(Image credit: Background photo by Zach Kessinger / Unsplash. Book cover via Macmillan Publishers) Environmental journalist Mike Tidwell had traveled the world, witnessing the deadly impacts of a changing climate. Then he saw that climate change was threatening the life he had made for himself and his family in an idyllic town on the District of Columbia’s northeast border. (Image credit: Elizabeth Tidwell) In “ The Lost Trees of Willow Avenue: A Story of Climate and Hope on One American Street, ” Tidwell describes how changing climatic conditions can undermine the megaflora, the big trees, that define a neighborhood, a town, a region – and how that loss can impair the well-being of the people who live there. Tidwell is the author of several previous books, including “ Bayou Farewell ” (2004) and “ The Ravaging Tide ” (2007). In 2002, he founded the Chesapeake Climate Action Network with a seed grant from the Rockefeller Brothers Fund. He continues to direct the grassroots organization from its home office in Takoma Park, Maryland. Yale Climate Connections interviewed Tidwell via a Zoom call. The transcript has been edited for brevity and clarity. Yale Climate Connections: Thank you taking the time to talk with us, Mike. Let’s start by having you describe the neighborhood that you memorialize in this book. What was Willow Avenue like before climate change began to take its toll? Mike Tidwell: I moved to the 7100 block of Willow Avenue in Takoma Park, right against the border between Maryland and D.C., in May of 1991. It was a different place then than it is now. We had a really healthy urban canopy of 70 to 150-year-old trees, including giants right on my block. But that has changed. Anyone in Takoma Park will tell you that they’ve seen so […]
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