Treehugger Podcast

Made with the ecological restoration practitioner in mind, treehugger podcast celebrates the global culture of restoration, exploring the intersections with environmental justice, climate disruption, human health and livelihoods. The show platform endeavors to be a fully inclusive anti-racist multicultural institution that helps build a transformed society. The term "treehugger" comes from the 1730 Khejarli massacre in India. The confrontation began when Amrita Devi and her three daughters lost their lives to protect Khejri trees that were going to be used to build a new palace. Khejri are sacred to the Bishnois. Many villages sent people to protect the trees; ultimately 363 people were killed by the Maharajah soldiers. Then again in the early 1970s originating in the Himalayan region of India, mostly women began a local spontaneous movement called Chipko, which means to hug, cling or embrace. Villagers relied heavily on the forests for their livelihoods and were denied access by the state while foreign-based companies exploited the ecological resources. Inspired by Ghandian principles of nonviolence, they hugged the trees and encircled them, using themselves as shields as just one tactic to protect trees from being cut down. More recently, this phrase is used as a slang, sometimes derogatory, term for environmentalists as someone who is regarded as foolish or annoying because of being too concerned about protecting trees, animals, and other parts of the natural world from pollution and other threats. We wish to embrace the term’s history of dissent and co-opt it as a starting point to explore ecological restoration as part interdisciplinary art and hard science that promises a brighter future for human livelihoods and health as well as a just transition in a warming world. Michael Yadrick is the creator and host. He's a Certified Ecological Restoration Practitioner specializing in urban forest restoration.