TREE Foundation Executive Director Meg Lowman, Mission Green Science Advisory Member Peter Raven, and TREE Foundation Research Associates Dr. Anthony Ambrose and Wendy Baxter, are all featured in a special issue of the scientific journal Plants, People, Planet, from New Phytologist Foundation. This special issue was published at the end of 2020 and was an outcome from a National Geographic Society “World of Plants” symposium which was convened in Washington, D.C., in 2019.
Some of the speakers at the symposium — including Meg and Mr. Raven, agreed to submit a manuscript to the journal based on their talk. Their manuscript was then peer-reviewed and ultimately published in this special issue.
TREE’s research associates were shown on the cover of the journal with this caption:
“Two arbornauts demonstrate the use of single rope techniques to ascend a redwood tree to access the forest canopy. Forest canopies are home to an estimated 50% of terrestrial biodiversity, but remain relatively unexplored. Please see Margaret Lowman’s article ‘Life in the treetops—An overview of forest canopy science and its future directions‘ in this issue, which summarizes the history of treetop exploration and outlines how canopy research could inspire a renaissance in botany by engaging the public about the importance of trees, especially tropical forests and their biodiversity.”
Mr. Raven’s chairmanship at the event was evidenced in the closing words of his powerful talk and essay “Plants Make Our Existence Possible”:
“Everything about our situation now calls for collaboration, with the development and pursuit of appropriate collective goals, ultimately demanding recognition by our governments of the madness of maintaining their selfishness in the face of the disasters we are facing together. Anything less would not result is saving the biological richness with which our world has been endowed, and indeed would not be worthy of us all.”