A tree grows equally well for good and bad stewards alike

Evidence

Abruptly we began to cut the years of our predecessor the bootlegger, who hated this farm, skinned it of residual fertility, burned its farmhouse, threw it back into the lap of the County (with delinquent taxes to boot), and then disappeared among the landless anonymities of the Great Depression. Yet the oak had laid down good wood for him; his sawdust was as fragrant, as sound, and as pink as our own. An oak is no respecter of persons. — Aldo Leopold, A Sand County Almanac, 36

Categorization

• XREF: Foreshadows the land ethic: the land does not discriminate among owners, so stewardship must be chosen, not owed. — connects to: Directly producing one’s own subsistence reveals dependencies that commerce hides — Aldo Leopold, A Sand County Almanac: With Other…, 27; Sweetgrass flourishes most in stands tended respectfully by human harvesters. — Robin Wall Kimmerer, Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom,…, 962; A plant species persists where it is harvested respectfully and departs where ignored. — Robin Wall Kimmerer, Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom,…, 546 (+1 more)

Broader Connections

• Sweetgrass flourishes most in stands tended respectfully by human harvesters. #contradicts (0.95) — Robin Wall Kimmerer, Braiding Sweetgrass, 962
• A plant species persists where it is harvested respectfully and departs where ignored. #contradicts (0.95) — Robin Wall Kimmerer, Braiding Sweetgrass, 546
• Some plants now depend on specific human harvesting practices to survive #contradicts (0.90) — Jenny Odell, How to Do Nothing, 499