Witness Tree

An intimate look at one majestic hundred-year-old oak tree through four seasons--and the reality of global climate change it reveals. In the life of this one grand oak, we can see for ourselves the results of one hundred years of rapid environmental change. It's leafing out earlier, and dropping its leaves later as the climate warms. Even the inner workings of individual leaves have changed to accommodate more CO2 in our atmosphere. Climate science can seem dense, remote, and abstract. But through the lens of this one tree, it becomes immediate and intimate. In Witness Tree, environmental reporter Lynda V. Mapes takes us through her year living with one red oak at the Harvard Forest. We learn about carbon cycles and leaf physiology, but also experience the seasons as people have for centuries, watching for each new bud, and listening for each new bird and frog call in spring. We savor the cadence of falling autumn leaves, and glory of snow and starry winter nights. Lynda takes us along as she climbs high into the oak's swaying boughs, and scientists core deep into the oak's heartwood, dig into its roots and probe the teeming life of the soil. She brings us eye-level with garter snakes and newts, and alongside the squirrels and jays devouring the oak's acorns. Season by season she reveals the secrets of trees, how they work, and sustain a vast community of lives, including our own. The oak is a living timeline and witness to climate change. While stark in its implications, Witness Tree is a beautiful and lyrical read, rich in detail, sweeps of weather, history, people, and animals. It is a story rooted in hope, beauty, wonder, and the possibility of renewal in people's connection to nature.

A political epic based on the early life of Eleanor Dulles–sister of John Foster Dulles, Secretary of State, and Allen Dulles, the first head of the CIA–and the secret beginnings of modern Israel. The Witness Tree interweaves years of classified research by co-author and Nazi war crimes investigator John Loftus with a perilous love story–the result is a sweeping novel of a diplomatic dynasty, born in the hope and treachery that defined the twentieth century. Eleanor Dulles comes from one of the most respected families in America. An economist and a socialist, she is the family rebel–and its last hope for salvation. Her affair with a mysterious younger man leads them into fateful brushes with the Zionist underground and the Soviet Comintern. Eleanor comes to understand her family’s connections to the treasonous Second World War oil business, and the unlikely lovers are led separately from war-torn Europe toward the doorstep of Nelson Rockefeller himself, with profound implications for the future of the Middle East. Part family saga, part political thriller, The Witness Tree imagines the little-known life of a woman who became the conscience of her family with a single, desperate act to redeem the soul of a nation betrayed.

A tree in rural Iowa bears witness to generations of human experience--and deadly secrets.

A lover of strict form, best-selling poet Victoria Chang turns to compact Japanese waka, powerfully innovating on tradition while continuing her pursuit of one of life’s hardest questions: how to let go. In The Trees Witness Everything, Victoria Chang reinvigorates language by way of concentration, using constraint to illuminate and free the wild interior. Largely composed in various Japanese syllabic forms called “wakas,” each poem is shaped by pattern and count. This highly original work innovates inside the lineage of great poets including W.S. Merwin, whose poem titles are repurposed as frames and mirrors for the text, stitching past and present in complex dialogue. Chang depicts the smooth, melancholic isolation of the mind while reaching outward to name—with reverence, economy, and whimsy—the ache of wanting, the hawk and its shadow, our human urge to hide the minute beneath the light.

A collection of specially-commissioned essays, enabling readers to explore Frost's art and thought.

In a beautiful tribute to the natural heritage of the Lone Star State, photographer Ralph Yznaga celebrates the strong connections between Texans and their trees. Inspired by the old Texas Forest Service book, Famous Trees of Texas, Yznaga has captured the continuing attachment we have to these magnificent reminders of our culture and history. Stunning images, stories, a detailed map, and driving directions to thirty-seven famous (and infamous) trees help us appreciate how entwined the lives of people and trees are: The Treaty Oak, memorialized in Texas lore as a meeting place for Native Americans and also as the site of Stephen F. Austin’s first boundary treaty with local Indians; The Burnt Oak, standing witness to the dramatic events leading up to the Battle of the Alamo, one of the largest known specimens of Quercus virginiana var. fusiformis; The Sam Houston Kissing Oak, said to occupy the location of a Houston campaign speech near San Marcos, where the "Old Hero" kissed local young women who presented him with a flag; The Great Goose Island Tree, believed to be more than a thousand years old; and many others. The photographs in Living Witness premiered at the groundbreaking of the Mollie Steves Zachry Texas Arboretum at the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center. Set to open in 2012, the centennial of Lady Bird Johnson’s birth, the arboretum will feature descendents of historic trees in the Hall of Texas Heroes.

When a skeletal foot slips from the confines of a downed tree, Foley family secrets whisper like thistle in the wind, enticing, teasing, and daring the truth to come forth. The year is 1944 and Esther Foley suffers a humiliating introduction to her new neighbor when he finds she and her children sleeping along his portion of the Redemption River one July morning. The neighbor, Robert Sommers, may be Esther's ticket to a new life, even if she may need to manipulate the situation a tad. A desperate act will change all their lives and Esther will spend the rest of her days making amends. In the process, she will rediscover the courageous young woman she once was, and know that nothing is out of bounds when a mother needs to protect her own. Esther's daughter, Helen, was certain she had out-run the ghosts of the Foley family past, until the bones are found and the rumors begin. A box of letters and a mysterious ring hold the key to all that Helen has blocked from memory-along with her part in the shattering events of the past.

The elementary tale of the life cycle of a tree, from its beginnings as a sapling to its demise on the forest floor, where it decomposes and becomes "a home for rabbits, and food for flowers", is also a life lesson for people. In this enhanced version, enjoy read-along, some fun animations, and a coloring page!