In the morning I go out to the garden and water the plants. I pick up some of the guavas that have fallen from the tree. This is my routine when I visit my parents in the winter. The guavas are yellow and pink, the size of a lime. I bring one of them to my nose and fill my lungs. \u201cScatter the used coffee beans,\u201d my mom says. \u201cIt’s good for the soil.\u201d My mom bought the guava tree when I was a child, maybe twelve or thirteen. I remember when we planted it. The stalk was narrow and would bend with the wind. The highest branch reached the beginning of my sternum.<\/p>\n
\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Now the tree stands in the middle of the yard, its crown offering shade in the clear-sky winter day of Mexico City. Over the course of my life I have seen some of the trees on my street become giants. Others have become ill and had to be felled. Global warming, pollution and pests are creating too much stress for them. We humans are often too busy to pay attention to trees. We have our worries: making a living, success and recognition, finding a partner who will understand us. But the truth is that there is no such thing as humans and nature. There is no separation.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 In an interview in 2018, the novelist Richard Powers said to me:<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u201cThere is no separate and exceptional thing called \u201chumanity,\u201d and no independent entity called \u201cnature.\u201d All things are reciprocally bound together<\/p>\n
\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 There are more than 5.2 million street trees in New York City. How many people in the city realize that the quality of their air and water depends on these plants?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 When I came to Iowa City in August of 2023, I was stunned by the size of some of the trees on campus. I wanted to know more about the species, how old they were and what kind of challenges they had circumvented to still be alive today.<\/p>\n
\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 On my first walk near the Old Capitol building, I noticed young people lying on the grass, shirtless, others playing volleyball or throwing a frisbee. I saw a woman sitting under the shade of a towering tree reading a book. That tree, now I know, is a Black Walnut. And that knowledge was a gift from someone I met in the fall of last year. In October I found out that the sciences library at the university was hosting a talk about trees. It was by chance that I stumbled upon the info poster. That day I met the person who made possible the documentary I’ve been on working on this summer: the arborist Andrew Dahl.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 The Black Walnut standing a few feet away from the Old Capitol is a State Champion, which means it’s the biggest tree of its kind in Iowa. The Champion label refers to a system that ranks the biggest trees in each state. Thanks to Dahl I’ve learned that age and size are not necessarily related. \u201cThere are very old trees that are not necessarily that big,\u201d he said. I’ve learned about the White Oak tree, which currently stands south of the nursing building. With an estimated age of 300 years, it will unfortunately be felled in the next months because it has died. Too much stress caused by pollution and long stretches of time without water. Climate change has exacerbated the conditions.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 One of the important aspects of this project has been to document how global warming is impacting the ecosystems, in particular the way trees adapt to change in the environment. Thought trees can be resilient, the older they get, the more fragile they become. The University has implemented measures to protect some of its trees. The Black Walnut, which was once struck by a lightning, has now a system with rods and wiring that reduces the risk of severe damage by lighting strike. An American Elm, former state champion, also standing on the Pentacrest, receives injections of a fungicide to reduce the risk of Dutch elm disease, a fungal infection that has caused the death of several millions of trees since its introduction in the US in the 1930s.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 I have also developed other skills, technical and non-technical. I have been able to get better acquainted with both Adobe Premiere and Adobe Audition; I have used professional video and audio recorders. When an unexpected technical challenge arose, I realized how important it is to be connected to other people and departments on campus. Having a wide network of resources is as crucial \u2013 if not more \u2013 than having a good idea and the necessary skills set to bring it to fruition.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 This summer I spent a lot of time with Andy learning about trees, what they do for us, what we can do to protect them. With the camera I’ve kept a record of what I saw on those trips with him around campus. I hope this documentary serves as an archive for future generations. How trees looked in 2024.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
In the morning I go out to the garden and water the plants. I pick up some of the guavas that have fallen from the tree. This is my routine when I visit my parents in the winter. The guavas are yellow and pink, the size of a lime. I bring one of them toContinue reading “Summer fellow Alejandro Mauricio Ruiz Zepeda’s final presentation script”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":207,"featured_media":7637,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9,32],"tags":[],"syndication":[21,60],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.lib.uiowa.edu\/studio\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7780"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.lib.uiowa.edu\/studio\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.lib.uiowa.edu\/studio\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.lib.uiowa.edu\/studio\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/207"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.lib.uiowa.edu\/studio\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7780"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/blog.lib.uiowa.edu\/studio\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7780\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7806,"href":"http:\/\/blog.lib.uiowa.edu\/studio\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7780\/revisions\/7806"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.lib.uiowa.edu\/studio\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7637"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.lib.uiowa.edu\/studio\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7780"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.lib.uiowa.edu\/studio\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7780"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.lib.uiowa.edu\/studio\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7780"},{"taxonomy":"syndication","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.lib.uiowa.edu\/studio\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/syndication?post=7780"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}