Tree University
University of the Living Tree
One of the primary aims of The Living Tree Educational Foundation is to bring into being a university wholly devoted to trees, University of the Living Tree; the aim of which is to provide educational programmes of an experiential and practical nature either not generally provided or not provided at all by other institutes of learning.
At the heart of this initiative is a range of basic recognitions relating to trees and human well-being and survival, including an awareness of the need to respond creatively and effectively, through education, to a range of deepening planetary crises – droughts, floods, soil degradation and depletion, water acidification, expansion of deserts, ecological refugees, atmospheric pollution, species extinction, increase in carbon dioxide and harmful gases, depletion of oxygen, and other aspects of climate change – all at an accelerating rate.
Trees can play a central role in preventing these disasters and creating a more wholesome and sustainable civilization. To accomplish this, a new education is needed. University of the Living Tree is a response to this need.
The Concept & Founding Process
The University as a Network
of Centres & Faculties
The intention is to develop the University as a Network of Faculties in different locations. This will include the participation of other already-existing centres in rural areas which are able to offer educational experiences of a specialized nature. This will enable students to acquire hands-on experience and skills training while joining in the daily working activities of these centres; and/or through attending specialized courses provided by them.
It is envisaged that this Network will link centres regionally, nationally, and also, eventually, overseas; and be able to offer a wide range of experiences and courses.
The setting up of the University in this way, as a network of existing centres of activity, with already existing facilities, does not involve the imposition of yet more buildings on the natural environment for a classroom-based approach to education in which the student is so distinctly separated from what is being studied.
photo by randihausken
The Path of the Seed
While the concept of the University may sound vast, the intention is that it unfolds organically following the path of the seed. The initial location of its planting is on a wooded mountainside at the Grove of Akademus where the initiating and co-ordinating office is currently being established. University of the Living Tree will unfold from there. Its Faculties are also being brought into being, following the path of the seed, with the planting of one at a time. While the first two Faculties are being seeded at The Grove of Akademus, the others will be based at other already existing centres (with which there have yet to be discussions and agreements).
Faculties
The following Faculties are in varying stages of being developed, from concepts to course modules and on-the-ground projects:
- Tree Esoterics (
see Tree Esoterics)
(Located at The Grove of Akademus) - Tree Lore, Art, Culture & Education
(Located at The Grove of Akademus) - Forest Gardening ( see Forest Farming & Gardening)
(Location for the Faculty yet to be determined.
Meanwhile, a Forest Garden project is being initiated at The Grove of Akademus) - Multi-Purpose Forestry ( see Multi-Purpose Forestry) &
Sustainable Woodland Management
(Location yet to be determined) - Tree Crops, Orchard
Creation & Cultivation
(Location yet to be determined) - Woodland Arts & Crafts
(Location yet to be determined) - Tree Law, Climate Change, &
‘Restoring-the-Earth Tree-Planting Strategies’
( see Trees & Climate)
(Location yet to be determined) - Tree Ecology & Economics ( see Tree Economics)
(Location yet to be determined)
The Grove of Akademus
The Grove of Akademus is being developed as
- The location of the initiating and co-ordinating office of University of the Living Tree
- An in-nature venue for workshops and courses
- The primary location of the Faculty of Tree Esoterics and the Faculty of Tree Lore, Art, Culture, & Education, and
- The site of a Forest Garden project.
Address: The Grove of Akademus, Drimnamore, Sneem, Co Kerry, Ireland.
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