Through every season the trees, our natural heritage, keep writing their own narrative. As in every story, there is tension. The legacy of the Laurentian trees is filled with drama. The forest holds enchantment, life-giving provision as well as destruction. Beauty and devastation.

The past decades, with the rising threat of climate change, have directed more focus and respect onto our region’s nature-related values. Who can erase the images of the battered forest, crystallized broken boughs etched into folded grief, crippled during ice storms, tornadoes and Derechos that have left a tangled mass of deadfall?

And yet the forest has hosted multitudes of people seeking refuge through the past years two years of disengagement. The natural heritage of the forest drew many to Mont-Tremblant during those years. I live in a small architectural home surrounded by an acre of firs, pines, and small varieties of flowering trees.

Naturally, I was grateful to share times of isolation with the trees. I discovered how to include pine needles for pesto and brew new tisanes filled with Vitamin C and beta carotene from twigs and needles. The firs in my yard are more than décor for Christmas. They link us to our native heritage by turning us towards traditional medicinal and spiritual uses.

There’s not enough space or need to talk about the wide range of food or healing properties in this column, but our trees offer us an endless bounty. A noteworthy mention is the history of the culture of the maple syrup the world wants to experience when they come to Quebec.

Trees continue to present us with surprises in their stories. In your wildest dreams, would you take a treetop walk? You can now participate in an educational tour above or below the treetops. To learn more about this new addition to the story of the life of a forest, visit the Sentier des cimes Laurentides Treetop Walk – (July Tremblant Express).

Architecture in the woods plays a significant role in the foundation of our society. The move from a life in the city to the vacation home set in green surroundings has created a revival that pays tribute to the beauty of wood, with diverse elements such as stucco, tile, and copper.

We continue to see the old and new integrated, with many different building styles to illustrate design evolution from chronological and geographic movements. Materials from the past blended into the modern age are popular both inside and outside our homes.

The tension in the story of the tree is described best by the forester Peter Wohlleben in The Hidden Life of Trees; in the book he advocates that trees be considered in managing the preservation of an undisturbed forest where they can pass their knowledge on to the next generation and grow old with dignity.

And yet, for our regional human community, the trees inspire a long list of artists, woodworkers, sculptors in wood, botanists, designers, and Indigenous peoples. Together we continue to work with our forests as conservationists who help bridge the past, present, and future.

Illustrated by Valentine Leclerc Anderson   valentineillustrates.com

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