Trees granted rights by N. American town

The Earth's forests used to be very dense.

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.

• 55,000 ancient trees in one forest that scientists still can't fully explain

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."

Why do trees need rights?🌲Let's give'em to robots

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.

1.  The first principle states: "The Tree, a sentient living being and source of Life, is a common good of humanity."
2. The second principle states: "Life on Earth depends upon the existence of the Tree."
3. 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.

Trees recognized as sentient beings

Let the dryads (tree spirits) rejoice!

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

Ekaterina Sky: send stories, vote SXSW

“I think I should start making art again”

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:

1. 

   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.
2. A repeatable method for designing beauty and participation into engagement strategy, instead of attaching them as decoration afterward.
3. Real, working examples, a reforestation partnership, a global soil movement, a wildfire recovery mural, proof the method produces outcomes. More

• VOTE NOW: SXSW PanelPicker® Community Voting

Indigenous protest: Marcha Global Pelo Clima (COP30-2025 UN Climate Change Conference)

COP30: 2025 United Nations Climate Change Conference, July 11, 2025

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UN Climate Summit in Belém, Brazil

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.

(Ekaterina Sky) COP30: Why transformation feels like dying first

Warmly,

Ekaterina Sky, visual artist (ekaterina-sky.com)

Organizer, Life Force Art LLC

• How art can inspire climate action and ocean conservation | Barbara Veiga
• One human species ruled Earth for 2 million years, and it wasn't us
• Let's stop cruel factory farming (action.foe.org)

Dr. Jane Goodall promoted a vegan plant-based diet for all humans to save our world.

• Ekaterina Sky, Aug. 12, 2026; Dhr. Seven, Ananda (Dharma Buddhist Meditation), Jen B. (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly

Save the Trees with Julia Butterfly Hill (7/8)

(The Shift Network) Julia in the Storm: Julia Butterfly Hill: Fear is simple and profound

Evening for the Trees with Julia Butterfly Hill

ABC 20/20: The Story of Julia Butterfly Hill in 3 minutes and 20 seconds

Julia Butterfly Hill . com

Internationally recognized environmental activist Julia 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.

• Pasadena’s plan to cut down nearly 200 trees angers residents | LAist
• Pasadena plan to remove old trees sparks fury | KCRW
• PUSD tree removal plan sparks outcry over transparency and environmental impact
• Teen spends hours in school oak marked for removal, mother pleads for tree preservation | Pasadena Now
• Why we're killing our trees. Removal & Restoration | PUSD

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 Presbyterian Church
• 585 E. Colorado Blvd.
• Pasadena, Los Angeles, CA 91101
• Wednesday, July 8, 2026, 6:30-8:30 pm
• RSVP or DONATE: bit.ly/PUSDtrees

• Meetup RSVP: Dharma Buddhist Meditation
• PasaDharma: Los Angeles Foothills
• Nature Center, San Fernando Valley

To save trees is to save our planet

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.

• Julia Butterfly Hill will speak
• Local youth will perform music
• Artwork and tee-shirts will be available
• We'll hold a raffle
• This is a fundraiser for the trees
• Circle of Life Foundation: circleoflife.org

​Student tickets: $5 (with valid student ID at door)

Adult tickets: $25–$1,000 (pay what you can) ​

• VIDEO: Lessons from Julia Butterfly Hill (2012)
• Tree Hugger Julia Butterfly Hill saved Luna (2023)

Support the cause of saving trees

J Butterfly Hill (Young Heroes)

If not attending in person, it is possible to support this effort by making a donation.

​All proceeds directly support the community effort to preserve the Pasadena Unified School District's trees from destruction to remediate grounds.

Join us in standing together to protect these remarkable trees before more are lost. ​

• Earth First
• Trees Foundation
• Amigos De Los Rios (Altadena)
• The Jane Goodall Institute
• Jane Goodall Sprouts Club

(ABC 20/20) The Story of Julia Butterfly Hill

Visiting with Julia Butterfly Hill high atop and inside of Luna the Tree

Not time, accident, tragedy, nor finding true love has not stopped the dryad

Better Video Tutorials (Teaching New Stuff Daily): 1.envato.market/coderevolutio...

• Ananda (Dharma Buddhist Meditation), Dhr. Seven, Jen (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly

Plant 5K trees in LA for Jane Goodall

They're taking our trees, Jane, and our babies need them! - I'll get them back, Friends.

Make a difference

"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.

• Student-led initiative helping plant trees in response to Los Angeles wildfires kicks off in Pasadena (CBS Los Angeles)
• Memory lives on: Students begin tree-planting initiative, dedicating first to Dr. Jane Goodall (Pasadena Weekly)
• Planting Trees for Jane on Instagram
• Treeams: dreams of trees (Instagram)
• Dr. Jane Goodall on Instagram

Earth Day evolves to Earth Month

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

• Plant - Trees for Jane
• The hidden value of herbariums | LAist
• Guide to Mmaking SoCal cooler: How to plant trees

Buddhism and Dalai Lama on meat eating

(Dalai Lamb) Can Buddhists eat meat? Dalai Lama finally explains

Can Buddhists eat meat?

(Buddha's Wisdom) Can Buddhist eat meat? One bowl, three Buddhisms

• What have we said time and again? Buddhists can do whatever they want. However, killing (or violating any of the other precepts) is not keeping in line with what the Buddha taught.
• "Pig's Delight" (sukaramaddava): truffles, but in the case of the final meal offering, inadvertently poisonous/toxic mushrooms picked in error thinking them truffles, which pigs love
• Rule: A Buddhist monastic is not allowed to eat three kinds of "meat" (slaughtered flesh) -- that of a living being that is seen, heard, or suspected of having been killed for one's sake

Did the Buddha pass away from eating meat or mushrooms or by choice?

The precise contents of the Buddha's final meal are not clear, due to variant scriptural traditions and ambiguity over the translation of certain significant terms like sukara-maddava.

The Theravada tradition generally believes that the Buddha was offered "pig's delight" (sukaramaddava) which could be slaughtered pork or some kind of mushroom/food pigs delight in that was offered by the blacksmith Cunda, while the Mahayana tradition believes that the Buddha consumed a truffle or other mushroom [mistaken to be edible].

These differing translations may reflect the different traditional views on Buddhist vegetarianism and the precepts for monastics (monks and nuns) [265] as well as laypersons.

Modern scholars disagree on this topic, arguing both for pig's delight, pig's flesh, or some kind of plant or mushroom that pigs delight in eating [z].

Whatever the case, none of the sources that mention the last meal attribute the Buddha's sickness to the meal itself [266]. But it is widely thought that he suffered severe illness from being unable to safely digest to toxic food, which he directed Cunda to dig a hole and bury rather than offering to any other monastic present at the meal.

As per the "Great Final Nirvana Discourse" (Mahaparinibbana Sutta), after the meal with Cunda the blacksmith, the Buddha and his monastic companions continued to walk until he was too weak to continue.

They stopped at Kushinagar (near modern Gorakphur, India), where Ānanda was directed by the Buddha to prepare a resting place of folded robes between two sala trees in a delightful grove [267, 268].

After announcing to the Monastic Sangha (spiritual community) that he would soon be passing away, reclining into final nirvana, the Buddha personally ordained one last novice into the Monastic Order. His name was Subhadda [267].

He then repeated his final exhortations to the Sangha, which was that when he was no longer present to guide them, the Dhamma and Vinaya (Doctrine and Discipline, Teaching and Training) was to be their guide.

Then he asked if anyone had any doubts about the Teachings, but nobody did [269]. The Buddha waited, satisfied that anyone who would have like to speak or ask any final question had the opportunity to do so.

His final words are reported to have been: "All formations (saṅkhāras, fabrications) are hurtling towards destruction. Strive for the goal with diligence (appamāda)." In Pali this is, "vayadhammā saṅkhārā appamādena sampādethā" [270, 271].

He then entered the eight jhanas as his final meditation forward and then reversing, as verified by a psychic monk near him, reaching what is known as parinirvana ("final nirvana"). He did not "die," for if he had, he would be reborn as all ordinary being are reborn in accordance with their karma.

Rather than being reborn, "the Five Aggregates of physical and mental phenomena clung to as self that constitute a being cease to occur" [272] just as a fire, having exhausted its substrate of fuel goes out. But what is it that really goes out, a being? No, what goes out completely is ignorance.

The Mahaparinibbana Sutta reports that as his final act, the Buddha performed a final meditation of entering the first four material meditative absorptions (jhanas) consecutively, then the four immaterial absorptions, and finally a meditative dwelling known as "the extinction of feeling and perception" (nirodha-samāpatti), which should not be thought of as a permanent "extinction" since many Buddhist meditation practitioners are able to reach this attainment even now throughout life. It is said that only noble ones (those who have attained the stages of enlightenment) are able to reach it and can do so as often as they like as many times as they like. If it were a permanent extinction, no one would be able to do it a second, third, or thousandth time.

Before returning to the fourth absorption (jhana) right at the moment of passing into final nirvana without remainder [273, 268].

Having traveled and taught, the Buddha took his last meal, a sincere offering from a blacksmith named Cunda. But having eaten it, he fell violently ill. Not wishing that Cunda have remorse or misgivings about his offering, the Buddha instructed his personal attendant Ānanda to tell Cunda something.

The meal offering eaten at his place had nothing to do with his passing. Moreover, such an offering was an extraordinary source of merit because it was provided as a last meal for a buddha [262] tantamount to an offering of food to a bodhisatta before his attainment of supreme awakening (buddhahood, arahantship, great-enlightenment).

Bhikkhu Mettanando and Oskar von Hinüber argue that the Buddha passed away due to mesenteric infarction, a symptom of old age, rather than mushroom food poisoning [263, 264]. More

Save Angeles Crest Nat'l Forest (5/18)

(CalWild.org) LANatureForAll 📢 RSVP: Come and attend the LA Roadless Rule Town Hall on Monday, May 18, 2026.

Come learn about the recent threats to roll back the Roadless Area Conservation Rule (also known as the Roadless Rule) and how the rule protects public lands.

Give a spoken or written public comment. Make your voice heard to help protect nearly 60 million acres of Angeles National Forest public land from private logging, mining, and other extractive industries.

To RSVP, click here. DETAILS:

• LA Roadless Rule Town Hall (IG)
• Date: Monday, May 18, 2026
• Time: 3:30-6:30 PM
• Location: Duarte Elks Lodge
• 2436 East Huntington Dr. Duarte, CA 91010

@activesgv @amigosrios @day1do @cofem @forwardapi @outwardboundadventures @sierraclubangeles @calwildorg @npcapics @greenlatinos @latinooutdoors #RoadlessRule #LATownHall #ProtectCAPublicLands

'Must-Know Go-To Survival Plants' (book)

Must-Know Go-To Survival Plants of North America

American plant expert Christopher Nyerges

Local guide and prolific author Christopher Nyerges, founder of the School of Self-Reliance, and his wife Helen Nyerges have 4.0 out of 5 stars (with 1 review) with their guidebook Must-Know Go-To Survival Plants of North America.

This easy-to-read book includes a line drawing for each plant and photos that make identification easy. There is also a numerical graph that gives each plant a “score,” depending on how useful the plants are for

• food,
• medicine,
• water,
• fire,
• shelter, and
• other uses.

There is also a guide on how to use and store plants, showing whether a plant can be eaten raw or cooked, and whether it is best when stored dried, frozen, or pickled, or all three.

The authors include plants readers are likely to find anywhere across North America. They also include plants they use most of the time because these plants are widespread, common, easy to recognize, and good tasting.

Also available on Amazon

The book contains 29 entries, though it covers many more than 29 individual plants. For example, in the tree section, there is a discussion of elderberries, oaks, and willows. What they say about these three genera of trees is applicable to every species worldwide of elders, oaks, and willows.

There are 20 species of Sambucus (elder) worldwide, about 600 species of Quercus (oak trees) worldwide, and about 400 species of Salix (willows) worldwide. What is written about Rubus (blackberry) applies to all species, and comments about cattail apply to all 15 species worldwide.

The book talks about individual species used as food -- such as chickweed, lamb’s quarter, and purslane. Several in the section on herbaceous plants contain many individual species, such as grasses, with about 10,550 species worldwide, and onions of which there are about 500 species worldwide, and seaweeds.

Seaweeds are marine algae, divided into the three major categories: green, red, and brown for a combined total of about 10,000 species worldwide.

The book is a refreshing addition to any botanical collection whether one studies as a novice or expert.

• BOOK: Must-Know Go-To Survival Plants of North America (School of Self-Reliance)
• Christopher and Helen Nyerges, SchoolofSelf-Reliance.com; Amazon.com; Dhr. Seven, Xochitl (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly

Great Pyramid: 20K-y.-o. lost civilization?

For more than a century, Egyptologists have dated the Great Pyramid at Giza in Cairo ("Mars"), Egypt, to around 2580 BC, about 4,600 years ago.

A controversial new study now claims the monument could be tens of thousands of years older.

(Galaxy Vault) Scientists found empty spaces in Great Pyramid of Giza

Italian engineer Alberto Donini from the University of Bologna said erosion patterns at the pyramid's base suggest it may have been built between 20,000 and 40,000 years ago, far earlier than the conventional timeline. [This idea was stolen from much braver investigators who made the claim and brought forward the evidence for it long ago.]

Donini's Relative Erosion Method (REM) estimated the pyramid's age by comparing how much erosion occurred on stones exposed since construction with nearby stones whose exposure time is known. By measuring the difference in wear, he calculated how long the older stones have been exposed, producing dates that far exceed traditional estimates.

The study, which has not yet been peer-reviewed, examined 12 points around the pyramid's base. Some measurements suggested tens of thousands of years of erosion, with the average pointing to roughly 25,000 years.

The Egyptian temple that mentions a sunken island: Atlantis? (Jahannah James)

Donini also proposed that Pharaoh Khufu may have renovated the pyramid rather than built it, potentially revising assumptions about its original authorship.

If the dates proposed by Donini are accurate, the Great Pyramid could predate not only the reign of Khufu but also the rise of any known advanced civilizations, raising fundamental questions about human history and architectural knowledge in the distant past.

Archeologists have long dated the Great Pyramid to about 4,600 years old. But an engineer has proposed the iconic structure is much older

The Great Pyramid of Giza, the largest of the three pyramids on the Giza Plateau, [is said to have been] built by Pharaoh Khufu during Egypt's Fourth Dynasty. It sits alongside the Pyramid of Khafre, the Pyramid of Menkaure, and the Great Sphinx, all shrouded in mystery due to their precise alignment, unusual construction methods, and debated purpose. Source: Daily Mail via msn.com

• Did Pseudo-Historians Rewrite Ancient Egypt? | Watch
• This is what appears in the pyramid of Unas by torchlight | Watch
• Hidden subterranean chambers in Egypt hint at a lost network
• This Egyptian lightbulb was something else entirely | Watch
• Pharaoh’s final insanity: Akhenaten declares himself God, bans all other worship | Watch
• This Egyptian lightbulb was something else entirely | Watch (Jahannah James)
• Why Akhenaten and Nefertiti’s mummies are still missing | Watch (History with Kayleigh)

• We Now Know How The First People Reached America – And It Wasn’t On Foot
• The Egyptian temple that mentions a sunken island | Watch
• Ancient Teeth Suggest Our Ancestors Lived Side by Side With a Mysterious Hominin
• Exhibition of rarely seen fossils on display at Carnegie Museum of Natural History
• Archaeologists find massive hidden settlement inside ancient Egyptian gold mine
• Archaeologists in a cave in the Czech Republic found pieces of a Hittite cuneiform tablet that raises questions about how and when it got there
• 12,000-year-old Boncuklu Tarla is older than Göbekli Tepe | Watch
• Exhibition of rarely seen fossils on display at Carnegie Museum of Natural History | Watch
• Pat Macpherson, Sheldon S., Dhr. Seven (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly