Mr. Charlie and the Tree That Owns Itself
In Athens, Georgia, USA, just down the hill from the main entrance to the University of Georgia…
In a quiet residential neighbourhood…
Stands The Tree That Owns Itself…
An ancient white oak stood 100 feet tall right here for hundreds of years until it fell in 1942…
The original tree was emancipated by its loving owner…
This is its child, protected as a revered resident of this city…
This is one millionth of what my uncle, Mr. Charlie, planted and dreamed before his bequest was sold by the University of Georgia Foundation…
I’m on a journey to save Mr. Charlies’s trees…
Looking up at this living symbol, I measure how far I and we still need to climb…
Can we have an emancipation proclamation fo our forests?
Can we keep more trees in the ground for our own survival?
This is Mr. Charlie’s story and our story, a feature length documentary coming soon…
Originally published at http://thankyouparis.wordpress.com on September 7, 2022.
