A tiny town in Quebec has become the first municipality in North America to officially recognize trees as living beings with a fundamental set of rights.
Terrasse-Vaudreuil, a town of about 2,000 people just west of Montreal, Canada, adopted a resolution on June 9, 2026, to sign the Universal Declaration of Tree Rights.
This declaration was launched in 2018 in response to worldwide deforestation and the perception of trees as nothing more than objects and a resource to be extracted by humans.
Its stated goal is to "recognize the Tree as a sentient living being, a source of Life, and a common good of humanity."
American activist Julia Butterfly Hill will be so happy to hear it as will Luna the Tree
A 2019 petition in support of the declaration had garnered just shy of 88,000 signatures, and Terrasse-Vaudreuil's adoption of its principles marks the first public entity in North America to sign on as well.
The town's Mayor Michel Bourdeau said in a press release translated from French: "By adopting this resolution, Terrasse-Vaudreuil reaffirms its commitment to building a sustainable future.
"This recognition will be accompanied by concrete programs aimed at protecting our tree canopy, planting trees, and raising public awareness of their importance."
Mayor Bourdeau told Canadian outlet CBC that "our biggest ally is the trees" when it comes to fighting climate change.
The town's mayor said he is committed to protecting the canopy, raising awareness of the importance of trees, and planting more of them.
The Universal Declaration of Tree Rights was created in response to worldwide deforestation.
Town adopts tree rights principles
Terrasse-Vaudreuil has promised to abide by the three fundamental principles of the Universal Declaration of Tree Rights.
The first principle states: "The Tree, a sentient living being and source of Life, is a common good of humanity."
The second principle states: "Life on Earth depends upon the existence of the Tree."
The third states: "Human beings, endowed with reason and conscience, must act with the Tree in a spirit of fraternity and solidarity."
According to the town's press release, adopting the resolution was a citizen-led initiative inspired by the film Des arbres et des arts ("Trees and the Arts"), by Quebec filmmaker André Desrochers.
The film argues that trees are living beings that communicate with each other through [VOCs and] underground fungal networks that interact symbiotically with roots.
The first article of the Universal Declaration of Tree Rights, which claims trees are "sentient," makes a similar argument, though it also emphasizes a distinction between the rights of trees and those of humans.
"The recognition of Tree Rights must not automatically be confused with the attribution of legal personhood," the declaration states.
"In certain legal systems, legal personhood may constitute one mechanism for protecting a natural entity. It is, however, neither a necessary foundation nor the exclusive objective of the Universal Declaration of Tree Rights."
The Universal Declaration of Tree Rights aims to change the perception of trees as simply a resource to be extracted by humans.
The town adopted the resolution after being inspired by a film that argues trees communicate through fungal networks [called mycelia] connected by roots.
The main idea behind recognizing trees as sentient beings is to stop people from viewing the plants "solely as an object, property, raw material or resource available exclusively for human benefit," according to the declaration.
Other natural bodies have been granted similar legal protections in North America on occasion. Quebec’s Magpie River was given legal personhood in 2021 by the Innu Council of Ekuanitshit and the regional municipal council of Minganie (Duck River).
The protection granted the river nine rights, including freedom from pollution, the right to evolve naturally and a mandate to retain its natural biodiversity.
Lake Erie in Ohio was temporarily granted legal personhood similar to that of an individual or corporation through the 2019 Lake Erie Bill of Rights, but a federal judge ruled the measure unconstitutional in 2020.
The Daily Mail has reached out to Bourdeau, the mayor of Terrasse-Vaudreuil, for comment. More
The intentions and prayers for the Earth were embedded here then covered with gold leaf.
Altadena Fire Mural Project, 2026, with golden prayers and us circled in red (Ekaterina Sky)
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Channeled inspiration for artful beauty
Six months after the Los Angeles fires, we built an art wall in Altadena. There were not many walls left to paint on, so we built one on the empty lot where the vegan cafe Oh Happy Days used to be.
Over four days the foothill neighborhood came and wrote their prayers and intentions to be sealed into the golden sphere at the center of the mural, some in English, some in Spanish, some in many other languages. One was a single name. One asked for the soil to become clean again. Then we sealed every one of those prayers under gold leaf.
A gold embedded Prayer for the Earth
They are still under there, and nobody can read them.
On the final Sunday of our public art project, a woman came over to tell me about her friend: Her friend had lost her home in the Eaton Fire and had not smiled once in the six months since.
Her friend was at the wall right then, with a glistening brush in her hand. She was smiling. She had just said, “I think I should start making art again.”
I did not go over to her. That moment was hers.
I thought, “She has every fact about what she lost. The facts do nothing for her. A wall, a brush, and her neighbors gave her somewhere to put it, and she picked the brush back up.” That is what I've been trying to say for 20 years! To put it plainly:
“Data hands us the truth.
Beauty is what lets us carry it.”
Knowing is not the hard part. Holding it is. Beauty is what makes the weight bearable enough to keep holding and acting on.
Vote for this talk at SXSW 2027
Save the forest, save the animals
I want to argue for that position in front of a room full of people who build things rather than a room of those who already agree with me. So I proposed a talk at South by Southwest (SXSW) in Austin, Texas, next March (2027) I am calling, “Why Beauty Moves Us When Data Doesn’t.”
DESCRIPTION: Two decades of painting murals converges on one idea: Shared beauty can hold what words cannot yet reach, a shift that decides what people go on to protect.
After the 2025 Eaton Fire in Altadena, survivors gathered at a community mural to write their intentions and prayers into the paint. A woman who had not smiled since losing her home picked up a brush. This talk lays out the method behind the shift and how to build it into a strategy that moves people.
SESSION TAKEAWAYS:
Art show LA Climate Week '26
Why aesthetic experience shifts emotional orientation faster than data or logical arguments, and what that means for building a movement or campaign.
A repeatable method for designing beauty and participation into engagement strategy, instead of attaching them as decoration afterward.
Real, working examples, a reforestation partnership, a global soil movement, a wildfire recovery mural, proof the method produces outcomes. More
It is about how that Sunday afternoon of the art project actually worked.
Read it HERE. It is accompanied on the page by a two-minute film of me speaking at the UN Climate Summit in Belém, Brazil.
Send me your stories!
REQUEST: If a moment like that has ever happened to you, I would love to hear it. I am collecting them to inspire others.
NOTE: While we agree the environment and climate need saving, we oppose the nonsense capitalist pseudo-solutions that make it obvious that the reason "climate change" is promoted is to sneak in more of the same: Pollution credits, blaming consumers while exempting the corporations that are profiting from polluting, incentivizing bad (biased) science that finds results its looking for (the promote the mainstream narrative) and dismissing results that contradict it. Stop polluters -- national and multinational actors actively promoting toxins (pesticides), deforestation, unsustainable practices...
Democracy Now! speaks with Indigenous leaders at U.N. climate summit in Belém for climate negotiations, in greater numbers than ever before, taking center stage at COP30.
These Indigenous leaders are calling “to end the persecution of our land defenders,” says Diana Chávez, member of the Pastaza Kichwa Nation, with Pakkiru, an Indigenous organization based in Ecuador’s Amazon. “We’re fighting to keep our territories.”
This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form.
HOST AMY GOODMAN: This is Democracy Now!, The War and Peace Report. I’m Amy Goodman. We’re broadcasting from Belém, Brazil, the gateway to the Amazon, where the U.N. climate summit is taking place.
“The answer is us.” That was the slogan as hundreds of Indigenous leaders from the Amazon and across the region gathered in the streets of Belém Monday (Nov. 17) outside the U.N. climate summit venue, where delegates from over 190 countries continue negotiations. These are some of the voices from the streets of Belém.
INDIGENOUS LEADER 1: [Translated] We are here fighting for our land, for our wildlife, for our birds that are facing extinction. We are here at this COP for results. We ask that Brazilian President Lula come and demarcate the land so that the illegal miners don’t enter our land and our river.
INDIGENOUS LEADER 2: [Translated] We are here claiming our rights, defending our forests, defending our animals, where we have survived all these years. We need to be recognized by the world as great guardians of the forest.
AMY GOODMAN: As Indigenous protests continue here in Belém, the government of Brazil has announced the creation of 10 new Indigenous territories in response to demands from protesters. There are more than 900 Indigenous delegates accredited here at [COP30], the highest number at any U.N. climate summit.
We’re joined now by Diana Chávez. She is a member of the Pastaza Kichwa Nation, head of international affairs and organizations for Pakkiru, which is based in Ecuador’s Amazon, arrived in Belém three weeks ago. Can you talk about where you’re from in Ecuador? More
(FOX 11 Los Angeles) Possible flooding, mudslide concerns as storm moves into Southern California on Oct. 13, 2025: Crews are taking extra safety measures as strong storm systems move into parts of Los Angeles and Ventura counties.
(KTLA 5) An early season storm is expected to move through Southern California late Monday through Tuesday, prompting flash flood watches for recent burn scars, according to the National Weather Service. Kai Goldberg reports on Oct. 12, 2025.
Indian summer 2025 ends with massive storm over the burn scars of Los Angeles: Weather.com is reporting: "Rain showers early will evolve into a more steady rain overnight. Potential for heavy rainfall. Low around 55F. Winds SSE at 10 to 20 mph. Chance of rain 100%. Rainfall may reach one inch." Source
There is an organization that is currently doing something to save the remaining trees of Altadena, more than half of which were wiped out by the Eaton Fire. They are Amigos de los Rios ("Friends of the Rivers," referring to the Emerald Necklace).
ADLR offers free watering assistance for Altadena homeowners:
In the wake of the Eaton Fires, our local trees need our help. We’re offering watering assistance for Altadena’s homeowners to protect and preserve our community canopy.
By signing up, those in need give permission for ADLR's trained team to visit a property and water its trees.
Amigos de los Rios is an Altadena-based 501c3 urban greening non-profit that has served the community since 2003.
Its office was destroyed in the Eaton Fire and many of our staff have been impacted by fire damage and loss, leading to a great deal of concern about the tremendous loss of trees thoughout this Los Angeles foothill community.
It is critical to protect the remaining trees in Altadena by watering them over the hot Indian summer months to help them survive.
As such ADLR has started a program to help all families provide water to surviving trees.
ADLR is working hard to raise grant funds for this endeavor. Support ADLR by donating to this effort or volunteering.
Amigos de los Rios is working to create the Emerald Necklace: a natural infrastructure network of green spaces, green schools, parks, and trails throughout under-served communities in the Los Angeles Basin. ADLR is connecting the mountains to the sea, helping to provide equitable access to nature, and protecting our environment and urban communities from the threats of climate change. More
Effort to save Altadena’s remaining trees after Eaton Fire
Highlighted by NBCLA, California Community Foundation, ABC7, and Pasadena Star News, after the devastating Eaton Fire, local groups are leading an urgent effort to save Altadena’s remaining trees. More
Creating an Emerald Necklace of parks in the Los Angeles Basin
with support from California Climate Investments funding through the California Natural Resources Agency’s Urban Greening Program, Amigos de los Rios expanded the green schoolyard project at Mary Jackson. Multilingual More
What's better the vertical or Horizontal Forest? Hmm, seems pretty clear (cut)
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Bhumi Devi: Nature Spirit
World Nature Conservation Day is an annual event held on July 28th. This day stresses the need for preserving a healthy environment and natural resources to maintain a stable and healthy society. Saving plants and animals that face the threat of extinction is one of the primary goals of World Nature Conservation Day. Also, the celebrations emphasize keeping the various components of nature such as flora, fauna, energy resources, soil, water, and air intact. In addition, World Nature Conservation Day underlines the need for preserving the environment for future generations. We are therefore tasked with the need to leave a healthy planet for those coming after us to enjoy. More: nationaltoday.com/world-nature-conservation-day/
One of the sexy readers today just happened to be one of next month's features, Joseph Nicks, a man after the biological and whimsical, the terrestrial and environmental.*
He is currently working on a dictionary of Nickisms, his invented contributions to the English lexicon, like the term chronicide.**
Ron Koertge
Life is but a poem...or novel. (Ron Koertge)
(Poetry Foundation) South Pasadena Poet Laureate Ron Koertge, former PCC professor and current bestselling YA author, then schooled us all on how to present life in the Midwest roundabout the Fifties.
() Poet and young-adult novelist Ron Koertge grew up in rural Olney, Illinois, and received a BA from the University of Illinois and an MA from the University of Arizona.
Is no topic verboten in poetry?
Comfortable in both free verse and received form, Koertge writes poetry marked by irreverent yet compassionate humor and a range of personas and voices. He has published numerous collections of poetry. His novels and novels-in-verse for young readers include the popular Stoner & Spaz.
Koertge’s honors include a fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts, a California Arts Council grant, and inclusion in numerous anthologies such as Best American Poetry, Poetry 180, and Ted Kooser’s “American Life in Poetry” column.
Koertge’s young-adult fiction has won awards from the American Library Association and PEN America. For many years, Koertge taught in the MFA in Writing for Children & Young Adults program at Hamline University in St. Paul, Minnesota. He lives with his wife in South Pasadena, California. More: Poetry Foundation
In the crowd
Other readers were in the house: GT Foster was reading from Warped by War his new collection of poems about being in Thailand during the US War on Vietnam (and Cambodia and Laos), derived from his novel The Boys Are Not Refined (Butt Naked Press). Helena and other Quakers, Toti O'Brien, Barbs Bagwell, and British poet Martin Jago.
Perhaps the highlight of the night was when Mandy Kahn hit below the belt and delivered an exquisite work of poetic art she dubbed "Poo." The audience thought they might have heard "Pooh." But no. It was poo. It was the most provocative of topics covered due not to its candor but its seriousness. To mimic it as to suggest what it was like would be difficult butt not impossible:
(Poetry Foundation) ...in true LA form, enthusiastically live-tweeted by audience member Jenna Elfman, Mandy Kahn has been developing more ideas for poetry installations — an active syllable conservationist; she's now dubbed them "Kahnstallations." She says:
Mandy Kahn, live at the Getty Museum, LA
I’ve been thinking a lot about how to inject some energy into the poetry reading format. Slam poets have found a way to make their readings extremely appealing to wide audiences, as have the spoken word poets, and the avant poetry world seems to be doing lots of format experimentation, too. But I’d like to see mainstream poets find that same wider audience — that audience of fans who aren’t writers themselves. So I’m experimenting. Tonight I’ll be trying out four installations, and at the end of the night I’ll pass out comment cards so audience members can let me know which installations worked best for them. And I’ll keep writing new installations — keep honing — until I find a few that audiences seem to respond to. More
What is "slam" poetry?
SLAM: (Youth Speaks) "Somewhere in America" by Los Angeles Team
Poetry slam is a competitive art event in which poets perform spoken word poetry before a live audience and a panel of judges.
"Do You Have Any Advice For Those of Us Just Starting Out?"
By Ron Koertge
Featured poet Ron Koertge, MFA
Give up sitting dutifully at your desk. Leave
your house or apartment. Go out into the world.
It's all right to carry a notebook but a cheap
one is best, with pages the color of weak tea
and on the front a kitten or a space ship.
Avoid any enclosed space where more than
three people are wearing turtlenecks. Beware
any snow-covered chalet with deer tracks
across the muffled tennis courts.
Not surprisingly, libraries are a good place to write.
And the perfect place in a library is near an aisle
where a child a year or two old is playing as his
mother browses the ranks of the dead.
Often he will pull books from the bottom shelf.
The title, the author's name, the brooding photo
on the flap mean nothing. Red book on black, gray
book on brown, he builds a tower. And the higher
it gets, the wider he grins.
You who asked for advice, listen: When the tower
falls, be like that child. Laugh so loud everybody
The hominid hand. Its prehensile qualities (due largely to that remarkable opposable thumb) are legendary. It is perhaps the only anatomically advantageous structure this animal possesses. That oft-touted capacious cerebrum seems as often as not to allow itself to swell with a meaningless steam that marginalizes whatever intellectual potential it had in the first place. And with that pushed-in rostrum tucked up under the cranium and bent into an L-shaped labiolingual-laryngeal mess that imparts to this animal the power of speech, well that ability seems rarely to be put to good use.
No, it is the manus hominis that has allowed this species to be so constructive. Of course, as with those other two aforementioned structures, it can be just as adept at wielding weapons as it can tools. And when it is clenched into a fist, it is pretty much useless for anything other than fucking things up.
Though some of them may be infused with a certain degree of anger, none of the poems in this book, for example, could have been written had these fists not managed to come occasionally unclenched. More
*Killing a Homo (as in a Homo sapiens or "Man thinking") is homicide so, naturally, killing time is Chronicide (a Nickism by Joseph Nicks).
Ron Koertge, Mandy Kahn, Joseph Nicks, Steve McQueen (Papillion, 1973); all uncredited poetry by Dhr. Seven, Ananda (Dharma Buddhist Meditation) (ed.), Wisdom Quarterly
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