Send Love to One of the 1308 Trees in Danger

Child hugging a cedar tree

 

The Trans Mountain Pipeline Expansion (TMX) wants to cut down 1308 trees without permits this winter around Burnaby.

These trees live and produce oxygen on unceded Coast Salish lands, the territories of the Tsleil-Waututh, the Squamish, the Musqueam and the Qayqayt First Nations. These Indigenous nations have not consented to TMX on their ancestral lands.

We believe that TMX can and must be stopped - and these trees should be spared!

Trees give us so much: fresh air, calm, bird habitat, peace and more! What do we offer them in return?

Send your message to a tree. Express what you feel: gratitude, love, grief, solidarity and more. When you write to one of these 1308 trees using this email, a copy will also go to Ian Anderson, the CEO of TransMountain, and to Prime Minister Trudeau.

Further, we will share a compilation of all letters sent with media, and with local governments in support of their efforts to stop TMX.

Trees matter. We are witnesses to their beauty, grace, generosity, and endangered status. If they are killed by Trans Mountain, we will collectively grieve their loss. But we want them to live! Send your message to let the trees know, we do not agree with their death. There is no social licence for their destruction. Honour a tree as your relative.

Once you've emailed your letter, come on over to the 1308 trees website, or 1308 trees on facebook to make or enjoy some art or a handwritten love letter.

Send questions to us at lovecoastsalishtrees@gmail.com

This will be added as a preface to your letter when it goes to Trans Mountain and Trudeau:
Please receive this letter which has been written to one of the trees that the TMX pipeline plans to cut in Burnaby. There is no social license for this massively destructive act.

Points to Consider:

Here is a Gallery of Tree Portraits featuring some of the 1308 Trees that might be cut.

If you’ve walked the area where these trees live, or know it, share your experiences of how or why you’ve appreciated them. Honour the time that you’ve spent there.

If you’re not familiar with the area, no worries, share your thoughts and feelings about why we need these trees more than the pipeline expansion that would kill them. For instance, how should we be responding to the dangers posed by climate crisis? How would cooperation rather than destruction of the trees benefit us all?

Here is a map of where the trees are located.

Here is a report which contains detailed maps and a list of all the endangered trees. They include many western red cedar, black cottonwood, red alder, maple, douglas fir, hemlock, birch, and more).

If you feel grief for the impending loss of these trees, it’s healthy to honestly and openly express this rather than denying it. You are not alone in this grief, and many people share your feelings.

It’s ok to learn about and respect how trees communicate with one another for instance.

Now, sign your letter: