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Treekeepers: The Race for a Forested Future
by Lauren E. Oakes.
Basic Books, 2024 ($30)
At the start of Treekeepers, Lauren E. Oakes recalls the feverish response to a 2019 study published in Science that claimed Earth could sustain 1.2 trillion new trees. Oakes—an ecologist and journalist—had spent more than a decade studying old-growth forests, and as she watched scientists debate the importance of tree planting in mitigating climate change, she found herself wanting to answer that question. Treekeepers is an ambitious memoir of Oakes’s boots-on-the-ground research under old-growth canopy and a rigorous exploration of forests and climate change. Most of all, it’s a hopeful profile of the people working to restore, retain and nurture strong forests.