Maron Greenleaf

Grant Type

Post PhD Research Grant

Institutional Affiliation

Dartmouth College

Grant number

Gr. 10771

Approve Date

October 9, 2024

Project Title

Greenleaf, Maron (Dartmouth College) "Anthropocene Forest: Planting Trees in the Birthplace of Industrial Capitalism"

Around the world, billions of new trees are being planted to address environmental crises, particularly climate change. These trees are not only being planted in familiar monoculture plantations to maximize carbon sequestration, but also in ways meant to “restore” landscapes by prioritizing biodiversity, ecological functioning, and human health. What are all these new trees doing, not only environmentally but also socioculturally? In this ethnographic book project, I address this question by studying what else people are trying to restore when they plant trees, besides the environment. I do so in the North of England—the birthplace of industrial capitalism and a recent locus of struggles to figure out what can and should succeed it. I study how, in some of the myriad “Anthropocene forests” now growing in this postindustrial landscape, volunteers, workers, and activists are planting and protecting trees not only to combat the climate and biodiversity crises but also to grapple with loss and promote wellbeing in the context of England’s deindustrialization and geopolitical decline. In so doing, the project explores tree planting and postindustrial restoration more generally as strategies for contending with what it might mean to live well on a small, nature-depleted island—and planet.