The Memory of Trees: The future of eucalypts and our home among them

(Other book format)

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Description

Most Australians see their world through eucalypts. From towering forests to straggly woodlands, in city parks, by the coast and in the bush, these are the trees that inhabit our familiar landscapes and national psyche. Yet the resilience of our eucalypt ecosystems is being tested by logging and land clearing, disease and drought, fire and climate change. In many places they are a faded remnant of those known by past generations. How important is the memory of these trees

In search of answers, Viki Cramer takes us on a journey through the richest botanical corner of the continent, exploring forests of rugged jarrah and majestic karri, woodlands of enduring salmon gum and burnished-bark gimlet. Spending time with the people caring for these precious places, she interrogates the decisions of the past, takes a measure of the present and glimpses hope for the landscapes of tomorrow.

The Memory of Trees will make you look anew at the trees and environments that sustain us and show the many ways that, together, we can ensure their future.

Reviews

This brilliant ecological history of South-West Western Australia is a testament to the area's beauty and diversity, as well as a calling to account of the sustained failures in stewardship since white colonisation. The Memory of Trees celebrates the local while speaking to the global: the power of trees and community, and the urgent need to take responsibility for the landscapes that sustain us. * Inga Simpson *

Author Bio

Viki Cramer (PhD) is a writer and ecologist who lives on Noongar Country in Western Australia, home to some of the most extraordinary and diverse plant life on the planet. In 2021, Viki was awarded a prestigious Dahl Fellowship from Eucalypt Australia. Her science writing has appeared in Ensia, Scientific American, Bush Heritage Australia's Bush Tracks and CSIRO's ECOS, and her first non-fiction story 'No change coming' was featured in the 2016 Radio National Earshot documentary Hot Summer Land. Viki's writing explores nature, conservation, people and place, and how the needs of both the human and more-than-human world can be met in the landscapes we share.