An interview with canopy expert Dr. Meg Lowman:
Canopy research is key to understanding rainforests

Interview

On Saturday November 4, 2006 the TREE Foundation participated in the Sarasota Reading Festival and premiered the Out On A Limb Rainforest Exhibit.
The booth featured the 1-100 scale diorama of life and research in a rainforest, a section of canopy walkway, tardigrades, bug candy, rainforest adventure books, and a TREE Foundation/Tardigrade bookmark.
We interacted with over 300 people at the festival and children and adults had great fun walking on the walkway and pretending they were on a rainforest expedition.
Students from New College (Kelsey, Bethany, and Bryson) explained the intrigue of eating bugs, forest adventure, and climbing trees. The Research Consultant (Colleen) had fun helping people discover tardigrades.  The creator and engineer (Dr. Phil) of the diorama and walkway explained every inch and answered questions about it non stop.
The Sarasota Reading Festival was a success and the TREE Foundation was able to reach the Sarasota community (all ages) through books.

Tree Training in Smith Woods 

Another great fall day in the hometown Smith Woods. Huge trees. I swear the trunks are actually ancient pre-internet-age monsters that ate up the early settlers, as they are FAT, perhaps housing hundreds of bodies..
We taught a two day tree-climbing training this weekend for future tree-instructors at COE. The first day we went over access and rope climbing. The second day: high-angle exploration…at it’s best! It was quite cool. Fall weather, 100 off the deck

Louv was in Florida to talk at the Sarasota Reading Festival about his book, Last Child in the Woods (Algonquin Press). Richard also participated in a panel with the authors of Its a Jungle Up There (Meg Lowman, Eddie Burgess, and James Burgess) and renowned children’s author Lynne Cherry. The fivesome discussed linking kids to nature, and advocated for a new project for TREE Foundation: building a treehouse for kids in southwest Florida. Watch for this development!

You can read Richard Louv’s column describing his visit here.

Click thumbnails to enlarge photos.

Photo Descriptions:
1. Eddie and James Burgess and Richard Louv on the Myakka tower
2. Richard and Kathy Louv on walkway bridge
3. Meg Lowman and Richard Louv on the treetop bridge