SEATTLE — We know trees grow. They sway. They creak. But Dr. Julie Ratner says they do much more, "Trees can see. They can remember. They can learn. They can count. Most people don't realize that they can hear trees sing!"
She leads us on a "Tranquil Old-Growth Forest Walk" in Seattle's Seward Park. "It's unbelievable that these trees are this old in the city," she says of the firs and cedars and others estimated to be 200 to 300 years old.
During our stroll through the forest, we watch and LISTEN as Ratner attaches an electrode to the trunk of a 150-year-old cedar. Notes randomly chime on her attached smartphone. "We put electrodes on any tree or plant. And the device is converting the electric signals into notes."
Since the tree is old, we have to be patient. But sure enough, the tree seems to be trying to tell us something. "I like to imagine the forest is whispering slow down, enter my world." A 250-year-old Douglas fir sends notes farther apart and lower-toned. "And what you're hearing is the WOOD-wide web."
Ratner is a proud tree hugger and invites us to do the same. "And then if each one of us hugged the tree and whisper sweet nothings? It might change its tune." While working in the tech world, she changed her tune after picking up "The Hidden Life of Trees" by Peter Wohlleben. "Do you ever read a book and your whole life is changed?" She read it five times.
She says she's just tapping into the power of trees. "That's proven scientifically, that walking slowly in old growth forest is healing." She is now a self-proclaimed tree whisperer who loves to share her 200-foot tall friends with the world. "I really, really wanted to understand why I was always a tree hugger. Why I've been a tree lover."
Walkers are invited to take part in a meditation, written and read by Ratner: "Imagine your body is a tree. Let your legs and the soles of your feet descend as if they're the roots." A silent, single-file walk is often accompanied by her sister Heidi's flute. "I've been told it's a very hopeful walk, a very relaxing walk."
To wrap up the experience, Ratner presents visitors with "tree blessings," sticks adorned with colorful yarn, thread or fabric. "They're just twigs from my yard. They're not from the forest. We take nothing outta the forest."
The entire journey is less about getting somewhere, more about just being there. "If we just leave nature alone, it can help heal us."
Ratner's two-hour walks are $40 a person at 300-acre Seward Park, just seven miles south of downtown Seattle.
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