Taking the Long View on Trees
A Trees Atlanta environmentalist has some favorite trees. Who would have guessed?
Did you do anything beautiful today? No?
Maybe you should consider planting a tree. That’s a piece of advice you may get during a chat with Starr Whitten, a young Atlanta-area environmentalist. Whitten, 27, is education manager for Trees Atlanta, and he’s quite enthusiastic about tree planting. Whitten is a young man, but if you chat with him awhile as I did recently, you’ll find his words are seasoned with age-old wisdom.
Whitten takes the long view. Talking about planting trees, he said:
“It’s a beautiful thing to plant a tree. We are consciously doing something that we won’t reap the full benefits of in our lifetime. That sapling we put in the ground will outlive us. It will outlive our children. It may even outlive our children’s children and their children’s children.” -Whitten.
I met Whitten in March during a Science Festival of Atlanta event at the Trees Atlanta headquarters, the amazing Kendeda building.1 He was running a bioblitz for tree species along the Westside Trail of the Atlanta Beltline, and I enjoyed getting out my iNaturalist app and learning along with everyone else that sunny afternoon.
Whitten was eager to answer questions and greet families to show them how to document trees and add their images to a special iNaturaliast project page he’d developed for the activity. I was impressed by him, and followed up later with a phone interview. It was easy to remember his name, at least his first name.
Whitten explained: “Starr is a family name, a surname. When I was in grade school having Starr as my first name wasn’t so fun because kids can be cruel. But now, it’s fantastic. People seem to easily remember me.”
What sparked your passion for the natural world?
“I don’t have a single spark moment. I was born into a spark; it was sort of a natural process. Both of my parents are non-traditional educators, my dad is a school media specialist, and my mom teaches special education. We are an incredibly outdoorsy family.
I don’t remember a time when we were not out canoeing, camping or doing something like that. I was born knowing the proper way to lift a rock to look underneath it for snakes. I think I was born with an innate interest and love of everything I can find outside. As I result, now I’m happy to share my passion with others. I have a sister who is in grad school getting her master’s in theatre education and much of her work focuses on nature.”
What’s your educational and early work background?
“I studied environmental science at the University of North Georgia-Gainesville. Toward the end of my degree program there, I took a break from school because I wanted to try a solo hike on the Appalachian Trail. I worked in Colorado for a while in 2016 and 17, then I started the hike but only made it about 850 miles before I got a calf injury. I discovered my feet aren't good for long distance.”
Were you there long enough to get a trail name?
“Yes. I was called ‘The Professor.’ I got that name because I wouldn't shut up about the water quality, the salamanders, the native plants and everything else I saw along the way.”
What came next?
“I haven’t exactly gone back to finishing the last credits I need for my degree. After the AT, I applied for and got an entry level environmental education job with a science camp in Decatur. I loved that because I learned a lot about how to teach in a fun and engaging way. We focused on natural processes and teaching how all the individual parts of an ecosystem act together.”
Lucky kids, huh?
“Yes, the camps were great---full of field trips--and I loved all the connections we could show the kids, such as how plants in a riparian zone affect the water quality. Everything is connected.”
Now you are with Trees Atlanta. How is that going?
“Yes, I was seeking more personal grown and found out about this job in 2022. As an education manager for youth, I create and facilitate environmental education programs, run and manage camp programs and scout programs.
Also, we do in-school presentations and projects. I have a small but mighty team around me backed by truly amazing people.”
What do you like best about trees?
“There are so many things to like! Here are some: their beauty, mitigation of urban heat, oxygen production, soil aeration, and food production for native species. Sometimes I wax overly-poetic, but I love that trees are truly ancient things. Certain species of oak trees are 500 to 700 years old! Eastern hemlocks I’ve heard can be 600-800 years old!
Trees drastically outlive us. In our current ego-soaked atmosphere, where people are after instant gratification, trees are about focusing on the future. You may not see the full benefit of a tree in your lifetime, but still, plant a tree. Dig a bowl-shaped hole. Plop a root ball in it. It is a pretty profound thing to do. We benefit, animals benefit, the soil benefits, the water benefits, even the air benefits!”
What concerns you about the future?
“The effects of anthropogenic climate change, of course. Global temperatures are increasing due to human activities, and the fallout means monstruous shifts in local and global weather patterns. It’s dry where it’s supposed to be wet, and it’s wet where it's supposed to be dry. Shorelines are shifting, species are dying. It can be a scary time if I let myself think about it for too long.”
Talk a little more about how you think of interconnectedness.
“There is a growing disconnect between homo sapiens and the natural world. Advancements in technology and increased globalization have had positive effects but it also has some unintended and negative consequences, as well.
We view ourselves as intrinsically separated from the world around us. Outside is out, and inside is in. In reality, we are all a part of this gigantic, massive, interconnected web of interactions that connects the entire world.”
What gives you hope?
“I think the Earth is incredibly resilient, and the critters that live here (including us) are incredibly resilient as well. On a good day at work, I get to see these light bulb connections happen in people’s minds, where they become excited and passionate about something they were unaware of before. That passion is the first step towards enacting change. I see these ignition moments happen in the minds and eyes of young people every day.
It is heartening and fills me with hope. We are starting to realize that our actions have consequences, both positive and negative. Organizations like Trees Atlanta are doing a fantastic job activating communities to enact some real, quantitative, measurable change.”
Whitten recommendations for learning:
These books and others by naturalist Edward Abby: The Monkey Wrench Gang, Down the River, Desert Solitaire. (“Principles from these books can be applied anywhere.”)
Mushrooms of the Southeast, by Steven Stephenson. (“I love mycology. This book may get you to love it too!”)
Clear Day Thunder, a documentary about the American Chestnut blight.
Whitten’s three favorite trees and why:
Aspen: “Walking into an aspen grove is like walking into a sea of silver and gold.”
Eastern hemlock: “They are ancient and beautiful. They need protecting because of an infestation by a non-native insect, the woolly adelgid. Hemlocks are dying at an alarming rate.”
American beech: “Old beech trees truly look ancient, even older than they are actually. Beautiful smooth bark.”
The Trees Atlanta Kendeda building, just completed in 2023, is beautiful and “green” in so many ways. Planted with 3,000 native plants and 200 trees around it, the building connects inside and outside with large “garage door” windows that can be lifted and opened. If you live in the Atlanta area, you should go check it out or plan to take a class in the airy learning space. The day I visited, I was slightly obsessed with the top-of-the-door air blowers that work to keep insects out when someone goes in or out of the building.
What an amazing guy and his journey is just beginning. I’ve always loved trees and now I’d like to go visit the new building. We are blessed to live in Atlanta w/ so many trees. Is there a program in place to share the planting of trees in other cities that need trees?
🌲 Thanks for sharing the knowledge around trees. I truly believe we are all connected. ❤️
My good friend, Vicki M., said it well. I'd love to see the new building and would love a mushroom walk! Chantrelles pop up here in our lovely wooded neighborhood! We've even foraged for risotto featuring chantrelles! Lovre this post, Pamela. Love our trees!