Noticing Nature

Communications intern Tony reflects on learning to prune with Friends of Trees

What I like about pruning is that when you spend time with trees, you develop a deepening of sensory experience that stays with you as you learn to recognize names and patterns in nature. It has a slowing down effect. And when looking at trees individually, you realize that each tree is full of intricate detail that reveals a mini ecosystem world.

Thanks to the Adult Urban Forestry Program, Friends of Trees has given me access to this relationship with living things that I wouldn’t otherwise have. I’m excited to one day share this with my little kids. It’s clear they love—and need—to get dirty and play with living things too. My family lives in a sixth floor apartment. We’ve tried growing things on our balcony, with limited success. We have containers of soil to scoop and dig in, and have discovered a few shade-tolerant flowers that can live up here. My brother gave me a maple tree that lives in a bucket and is leafing out in the April weather.

From six floors up, the human-made city has patterns that, like nature, can have a certain calming effect if you let your mind dilate—just try not to think about goods and services moving in a loop forever! Nature has fractal complexity in abundance, and it is slower. Ants, when observed, move goods and services in a loop forever, too. But those ants are crawling over each other and don’t seem to be taking it personally. The natural world has so much to offer when we take our time with it. You notice the rustle of leaves, the interplay of light and shadow, you touch moss and smell things.

Looking at nature can produce “Soft Fascination,” a term coined by Rachel and Stephen Kaplan, who pioneered the study of how natural environments affect psychology. Soft Fascination describes a kind of observational complexity that invites exploratory, effortless attention and open relaxed awareness. Your mind can wander through details at its own pace, noticing more and more subtlety the longer you look.

For me, pruning with Friends of Trees combines mental relaxation with problem-solving. You get this nice interplay between mental modes. When you prune, the first part is always about taking a step back, relaxing the mind, engaging the senses, and just taking the whole of the tree in. And our pruning and planting events are never about getting as much done as possible. They’re about meaningful connections with trees and with each other.

My kids are still a bit too young to join me at pruning events. For now, they explore nature through our balcony, parks, and a community garden. My four-year-old daughter is intrigued by the idea of pruning, and has requested “pruners that are the right size for kiddos.” Lately, when I pin my nametag on, she asks if I’m going to see “Friends in Trees,” (her term is far too cute for me to correct her yet!). I tell her, “one day soon, I’ll bring you with me.”