The relationship between trees and rituals and symbols is well described in anthropology, from classics like Turner’s milk tree in The Forest of Symbolsto more recent explorations by Rival, Brosse, and others inThe Social Life of Trees.Trees often appear in life cycle rituals or are used as kinship models, and are frequently seen deployed as images of continuity and reproduction as contrasted to images of change and destruction. Current research in fields of horticultural therapy, natural resources management, city and regional planning, and social‐ecological system resilience also acknowledge both biophysical and cultural aspects to trees in urban contexts. Historically trees have held special symbolic significance to residents of New Orleans, contributing to identity and sense of place. This paper includes observations of how in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, trees as symbols have been observed to take on additional and more explicit meanings related to determination to recover from the disaster and demonstrate community resilience. Further, the paper describes the author’s observation of a kind of ritualizationof the act of planting trees, which may result in deepening individual and community commitment to demonstrating and enhancing New Orleans’s resilience.

1. American Anthropological Association Annual Meeting:
Philadelphia, PA USA
Dec 2009
THE SOCIAL LIFE OF TREES:
COMMUNITY RESILIENCE, COLLECTIVE
ACTION AND ENVIRONMENTAL
BEHAVIOR
Photo by David Kozlowski

2. The Social Life of Trees: Community
Resilience, Collective Action, and
Environmental Behavior
(Reviewed by Anthropology and Environment Section)
Chair: Keith G. Tidball
8:00‐ 8:05 Introductions
8:05‐ 8:30 Rodolfo Tello
8:30‐ 8:45 discussion
8:45‐ 9:10 Keith G. Tidball
9:10‐ 9:25 discussion
9:25‐ 9:45 General discussion, concluding remarks

3. Rival, Laura. 1998. The Social Life of Trees: Anthropological Perspectives on Tree Symbolism.
Berg Publishers: Oxford.

4. Trees as Social Objects in
Anthropology
“From its beginnings , anthropology has
concerned itself as much with the ways in
which natural processes are conceptualized
and the natural world classified, as with the
ways in which human societies interact with
their natural environments and use natural
resources.”
Laura Rival‐ The Social Life of Trees

5. Trees and Rebirth:
Resilience, Ritual and Symbol in Community‐
based Urban Reforestation Recovery Efforts in
Post‐Katrina New Orleans
Keith G. Tidball
Cornell University
Department of Natural Resources
American Anthropological Association Annual Meeting:
Philadelphia, PA USA
Dec 2009
Session: THE SOCIAL LIFE OF TREES: COMMUNITY RESILIENCE, COLLECTIVE ACTION
AND ENVIRONMENTAL BEHAVIOR
“Scrap House” art installation by Sally Heller. Convention Center, NOLA.
Photo: Arts Council of New Orleans

6. Abstract
The relationship between trees and rituals and symbols is well described in
anthropology, from classics like Turner’s milk tree in The Forest of Symbols
to more recent explorations by Rival, Brosse, and others in The Social Life
of Trees. Trees often appear in life cycle rituals or are used as kinship
models, and are frequently seen deployed as images of continuity and
reproduction as contrasted to images of change and destruction. Current
research in fields of horticultural therapy, natural resources management,
city and regional planning, and social‐ecological system resilience also
acknowledge both biophysical and cultural aspects to trees in urban
contexts. Historically trees have held special symbolic significance to
residents of New Orleans, contributing to identity and sense of place. This
paper includes observations of how in the wake of Hurricane Katrina,
trees as symbols have been observed to take on additional and more
explicit meanings related to determination to recover from the disaster
and demonstrate community resilience. Further, the paper describes the
author’s observation of a kind of ritualization of the act of planting trees,
which may result in deepening individual and community commitment to
demonstrating and enhancing New Orleans’s resilience.

8. Tree Symbolism in Anthropology
“…Trees are used symbolically to
make concrete and material the
abstract notion of life [and are]
… ideal supports for such
symbolic purpose precisely
because their status as living
organisms is ambiguous.”
Laura Rival‐ The Social Life of Trees

9. “GLOBAL HYPOTHESIS”
In urban post‐disaster and post‐conflict contexts, community –based
natural resources management, such as “greening” or “urban
community forestry,” a.) confers resilience across multiple scales before
a catastrophic event, and b.) demonstrates resilience and reactivates
recovery feedbacks and virtuous cycles after a catastrophic event.
CASE SPECIFIC HYPOTHESES
1. Trees shaped resilience before and following disaster in New Orleans.
2. The active engagement of citizens with trees played/plays a crucial,
yet often unrecognized, role across multiple scales in recovery and
resilience in Post‐Katrina New Orleans.

10. Resilience is…
• Explanations for the source and role of
change in adaptive systems, particularly
the kinds of change that are transforming.
• Focused on social‐ecological systems ‐
linked systems of people and nature.
• Found at multiple scales, from the scale
of a farm or village, through communities,
regions, and nations to the globe.
Resilience ‐ the ability to absorb disturbances, to be changed and then to re‐organize
and still have the same identity. It includes the ability to learn from the disturbance.
Walker, B., C. S. Holling, S. R. Carpenter, and A. Kinzig. 2004. Resilience, adaptability and transformability in social–ecological systems. Ecology and Society 9(2): 5. [online] URL:
http://www.ecologyandsociety.org/vol9/iss2/art5

11. Methods

12. Trees Shaped Resilience before and
after Katrina
Before After
• Ecosystem service provision • Actionable restoration target
– cooling • Symbol of regeneration,
– storm water mgmt rebirth, resilience
– air quality
• Source of memory and
– aesthetic & recreational
memorialization
values
• Sense of place • Basis for emergence of a
Community of Practice
– Well‐being
– Social capital • Catalyst for re‐initiation of
– Links to SES resilience virtuous cycles in social‐
ecological system

13. Actionable Restoration Target
Parkway Partners "ReLeaf New Orleans" Post‐Katrina Trees Planted,
by Site Type ( +6k through Mar 2009)
Street to Sidewalk
22% Schoolyards and Parks
37%
Neutral Ground Trees
7%
Home Landscapes (purchased)
10%
Native Saplings (give‐aways)
24%
“I have taken trees and so many other things for granted before the storm;
I guess you don’t appreciate what you have until it is gone. Planting trees
now will give future generations an environment they can appreciate and
makes me feel like a part of something way bigger than myself (Parkway
Partners “Tree Trooper” volunteer, May 19, 2009).”

14. Symbol of Re‐birth

15. On Tennessee Street, only trees
remained after the storm.
Residents now look to the trees as
a symbol of their neighborhood’s
endurance, and their street bustles
with new construction. In fact,
Tennessee offers a veritable
textbook example of construction
methodology.
American Apartment Owners Association Newsletter
http://www.american‐apartment‐owners‐
association.org/blog/2009/02/02/three‐years‐after‐
katrina‐brad‐pitt‐still‐rallies‐in‐new‐orleans/
http://www.chicagotribune.com/travel/chi‐new‐orleans‐0525_r_lmvmay25,0,4086594,full.story

16. Trees Shaped Resilience before and
after Katrina
Before After
• Ecosystem service provision Actionable restoration target
– cooling Symbol of regeneration,
– storm water mgmt rebirth, resilience
– air quality
• Source of memory and
– aesthetic & recreational
memorialization
values
• Sense of place • Basis for emergence of a
Community of Practice
– Well‐being
– Social capital • Catalyst for re‐initiation of
– Links to SES resilience virtuous cycles in social‐
ecological system

17. Source of Memory & Memorialization
The 2002 "Restore the Oaks" art installation featured
30 local artists, each creating an original mural on the
outer freeway columns to memorialize the live oak
trees that once stood on either side of Claiborne
Avenue.
I am going to go further back (than Katrina)…We lost
something…we had these big majestic oaks that city planning
and everyone else saw fit to uproot. Along with those oaks we
had inherited businesses. So that’s the legacy that’s lost. So,
these trees (we are planting) might be a reminder of what we
lost, so that we don’t ever forget it and don’t let that happen to
us again, as well as kind of light a fire under us to ensure that we
won’t have to worry about a legacy being lost (due to Katrina)
(Treme community member and tree planter, January 19 2009).

18. Community of Practice
A community of practice defines itself along
three dimensions.
What it is about – its joint enterprise as
understood and continually renegotiated by its
members.
How it functions ‐ mutual engagement that
bind members together into a social entity.
What capability it has produced – the shared
repertoire of communal resources that
members have developed over time.
Communities of practice can be seen as self‐
organizing systems and have many of the
benefits and characteristics of associational life
such as the generation of what Robert Putnam
and others have discussed as social capital.
Wenger, E. (1998). Communities of practice: Learning, meaning and identity. Cambridge, Cambridge University Press.
Wenger, E. (1998). "Communities of Practice: Learning as a Social System." Systems Thinker , June.
Smith, M. K. (2003, 2009) 'Communities of practice', The Encyclopedia of Informal Education,
www.infed.org/biblio/communities_of_practice.htm.
Putnam, Robert D. (2000). Bowling Alone: The Collapse and Revival of American Community. New York: Simon & Schuster.

19. Trees Shaped Resilience before and
after Katrina
Before After
• Ecosystem service provision Actionable restoration target
– cooling Symbol of regeneration,
– storm water mgmt rebirth, resilience
– air quality
Source of memory and
– aesthetic & recreational
memorialization
values
• Sense of place Basis for emergence of a
Community of Practice
– Well‐being
– Social capital • Catalyst for re‐initiation of
– Links to SES resilience virtuous cycles in social‐
ecological system

20. Virtuous v Vicious Cycles

21. Memorial tree examples are familiar…
Scythe Tree, Waterloo, NY Survivor tree Nagasaki
From a postcard Photo by: Meghan Deutscher

22. Memorial tree examples are familiar…
The Oklahoma City bombing “Survivor Tree”
Image from http://www.panoramio.com/photo/14637493

23. Memorial tree examples are familiar…
The New York City 9/11 “Survivor Tree”
2001 Spring 2009
Michael Browne/Parks Department David W. Dunlap/The New York Times

24. Memorial tree examples are familiar…
Saint Paul’s Chapel, NYC

25. Tree memorials are “Living Memorials…
Because of the
overwhelming
desire to honor
and memorialize
the tragic losses
that occurred on
September 11,
2001 (9‐11) the
United States
Congress asked
the USDA Forest
Service to create
the Living
Memorials
Project (LMP).
See USDA Forest Service Living Memorials Project www.livingmemorialsproject.net
This initiative invokes the resonating power of trees to bring people
together and create lasting, living memorials to the victims of terrorism,
their families, communities, and the nation.

26. Living Memorials connect people
"This tree, a gift from the People of
Oklahoma City, is the offspring of the
Survivor Tree which remained standing
in the wake of the bombing of the
Alfred P. Murrah Building on April 19,
1995. It is planted here among the
trees that survived the September 11,
2001 attacks upon the World Trade
Center to symbolize our common
bond, resiliency and renewal. May it
forever represent hope and strength to
endure. World Trade Center Survivors‘
Network, September 10, 2006“

27. In conclusion

28. Thank you CFERP and NOLA Partners
Thanks also to my Cornell colleagues: Marianne Krasny,
Mark Bain, Max Pfeffer, and Richard Stedman

31. Tree Troopers 2009

32. Population by race/ethnicity (2000‐2007)
Source: Greater New Orleans Community Data Center (www.gnocdc.org) analysis of US Census Bureau data from Census 2000 and American Community Survey 2007

33. For More…
www.resilientgreen.org