Trees are made of human breath

Outside my office window, two skilled workers complete a hard and dirty job.

They’re cutting the felled trunk of a tree into small enough pieces to be thrown into the back of a truck with the rest of the chipped remains.

• Cris Brack
• The Conversation

I know that this act was ultimately for my own safety.

I, like tens of thousands of others over the past 50 years, regularly walked beneath the canopy of that tree.

But recently it was concluded by people, better trained than I, that there was too much decay and the risk to our safety was too great.

I know that tree had to go – it was too close to a major path and there was no alternative. But as the last of the chips were swept up, I felt we had lost a…

Isn’t that what trees are: air, water and history? With a bit of sun, a…

• Trees are made…