Internationally recognized environmental activistJulia Butterfly Hill travels to Pasadena to headline a public fundraiser supporting community efforts to preserve 193 trees slated for destruction and removal by the PUSD (Pasadena Unified School District).
Her appearance comes as the school district's tree-removal plans have drawn widespread public condemnation, concern, legal action, peaceful protests and demonstrations, and extensive regional media coverage.
Despite weeks of advocacy, the school district has not yet committed to permanently preserving any of the remaining trees slated for destruction and removal.
Trees at San Rafael Elementary School, including mature and protected trees, were removed during bird nesting season without city tree permits or on-site biological monitoring.
Pasadena is honored to welcome Julia Butterfly Hill. She is traveling here to support efforts to preserve the trees of the Pasadena Unified School District.
She is an internationally-recognized environmental advocate best known for her historic 738-day treehouse sit to protect an ancient, giant California redwood, an act of peaceful civil disobedience that inspired people around the world.
Join us for an evening hosted by the youth working to protect the PUSD trees.
"California Treeams.") Trees for Jane wants to thank everyone for their support for Trees for
Jane! As of March 2022, if anyone wants to follow Jane Goodall (RIP) on her
journey to save our forests and climate, visit
Jane’s Green Hope
a project of the Jane Goodall Institute.
Celebrate Earth Day and Dr. Jane Goodall’s birthday on April 3rd and all month long throughout April.
Let’s celebrate Earth Day and a woman who for over 60 years inspired and motivated millions of people across the world to live in greater harmony with nature and to take action on behalf of the planet we share with plants and animals.
Compelled by Dr. Goodall’s mission to live sustainably and with vegetarian compassion, we look with new hope for a brighter, greener future.
As she has shared, one of the most resilient and impressive forces on Earth is contained within the seeds of plant life, which can break through walls and always find a way. More: janegoodall.org
He massacred trees: White man arrested in Downtown L.A. chainsaw tree mystery
(KTLA 5) April 23, 2025: A man has been arrested in connection with dozens of city-owned trees in Los Angeles that were cut down with [an electric] chainsaw over the Easter Holiday weekend. The suspect, Samuel Groft, 45, was arrested [on eight counts of] felony vandalism. [His crimes may cost the city more than $300,000 dollars to repair, but will a spend a penny of that on buying seeds to plant many additional trees to install in our concrete jungle?] KTLA's Mary Beth McDade reports. Details: DTLA chainsaw tree massacre suspect in custody
Broadleaf. Evergreen. Conifer. How well do we really know our trees? Now we have a goal for National Arbor Day. Visit the arboretum.org in Los Angeles (by boat, not plane, like Greta Thunberg).
NOTE: National Arbor Day always falls on the last Friday in April, but many states observe Arbor Day on different dates throughout the year based on their best tree planting times, which varies widely. For example:
What one madman did in LA, we can all undo by getting out and helping nature (arborday.org).
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Plant a tree, preferably one native and appropriate to the region.
May we suggest using an acorn to produce an oak? And avoid watering its stem, but rather water around it to encourage it to grow strong roots far and wide.
What better way to celebrate Arbor Day than to plant our very own tree? It's an incredible experience watching a tree grow over the years.
Why did the Buddha love trees so much?
One mark of goodness (Buddhist skillfulness, wholesomeness, unselfishness, selflessness, nongreed, letting go, generosity, loving-kindness, giving, dana, compassion, thoughtfulness) is "planting trees the shade of which we will never sit under" because they take so long to grow. Why should we be unselfish? One good reason might be to look around and realize that we have shade because of the kindness of others (Native Americans, land caretakers, and bhumma-devas or woodland fairies and angelic light beings) who came before us. That should be reason enough. But this reflection may also help: Just as we cannot harm others without simultaneously harming others, we cannot help others without simultaneously helping ourselves. It may not be obvious, but that's just the way it is by a natural regularity we can call karma, the law of receiving back in kind what we put out into the world, not only immediately but also after a long time.
It's an unbelievable feeling knowing that we made it happen. Don't print this article! Deforestation is a huge problem with many implications, and reducing our paper usage is the most immediate way to make a difference.
We can go a step further by seeking out brands with sustainable business practices (not just greenwashing by corporations and the PR firms they hire to sell sell sell), and by adopting strong composting and recycling habits.
Siddhartha awakened with the help of this Bo tree
EDITOR'S NOTE: Let's not just recycle the way they do in Hollywood. Let's precycle the way they have been doing in Berkeley for decades. What's that? It's considering where something is coming from, what waste it is producing by reducing, reusing, and recycling. Pre-cycling is thinking ahead of time, maybe even thinking out for seven generations like the Indigenous peoples of America, the Native American tribes, and the Buddha spoke of doing. The Buddha said that? When asked about benefiting the deceased by the "transfer of merit," the Buddha explained that we have relatives. And if we do something for one who is not in a place able to receive it, it will still benefit our other relations out for seven generations. It's an odd coincidence to mention seven if the two are not related, so either they both knew something or the Buddha's teaching reached the Americas just like American historians like Edward P. Vining (An Inglorious Columbus) and Rick Fields (How the Swans Came to the Lake) have documented happened centuries ago. How can we "transfer" good karma because isn't "karma" one's own doing? Yes, it is, but it can be transferred in this way, according to the Buddha. There are worlds one may be reborn into that provide little to no opportunity for doing good. If one has a deed done on his or her behalf AND one appreciates, approves, applauds, and rejoices on account of that, then that one so doing is producing lots of skillful (good, meritorious) mental karma. And that will be of benefit there in that place. Only some places allow for this transfer to take place, but the Buddha said that our "relatives" extend out for seven generations, and with so many beings involved, it is impossible that we would be without being in just such a place to receive our transferred karma. So it will not go to waste, and who knows? It may be that we find ourselves reborn in such a destination needing help and overflowing with gratitude (like the "grateful dead") when a relative does something good on our behalf.
Take a hike -- the good kind! Hiking is a great escape from the doldrums of everyday life, and it's an activity that's great for people across a wide age range.
Where better to do it than out in nature? "Forest bathing" is a practice of doing it in the buff or at least scantily clad to absorb the dappled sunshine and negative ions as the trees and green environment exhales after breathing in what we exhale. It's an opportune time to be mindful rather than worried all full of discursive thoughts.
Why We Love National Arbor Day
The Buddha, ready to pass away into final nirvana and make an end of all rebirth, walked faraway until he came to twin sal trees, reclined between them, and bid the simulation farewell.
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Natural beauty is one reason. With so much of our population living in big cities, it's easy to lose sight of nature's greatness and splendor. Sniff a frangipani. Inhale the sappy ooze of a pine. Behold a cherry blossom.
Our planet needs love. Despite some disagreement about whether or not global warming is real and the fault of irresponsible corporations and thoughtless consumerism, there's no debating that keeping our planet healthy helps to keep us healthy. We avoid polluting, so let's avoid over-consuming.
There's a lot to love about a holiday that helps make our planet a better place. There's a global movement with over 40 nations having their own version of Arbor Day. Therefore, it's safe to say that this holiday is worldwide.
We've got a lot to be thankful for when it comes to trees, so it's only natural that so many cultures have their own day to celebrate. Source: National Arbor Day
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MyOutdoorLife, April 19, 2025; KTLA 5 News, Los Angeles, April 23; 2025; NationalToday.com, April 25, 2025; Eds., Wisdom Quarterly
The call of the wild, the lure of the quiet, what causes city people to venture into the woods?
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Forests welcome the spring
It must be the first full day of spring because we are honoring the proudest members of Nature, the trees. Since the original towering tree, which mycologist Paul Stamets is sure was a giant mushroom on a primordial earth, trees have been the charismatic megaflora of the world.
Their diversity is stunning, and their size varies from the time they used silica instead of carbon (and left mountain size stumps all over the world) until today when the oldest and largest are on the Island of California, one a bristlecone pine named Methuselah out near US 395 by Bishop on the way to Death Valley, the other a redwood in Northern California they are trying to fence off from tourists. The exact location of each is kept secret but is said to be possible to find with a search.
A Journey Through the World's Oldest Forests(Hunter Robinson) Forests have stood the test of time, witnessing millennia of change, (d)evolution, and human history. Some of the world's oldest forests date back millions -- even hundreds of millions -- of years, preserving an incredible glimpse into Earth's prehistoric past. These ancient woodlands are home to towering trees, rare wildlife, and ecosystems that have remained virtually unchanged for centuries. From the towering redwoods of California to the misty, primeval jungles of Malaysia, here's a journey through the world's oldest forests, where nature tells the story of time itself.
Buddhism is a "forest tradition." It started there with the future Buddha, the Bodhisatta (Prince Siddhattha Gotama or Siddhartha Gautama, soon to become the Buddha or "Awakened One"), under a big sal tree. That is where he was reborn in the womb of Maya, who was on her way to see her parents for the delivery. But it came in a garden grove under a sturdy sal (sala) tree. (Why a sal tree? The lore of the Salabhanjika that might explain that).
Born in a garden grove of trees in Lumbini
That newly reborn child, coming down from the Tusita world to pursue enlightenment, made good on his mission decades later by leaving his palace and life of privilege, taking up yoga and meditation with Yogi Āḷāra Kālāma and Yogi Uddaka Rāmaputta until he set off on his own.
He was followed by a group of Five Ascetics (Kondañña, Assaji, Bhaddiya, Vappa, and Mahānāma), until he left them for a big banyan tree so that he could make his own way alone, which didn't work out but which saved his life thanks to the intercession of a milkmaid named Sujata, who offered the wandering ascetic Siddhartha solid food, mistaking him for the spirit of the tree he was at that time sitting under in the forest.
The Wandering Ascetic Siddhartha, the Buddha
Regaining his strength under Sujata and her servant's care, he abandoned severe asceticism as useless for achieving actual enlightenment and liberation. (They may help in other traditions, but that is because those traditions do not have as stringent a definition as to what constitutes real awakening and freedom). He set off in search of another tree, the now famous Bodhi Tree (Ficus religiosa), the oldest documented tree in the world. Under it Siddhartha strived to enter the meditative absorptions, bring them to perfection of samadhi and then practiced for insight (what Buddhism in the Commentaries came to call vipassana). The combination of calm and insight was the Middle Path of mental purification the Bodhisattva ("Being bent on enlightenment") had been searching for on his quest for enlightenment that had taken nearly seven years.
Ending six years of severe asceticism, his body emaciated appearance led Sujata to believe he was the tree-spirit (bhumi-deva, dryad) who had granted her wish. She thanked him with enough nourishment to cultivate the Middle Way, develop meditative absorption (jhana), and attain enlightenment or bodhi, thereafter becoming known as the "Enlightened One" or the Buddha.
When 45 years of teaching the Middle Way and bringing the Dhamma (knowledge of the path to enlightenment) back into the world, the Buddha relinquished the will to live on. He decided to hike to Kushinagar, where he found twin sal trees to recline into nirvana, closing out an 80-year-long life after countless rebirths as the Bodhisatta.
For 45 years the Buddha remained a wandering ascetic (shramana), abiding in forest groves rather than accepting other more luxurious lodgings offered to him. When he trained nuns, monks, novices, and lay people, he often recommended they find a quiet place where they would not be disturbed by noise and other people. Here they could cultivate the Middle Path, avoiding extremes. Here they could realize the ultimate truth. Here they could see and experience for themselves that what the Buddha taught did not depend on the Buddha to be considered "Truth." It could be objectively verified. Here, where? The forest, woods, or a pleasant garden under a portable mosquito net.
(Patrushevs) This is Part 2. How is it northern nomads are self-sufficient in extreme cold, whereas we in the West can hardly stand an overcast day? This is a day in the life of a reindeer-herding family's life as baby Katya grows more and more independent and helpful around the home. The family migrates from place to place in search of the best pasture for its domesticated but wild-looking reindeer herd. Could these be Siberian Eurasian Chukchi (Chukchee people) from Russia from the Bering Sea region in easternmost Siberia (next to westernmost America)? The Chukchiare thought to be the forebears of the Indigenous tribes (called First Nations people in Canada) throughout the Americas.
According to several studies on genomic research conducted from 2014 to 2018, the Chukchi are the closest Asian relatives of the Indigenous peoples of the Americas as well as of the Ainu people, being the descendants of settlers who neither crossed the Bering Strait nor settled the Japanese archipelago.
(Patrushevs) The ancient ways of raising kids by northern nomads, the Sámi for example, is so different from modern Western methods.
Where's their babysitter, the television? How are they supposed to wean their kids without a TV?
It's almost certain Piaget, the famed developmental psychologist, would not approve. What if they grow up with a complex about reindeers or yellow snow or something? It's too risky. Bring them indoors and tie them to an apron string and yell at them until they're neurotic just like the parents.
White "Indians" living in tipis in Scandinavia
Of course, maybe we in the West have far more to learn from them than they do from us, judging by outcomes and the lengths of our comparative child rearing traditions.
It's eerie and seemingly inexplicable the way people far afield can look so much alike in their traditions and style. In Buddhist Ladakh, in the Indian Himalayas next to Tibet, there are black and white photos of American Indians. Why they're there, no one can say. But looked at more closely -- beyond the long straight black hair, sun kissed skin, silver and turquoise jewelry, hairless faces, horses, colorful cotton cloth with geometric patterns and unique designs, one is startled to realize they are not Native Americans at all. They are traditional Tibetans (Ladakhis, too), who are cowboys sporting cowboy hats who roam with the buffalo (bison) on the Tibetan plateau.
Scandinavian teepees in Sweden and Norway
To see photos of ultra-Scandinavian Sami, the original inhabitants of Norway, Sweden, Finland, and the Kola Peninsula of Russia (or Sapmi, Fenno-Scandinavia, a region formerly referred to as Lapland), one cannot help but be struck how they, too, look exactly like American Indians. They live in teepees, make colorful cotton clothes and wear animal skins, follow shamans, and require very close inspection to see the tiny differences that make all the difference to us as we try to distinguish one tribe of nomads from another. The way they all raise their children is very similar and very different from our modern ways.
Afterall, what is more important, mere knowledge or direct experience of the Truth? Should we all be Presbyterians in our booths and pews or Shamans, savage and wild, daring to venture out into that scary forestbeyond the township? Who are we, Young Goodman Brown? In Asia, in the ancient culture of China, which is the cultural result of a fusion of three great philosophies -- Confucianism (for the home life), Taoism (for the left home life), and Buddhism (for the Middle Way that avoids all extremes) -- there is that same tension. Many of us want to be held by house and run a household, trapped and miserable, expecting to find happiness and fulfillment there. Of course. Where else would it be? It's all we see all around us. But there is another ancient source of happiness which, if successful, does produce fulfillment or can like nothing else. We might call that shamanism, the nonreliance on priests, intermediaries, and the consensus reality they dictate. Ultimately, each human must see for herself (or himself) can come to know things first-hand. Alan Watts, the great communicator to the West of Eastern philosophies, brings this idea together from various cultures, including the Hindu ideal of the sannyasin or vānaprastha. Watts also explains the deeper meaning of the mandala (a stockaded community, village or city, a ring of defense around the center).He was inspired by American mythologist Joseph Campbell.
NOTE: There are many more Buddhists in the world than get counted, and this is because communist China leaves over 1,000,000,000 (1 billion+) Buddhists uncounted for political and ideological reasons.
This is the same speech with different aural qualities for relistening.
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