Tree Huggers Anonymous

I never would have thought that I would look forward to a tree hugging activity, until it became an activity for class and then I couldn't wait! Mostly because how many people can say that they had to hug trees for class? So, I was really looking forward to this field trip and it did not disappoint.

Sarah was my partner for this and I had a feeling that there was a slim chance that I would be able to find my tree right away. I was right. We had to be blindfolded, so that we had no clue where we were.

Sarah lead me ALL over the woods. I decided that I would not cheat at this activity and would really try to find my tree based on instinct, bonding or whatever you would like to call it. Apparently I didn't bond well with my tree or I have really crappy instincts. 

Once Sarah placed me at my tree I decided that I would see how many roots were coming up from the ground, what the circumference of the tree was and if I could reach any branches. I figured that the three roots and the fact that I could reach two branches on each side of the tree would help me find the tree easily, it didn't. It did help me narrow down the search a bit, but I was still the last in my group to find my tree. I also thought that she lead me down to the hill that lead to the water because of the length that we traveled, I was wrong. In the end Sarah's excellent skills of disorienting me and my horrible sense of direction hindered me in this activity. 

At the end of the video you can see me in the purple scarf with my tree right next to where we originally started. 

I didn't really like being the last to finish and that everyone was watching me, even though I assumed it would happen from the beginning. I was close to giving up until Sarah was allowed to play the hot cold game to help me find the tree. When I finally found the tree it was right next to where we originally started. 

Not only was this activity about finding your tree and communing with nature, but it was also about trusting your partner. I am a really clumsy person and was afraid I was going to trip and fall. Luckily my partner was my roommate and one of my really good friends, so I didn't have any reservations that she would purposely let me trip. Had I been paired with someone that I didn't trust this may have been a more nerve racking activity. 

Below is me trying to find my tree. Enjoy :)

Leading Sarah around was a lot of fun. I knew that she wasn't very clumsy, so I concentrated more on trying to get a little pay back and really tried to disorient her, so she would have just a hard of a time trying to find her tree than I did. Leading her around was a little nerve racking even though I knew she wasn't clumsy. One of her 5 senses was cut off and that could easily lead to her being more inclined to trip. I didn't want her to fall and get hurt, so I had to distribute my priorities between getting her disoriented verses her falling and hurting herself. After leading Sarah back to the start and taking her blindfold off she easily found her tree, unlike me who was last. 

Apparently tree hugging isn't just a fun thing to do in class it can also be beneficial to your health. In the book Blinded by Science by Matthew Silverstone he proves that hugging trees can improve your health. Some health issues it can help with are mental illnesses, ADHD, concentration levels, reaction times and depression among others. So not only should we go tree hugging for one class we should do it regularly in all our classes to increase our health. Someone should try and bring that up with their other professors and see what their response is.

There is also a world wide project going on called The Treehugger Project. Their mission is to help people to re-discover their relationship with nature at a very personal and intimate level. They have people around the world create art on trees by using sticks, branches, vines and other natural materials. People all over the world are creating these. To see some of their awesome designs go to their flicker page.

If you want to have tons of fun and improve your health go out there and hug some trees!



All photos and the second video were courtesy of Sarah Hammer'13. The first video was courtesy of Diane Maluso. All other information copywrite of Logan Tallmadge'13