer-reviewed journals, visit Lauren E. Oakes on Google Scholar.

Treekeepers: The Race for a Forested Future

In her latest book, Treekeepers, Oakes takes readers on a journey from the Scottish Highlands to the Panamanian jungle to meet the people working tirelessly to grow, regrow, and protect forests in the face of climate change.

“When I began researching this book in 2018, I was thinking about these questions: To what extent can forests really save us? And how? At the time, I was focused on their ability to sequester carbon and the increasing interest in natural climate solutions that was (and still is) motivating more tree planting.

In researching and writing this story, I wanted to reconcile the competing viewpoints regarding the potential of forests to reduce our greenhouse gas emissions in the atmosphere. Yet, throughout my travels and interviews, people around the world also showed me the many other ways that trees support our wellbeing and life on Earth.

These treekeepers taught me about the great effort and care involved in growing trees—not just planting them—and in sustaining forests over time.” You can learn more in her the Treekeepers Readers Guide.

Interested in the book? You can check out Treekeepers from your local library, or order it from Lauren’s local bookstore in Bozeman, Montana!

Blurbs from our network:

“Planting trees, protecting, and restoring forests is definitely one of the ways to combat climate change. But only planting the right trees in the right places at the right time, and only restoring forests in the right way. Lauren Oakes travelled widely to gather her facts for this important and beautifully written book.”

—Jane Goodall, PhD, DBE, UN messenger of peace, and founder of the Jane Goodall Institute

“While we know nature alone can’t solve our climate crisis, we also know it can’t be solved without nature. That includes efforts like 1t.org to conserve, restore, and grow a trillion trees. In Treekeepers, Oakes shows the incredible power of our forests to remove carbon from the atmosphere. It’s a call to action for everyone to work together to heal our planet for future generations.”

Marc Benioff, chair & CEO, Salesforce