"Scientists design intelligence tests to compare other species to humans, but they tend to overlook alternative modes of knowing. For instance: could I, a human, survive for years in an urban woodlot with as few resources as a skunk? Could I travel many miles of unmarked forest and swamp to find the small hole that leads to my exact wintering den from the previous year? Are those not types of intelligence? While many things about our bodies and behaviors make us distinct from other species, it is unscientific hubris to build a hierarchy out of these traits. This hubris is what has thrust the planet and all its inhabitants into crisis." Patricia Ononiwu Kaishian, #ForestEuphoria

"The idea that plants, in response to their mistreatment, can conspire against a human's eternal salvation is immensely powerful. In this worldview, the gates of heaven are not kept by humanlike angels but by pine trees and stink bugs--and not only are other species inherently valuable, but they also are capable of self-determination; they are peers, collaborators, companions on this planet. Not only do they have material needs for their lives on earth; they have moral agency." Patricia Ononiwu Kaishian, #ForestEuphoria

"In its common usage, the word 'nature' carries a lot of baggage--it suggests a space that is district from the human species and our day-to-day world. The word invokes a great divide, an idea that humans are elevated and apart from the primordial muck from which we sprang. But this positioning is a cultural choice, not a scientific fact. From a biological and evolutionary perspective, humans are nature and nature is human. The need to define these terms as separate realms is a result of our increasingly fractured relationship with other species, a wedge plunged into an imaginary crevice." Patricia Ononiwu Kaishian, Forest Euphoria #ForestEuphoria