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A non-profit organization led me to a great story.
When I was assigned to write a story about two proud Southern men protecting native habitat in Louisiana’s Northshore from my desk in Los Angeles, I had some doubts. Am I the right writer for this? What do I know about Southern pride? Or growing up running through forests and swamps just to see them lost to development? But like any ambitious young journalist, I replied with an enthusiastic “On it!” and eased my anxieties with research.
I’d heard about Jacob and Greg’s nonprofit, People’s Forest Foundation (PFF), in a fruitful brainstorming meeting with Tom Chase, the executive director of Village and Wilderness. I knew PFF was one of several groups assisted by Village and Wilderness’s flagship project, which does amazing work supporting groups across the country reviving nature in their communities. I remembered Tom was thrilled to put their work on Bluedot’s radar and shared the elevator pitch of what the guys were doing down in the Northshore. Still, I needed more intel than that.
So before I met with Jacob and Greg on Zoom, I read what I could about their backgrounds, the nonprofit, and the enchanting longleaf pine savanna they want to protect — an incredibly diverse ecosystem, home to 900 endemic species, that once dominated the southeast coast. Of all my reading, there was one thing that really shaped the way I approached the story: Jacob’s own essay on the longleaf pine.
While it gave me historical context and information (and you should read it, too, to learn more), that’s not what struck me most. It was all the sensory detail and emotion in the words, how it was written with so much care. Just look how beautifully he writes about his first time exploring the forest near his childhood friend’s house: “I took my shoes off and immersed myself in the pines. I meandered into meadows underneath trees. My feet were interlocked with wildflowers, grasses, and forbs. I looked ahead through the forest and was reminded of an ocean horizon. Although, instead of endless waves it was longleaf pines, as far as the eye could see. In fact, this forest once spanned infinitely farther than my eyesight. Once upon a time this kind of forest spread across a whopping 90 million acres along the southeast coast from Eastern Texas to Maryland.”
Upon reading it, I knew that what Jacob and Greg are doing reaches much further than I thought. Yes, they want to save the longleaf pine forests for themselves, so they can better understand where they come from. But also for the generations before them, who remember a time when the trees sprawled across millions and millions of uninterrupted acres. For the generations to come, who will only know the land as it is left to them.
And saving the longleaf pine forests is also for me, and for you, no matter where you live. So that we are inspired to ask: What did the land we live on look like before us? Before industrialization? Before colonization? What can we do to restore it, so we better understand our natural heritage?
