The Lost Trees of Willow Avenue: A Story of Climate and Hope on One American Street

by Mike Tidwell

A riveting and elegant story of climate change on one city street, full of surprises and true stories of human struggle and dying local trees – all against the national backdrop of 2023's record heat domes and raging wildfires and hurricanes.

In 2023, author and activist Mike Tidwell decided to keep a record for a full year of the growing impacts of climate change on his one urban block right on the border with Washington, DC. A love letter to the magnificent oaks and other trees dying from record heat waves and bizarre rain, Tidwell's story depicts the neighborhood's battle to save the trees and combat climate change: The midwife who builds a geothermal energy system on the block, the Congressman who battles cancer and climate change at the same time, and the Chinese-American climate scientist who wants to bury billions of the world's dying trees to store their carbon and help stabilize the atmosphere.


The story goes beyond ailing trees as Tidwell chronicles people on his block sick with Lyme disease, a church struggling with floods, and young people anguishing over whether to have kids, all in the same neighborhood and all against the global backdrop of 2023’s record heat domes and raging wildfires and hurricanes. Then there’s Tidwell himself who explores the ethical and scientific questions surrounding the idea of “geoengineering” as a last-ditch way to save the world’s trees – and human communities everywhere – by reflecting sunlight away from the planet. No book has told the story of climate change this hyper local, full of surprises, full of true stories of life and death in one neighborhood. The Lost Trees of Willow Avenue is a harrowing and hopeful proxy for every street in America and every place on Earth.

Genres: Nonfiction, Nature, Environment, Science, Memoir, History, Audiobook

288 pages, Hardcover

Published March 25, 2025

About the author

Mike Tidwell is founder and director of the Chesapeake Climate Action Network, a grassroots nonprofit dedicated to raising awareness about the impacts and solutions associated with global warming in Maryland, Virginia, and DC. He is also an author and filmmaker who predicted in vivid detail the Katrina hurricane disaster in his 2003 book Bayou Farewell: The Rich Life and Tragic Death of Louisiana’s Cajun Coast. His newest book, focusing on Katrina and global warming, is titled The Ravaging Tide: Strange Weather, Future Katrinas, and the Coming Death of America’s Coastal Cities. Tidwell’s most recent documentary film, We Are All Smith Islanders, vividly depicts the dangers of global warming Maryland, Virginia, and D.C.

Tidwell has been featured in numerous media outlets including NBC's Meet the Press, NPR, the New York Times and the Washington Post. He is also the co-host of the nationally syndicated radio show "Earthbeat," which features ground-breaking global warming news and interviews live from the nation's capital.

In 2003, Tidwell received the Audubon Naturalist Society's prestigious "Conservation Award." Two years later he received an honorary Doctorate of Letters from Nicholls State University in Thibodaux, Louisiana. On Earth Day 2010 -- the 40th anniversary of Earth Day -- the Montgomery County Council named Tidwell one of the County's top 40 environmental leaders over the past 40 years. A long-time resident of Maryland, Tidwell lives in Takoma Park with his eleven-year-old son Sasha.

Reviews

[Nathan Shuherk · Rating 5 out of 5]

I’ve been thinking about climate change a lot recently and how it’s not simply a global issue, but a local one as well. And while a lot of authors are writing about the immediacy of climate change in terms of time, I think the perspective of immediacy in terms of our own spaces couldn’t be a more deserving perspective. Beautifully written and so many intimate moments to sit with

[Pamela · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was a mix of personal story and climate change. Tidwell focuses on what was happening on his street and neighborhood, particularly the trees. The oaks dominated the streets, which had been thriving there for over a hundred years, and now were dying. Why? Tidwell finds out.
The answer to why happens to be yes from climate change, but not in a direct way such as it was hotter and the trees didn’t like the heat. No, instead it is a bit more complicated, and he shows the connections. It felt almost like a mystery the way it was laid out.

While the focus was on Tidwell’s neighborhood he isn’t entirely contained there, as he explores some of the science of solutions. The book is also fairly autobiographical, which makes it quite personable along with the other people who appear in his book, such as some of the neighbors.

Overall the book was quite readable and didn’t get bogged down with too many facts and figures or scientific jargon. One aspect that had me give this book a better rating was the book went beyond the effects of climate change and included solutions. Tidwell explored what is being done now to help get us out of this mess from all the carbon-dioxide that is already in our atmosphere, and how to prevent it from getting worse. There was a heavy focus on one of his scientific neighbors who won an X-prize for his idea of tree sequestration. This was a new concept to me, so I didn’t mind the extra pages devoted to this one solution.

I read this book from a published audiobook version that I got from my local library. The narrator did an excellent job and this could be a good way to read this book. However, I also had an eBook copy, which meant I got to see the images that are included at the beginning of each chapter. Some of the photos include his neighbors too.


Thanks to St. Martin's Press and NetGalley for an uncorrected electronic advance review copy of this book.

[Rebecca · Rating 4 out of 5]

It starts with a murder mystery of sorts: what is killing the trees on a certain street in the Washington, DC suburb of Takoma Park, Maryland? The investigation sparks climate activist Mike Tidwell's obsession with spotting evidence of climate breakdown around his city over the course of one record-breaking year. Along the way, he also discovers glimmers of hope, in the form of local scientists working on climate mitigation projects and residents coming together to make their neighborhood more resilient. Although the book's scope might initially seem overly provincial, the strategy of understanding global phenomena through a local microcosm is very effective. I had a personal reason for wanting to read this: I was born in Takoma Park.

See my full review at BookBrowse. (See also my article on climate change mitigation strategies.)

[Valeria Spencer · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this nonfiction book on the heels of Parable of the Sower (a dystopian novel about the end of US society that comes about in no small part due to ignoring climate change). It really felt like a one-two punch. Tidwell, a journalist who focuses on climate change is very thorough in explaining what is happening to our environment. He uses his own neighborhood to follow the very real effects on the Oak trees lining the neighborhood streets. Lost Trees is more upbeat as Tidwell follows the various scientific theories to slow or reverse climate change.
Unfortunately the book went to press before the new administration took over and decided climate change is not real.

[Dan Banana · Rating 5 out of 5]

slightly entertaining story mixed in to a lot of depressing facts about climate change.
inspiring people making every effort to save the world as idiots and rich don't give a shit.
worth the time to listen to.

[Lauren · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was so beautiful! It perfectly captured the anxiety of seeing climate change in our local communities but remains so hopeful to the power that people have together as a community.

[Fiona Sheridan · Rating 4 out of 5]

A book I got from my dad for my birthday. The author lives in Takoma Park and tells the story of the dramatic change in his neighborhood’s landscape as different climate disasters start destroying the oak trees. A little bit depressing because the author believes the solution is to start lowering the temperature of the atmosphere by reflecting sunlight into the atmosphere which seems terrifying but the author does acknowledge that. He also touched on the concern many people have with wanting to bring children into the changing world affected by climate change which I thought was important to include in the book.

[Amy Leo · Rating 5 out of 5]

I delayed reading this book because I was concerned it would just make me sad about climate change. There were definitely sections that make me feel that way, but it’s a beautifully written account of climate-driven changes in my local ecosystem and the author’s experience as a climate justice advocate. I learned a lot about trees and the people of Takoma Park, and have deeper knowledge of how to get involved to slow climate change. Thanks for writing this, Mike!

Fun facts I learned:
- trees feel pain and can scream
- weeds grow faster due to excess carbon in the air

[Laura · Rating 4 out of 5]

While reading about our changing climate and all the devastation that comes with it is not enjoyable, this book presented various climate change solutions that are being studies. From major initiatives that have potential to make massive dents in climate change, to the smaller acts communities and individual can adopt, this book informs the reader about a wide range of efforts to restore the health of our planet.

[Barbara · Rating 4 out of 5]

A personal and informed description of climate change in a neighborhood where we lived when our kids were young. When we moved in 2002, we already had French drains and two sump pumps. I can’t imagine the current owners of our old house can even use the lower level now with such increased flooding, especially in the neighborhood east of the Old Town Gazebo.

[Jeanne · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book really opened my eyes to climate change and the scary future ahead. Little individual steps need to be taken along with much larger global steps.

[Sara · Rating 5 out of 5]

In a sea of climate change books this one takes a different approach, focusing at the micro-local and how climate change is affecting one street in one city. It's deeply personal while also curious about global scale solutions. I found the book very moving, with the usual blend of heart break and hope.

[Alyssa · Rating 3 out of 5]

interesting but very surface level and too focused on geoengineering

[Michael Sauve]

The Lost Trees of Willow Avenue provides a startling insight to the impacts that climate change is having on our planet. The sad devastation happening on Willow Avenue is representative of similar declines happening throughout North America and the rest of the world. So hard to imagine the damage we are causing to the ecosystem we live in. It’s never too late to make meaningful changes. Thanks to Goodreads for offering this giveaway. Thanks too to Mike Tidwell for putting pen to paper, and hopefully we will continue to have paper to write on in the future.

[Ben East · Rating 5 out of 5]

A Hopeful Look at Our Universal Crisis

Reading The Lost Trees of Willow Avenue feels like strolling the hometown with an affable neighbor, one filled with deep respect for the natural world and a pragmatic concern for its demise. Along the way we meet other neighbors, including state and national political figures; students, scientists, arborists, and public works personnel; a farmer, a midwife, the local pastor. Despite dire news regarding humanity’s relationship with nature, the company makes for an exceptional walk.

On one level Mike Tidwell recounts a single year—2023—in a Washington, DC suburb whose residents cope with the local effects of global climate change. These are the tombstone stumps of new-fallen trees, the sudden gaps in rich canopy across which the wind now blows “like human breath over the tops of empty bottles,” the flooding school basement and sidewalk berm installed as a countermeasure against the coming torrents.

On another level, the narrative follows a much older story. It begins with an oak whose acorn took hold in the 1870s and which lived long enough to witness today’s green energy revolution. But that oak, fresh victim of changing weather patterns, serves as Tidwell’s paradigm for how the revolution has come too late. Damaged by extreme weather, the Miller oak is removed, which disrupts the cooling effect of shade on the street, decreases carbon absorption, and increases trapped atmospheric heat.

Tidwell’s urgent question is: if green energy’s too late to stop future extreme weather, how do we speed action along and clean the atmosphere now?

Two paths stand out among the answers he explores: the negative emissions effort pursued by his neighbor, Ning Zeng; and the solar radiation modification concept being studied by Ning’s former student, Dr. Tianle Yuan. If the first of these Chinese-born scientists is playing funeral director for fallen carbon, the latter might be accused of playing god, seeking to control the weather by reflecting sunlight back into space.

Ning cuts a contradictory figure, feverishly maniacal yet distressingly tender. A former University of Maryland climate scientist turned undertaker, Ning introduces Tidwell to a dystopian wood dump outside Baltimore. There lie some 25,000 tons of climate change-damaged trees, removed by public works from area neighborhoods, emitting CO2 as they decay. Ning’s passion is a pilot effort to halt this emission by burying five thousand tons of the load 15-feet deep in the clay-rich soil of a local farm. Readers will find in his heroic effort the perfect blend of dreamer and genius: delivering a heartfelt requiem for his carbon load, Ning turns to poetry—generated using AI.

Tidwell turns to Dr. Tianle Yuan of NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center to demonstrate one potential method for reversing climate change through geoengineering. As Tidwell points out, human activity both cools and warms the planet, the warming part in greater measure. Our cooling activity, in the form of aerosol gas, turns the sun’s rays back into space. Geoengineering would replicate this—and natural phenomena like the 1991 Mt. Pinatubo eruption—on a larger scale. It conjures a terrifying image: as many as 100 aircraft with 150-foot wingspans, fuselages packed with Sulphur instead of passengers, strafing the atmosphere with man-made aerosol, day after day, 24/7 until our grandchildren have grandchildren. Yuan, like Tidwell, doesn’t advocate this extreme measure; rather, they advocate studying the concept and comparing the risk of doing it vs. the risk of not doing it.

Within this framework Tidwell introduces numerous other inspiring figures, most notably that of his neighbor, Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-MD), elected to congress principally on a climate action platform. Confronted by family tragedy, the violence of anti-democracy J6 rioters, and chemotherapy for lymphoma cancer, Raskin maintains a hopeful view while touring local tree damage. “What keeps me optimistic? I think it’s the trees themselves…when one falls, so much sunlight comes in that we see what we’re missing and then new trees come and we start over again.” Raskin draws the same metaphor, sunlight as transparency, to heal our democracy.

Poetry courses through these pages, bringing emotional aliveness even as the narrative covers hard science, data, philosophy, ethics, politics, and business. Our strolling neighbor is a gifted observer, a translator of the natural world into lyrical prose. When a nurse and midwife tells Tidwell that her career has kept her at “the door where people leave this world and where they arrive,” he reflects on this “great door.”

Our fight against climate change—it’s at the same door. We’re throwing our arms around this planet and pulling back with all our might, standing in the threshold, alarms going off, trying to keep this living world from passing through to the other side, to death and mass extinction and the end of human civilization itself, perhaps. All the while, at the same door, amid the convulsions, we’re giving birth to something new, something so beautiful, a clean-energy world with fresh breath drawn in, a sparkling cry breaking out, a new life where big trees and all the rest of us can grow old together.

We can call Tidwell a hero, too. Boy Scout troop leader, Little League coach, Lyme Disease survivor, parishioner, neighbor, the author gave up employment at the Washington Post in 2002 to launch the nonprofit Chesapeake Climate Action Network. His advocacy led to incremental local and state legislative wins, swelling finally to the 2022 passage of the Inflation Reduction Act, which dedicated $369 billion in federal spending for clean energy, an estimated $800 billion in federal climate spending over ten years, and unlocking $1.7 trillion in private U.S investments.

Throughout his tidy narrative Tidwell grapples with the most universally disheartening issue of our day without sending the reader into despair. There is nothing naïve in this: he and his hero-consorts all contend with dejection in very real and personal ways. But they also move beyond it, each with the faith and resolution to carry on. Rather than spread the disease of hopelessness, we hear voices of reason who’ve dedicated their lives to climate action, in their own backyards and across the neighborhood. Tidwell’s final message: you’re not in this alone. “Step one is stop being an individual…Find an organization fighting climate change in your area and develop a relationship as a volunteer or donor or both.”

[Becky · Rating 3 out of 5]

The author is a good writer. But he lost me with his dogged embrace of geo-engineering. His friend and neighbor Ning Zheng was, for me, the real hero of this tale. We broke nature by thinking we should dominate the natural world. Geo-engineering is just more of that same mindset. The world will save itself if we can stop harming it. Doing that will require adopting the spiritual relationship with the earth that allowed Native Americans to successfully live on the planet for thousands of years. We are not separate from nature. To think trying to control it will ever lead to a healthy planet is hubris.

[Richard Gresham · Rating 5 out of 5]

I did not know if I was going to like this book or not, but it is really interesting. It’s about the impact that climate change has on plants.

I enjoy this book.

And I really enjoyed the pictures in the book

[Laura · Rating 3 out of 5]

Mike Tidwell can sure take a small story, about a neighborhood losing its trees and experiencing epic droughts and floods, and wind it up into an anxiety-inducing call to action against climate change. The author leans heavy into small personal narratives and tries to extrapolate local emergencies into global warnings--and for the most part I found he did a good job. I now have a better understanding on how accelerating climate change is killing the local flora, I know more about the fluid dynamic changes occurring in a rapidly, too rapidly, warming world. I have a few new ideas on how to press local community leaders into looking for solutions, rather than defaulting to the path of least resistance.

But unfortunately the story also stayed too local. Rich upper-middle-class American local. The obsession with the church flooding and the beautiful trees dying, and the many cases of Lyme disease started to ring hollow and self centered. Everything was so community and human-centric it started to annoy me--like when the author decided that the best way to deplore the lack of snow as the tragedy of children deprived of joyful snow days. There was nothing else more serious that we could have added here? The obsession with Lyme disease also started to annoy me. I understand that chronic Lyme can be debilitating, but could we not have spun out into how climate change is expanding and worsening so many more infectious diseases, including Dengue fever which by the way can be deadly?? At the midway point the book started to feel self congratulatory: look at all the people who are now gardening, and driving electric cars, and planting trees, and did we tell you about the solar panels? That's great, but what about the poor people in the neighborhood who cannot afford to grow their own food because they're working 2-3 jobs just to put food on the table; and they can't afford electric cars but sadly drive second hand old vehicles? Poverty is mentioned a few times in passing, even though it's the poor people who get truly shafted by this accelerating global emergencies. They're losing jobs and livelihoods, not beautiful trees in their back yards. Poor neighborhoods barely have trees or green spaces around them to begin with, these are luxuries. I also found some discussions on making everything electric to be short sighted: when I lived in Canada we had long power outages in the middle of terrible snow and ice storms; people died because of the lack of heating. When I lived in Romania and electricity turned off, the fact that we still had gas stoves meant my family didn't freeze to death. I don't want to burn gas, but did we ensure the infrastructure is there to support the all-electric push? And who will be deployed (and how quickly) when the electric fails? There was also a lot of discussion about the good of electric cars, and the author insisted that people won't turn back to gas. But all the examples he gives are examples of superior technology replacing less effective old technology. Gas cars are sadly still efficient and sometimes more convenient. Rich people can afford to wait for 30+ minutes at a charging station (and get a haircut), but poor people need to go in 5 minutes, something that modern Western electric cars cannot provide (I hear the Chinese market has a solution for this, but the author didn't discuss it in the book and I felt he should have). There is also the problem of range, especially relevant for isolated communities: my grandparent's relatives still live in a village up a hill more than 30 minutes away from the nearest small town which doesn't provide most emergency services, like ERs; electricity is unstable in the region. People won't be able to afford electric cars in 10 years, we don't even have running water. Gas cars are still the only quick way in and out, and outright bans on the only reliable transportation technology those people have would just throw them deeper into poverty. For this reason, the EU has sometimes wavered in its embrace of all-electric, something the author doesn't properly acknowledge. Nor does he discuss the impact of mining for minerals required for electric batteries on the local population and the environment.

So overall the book felt too small for this global problem. I appreciated the out-of-the-box thinking of the scientists the author interviewed, I appreciated the call to community (which in my opinion should have been even more front and center). And I appreciated the warning that bureaucracy can really kill us in a time when we need to move faster. We were able to do it during Covid, and this is an emergency that's at least as severe (albeit slower unfolding). But I think the author needs to get more out of his neighborhood and collaborate with some international groups. We need global solutions, and for that we may need to understand the global problems that go beyond the beautiful trees that no longer shade our back yards.

[STEPHEN PLETKO!! · Rating 5 out of 5]

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THE STORY OF HOW CLIMATE CHANGE IS UNFOLDING LITERALLY IN THE AUTHOR'S BACKYARD

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"Only in the past few years has a book like this been possible to write.

Climate change has accelerated so much, with such extreme impacts elsewhere, that you can now throw a dart at a spinning, [wooden] globe, and wherever that dart lands, right at that tiny place, you can write a whole book about the conspicuous disruptions happening there.

The story that follows--hyperlocal, replete with true narratives, and life & death in one [the author's] neighborhood--is proof of that.

It's a harrowing and hopeful proxy for every street and every place in this nation and beyond."

The above quote (in italics) comes from remarkable book by Mike Tidwell. He is an author, travel writer, and long-time climate activist. Tidwell founded the Chesapeake Climate Action Network where he has led campaigns for clean energy. He lives on Willow Avenue in Takoma Park, located in the state of Maryland (right on the border with Washington, DC).

Tidwell's story is like a letter of appreciation to the once magnificent trees in his neighborhood now dying from the wacky weather and his neighborhood's battle to save the trees and so fight climate change.

However, this story goes well beyond dying and sick trees as Tidwell chronicles people in his neighbourhood and world-wide coping with the effects of climate change such as flooding and disease.

Finally, each chapter begins with an uncaptioned black and white photograph Also included is a set of over twenty glossy, color, captioned photos. My favorite glossy photo has the following caption: "A massive, elegant post oak survives on the eastern corner of Willow and Tulip Avenues. Despite the climate extremes, many big trees still hang on. But for how long?"

In conclusion, this is a captivating and urgently needed book, full of surprises, that makes the climate change emergency both local and personal!!

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(2025; introduction; 2 parts or 11 chapters; epilogue; postscript; main narrative 265 pages; acknowledgments; index; about the author)

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[Philip Leung · Rating 3 out of 5]

Willow Avenue is the street that the author lived on.

Faced with a neighborhood in existential crisis—trees expiring, the local church basement succumbing to biblical flooding, and residents wrestling with the tenacious tyranny of Lyme disease—he penned a book. It’s a meticulous, ground-level ledger recording the slow-motion disaster that is climate change in one idyllic American locale.

Amidst this local fragility, the author ventures on a quest for salvation, documenting climate solutions that stretch beyond the usual suspects (clean energy) into the more intriguing, and occasionally terrifying, realms of carbon sequestration and geoengineering.

The neighborhood is painted grimly, but the author tries to balance the gloom with a generous dollop of optimism: people are fighting, and goodness will prevail. “We are on an irreversible path towards clean energy,” he declared.

That specific brand of hope, however, has aged as gracefully as a warm glass of milk left on a windowsill, or perhaps, more accurately, as well as the Biden administration’s climate agenda. This book is a haunting missed opportunity, a reminder that the devastating reality of climate change—despite the relentless droughts and the rampaging tick armies—remains stubbornly filed in the "too-remote-to-care" section of the public consciousness.

To the author’s credit, observing his street-level apocalypse was no small feat; it takes a certain kind of perverse dedication to write a book constrained by the two measly curb lines of one single street. Unfortunately, his literary engine often stalls. His prose is more a descriptive flood, drowning out any fresh, compelling buds of a good story beneath a deluge of excessive detail. If only the writing had been less waterlogged than the church basement.

[Sherri · Rating 3 out of 5]

In 2023, acclaimed author and activist Mike Tidwell embarked on a transformative journey, dedicating an entire year to documenting the profound effects of climate change on his own urban block, nestled along the border of Washington, DC. His memoir, The Lost Trees of Willow Avenue, strongly illustrates the climate crisis through the intimate lens of his neighborhood, highlighting the alarming loss of majestic oak trees driven by extreme weather and disease.

But Mike Tidwell’s narrative extends far beyond struggling trees. He shares the heartfelt stories of his neighbors battling Lyme disease, a church grappling with flooding despite its solar panels, and young residents wrestling with the daunting choices of whether to bring new life into an uncertain world. Set against the backdrop of 2023’s unprecedented global temperatures and destructive wildfires, this compelling tale resonates with urgency.

In exploring potential solutions like geothermal energy and innovative ways to utilize dead trees for carbon storage, Tidwell shines a light on community-driven initiatives—local tree planting campaigns and recycling programs—that, while modest, hold the power to inspire meaningful change. The Lost Trees of Willow Avenue is a clarion call, emphasizing the importance of addressing the climate crisis to safeguard our planet for future generations. This book isn't just a personal account; it is a rallying cry for action in the face of environmental challenges that affect us all.

[Jocelen · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book brings the issue of climate change into clear focus by addressing how it is affecting the author’s own backyard and neighborhood. From the immediately visible effects in the community of Takoma Park, Maryland, to the global impact, the author writes about climate change in a highly relatable way. This book is about real people (often using their real names) facing the challenges and heartbreak presented by global warming.

The author writes about potential solutions and mitigation techniques without getting too technical. The book makes clear that our situation right now is pretty dire - we have done too little, too late to halt or reverse global warming. However, it also leaves some hope that by using our human ingenuity and “attacking” this problem on multiple fronts we could slow the progress of climate change.

After reading this book I am determined to not only make personal choices which reduce my dependence on fossil fuels but also work hard to encourage my local and national infrastructure (governmental and corporate) to invest in clean energy solutions.

[Michael Chimes · Rating 5 out of 5]

Mike Tidwell has kept this book centered on his neighborhood and the people he knows, and at the same time he's managed to shed light on a variety of global climate change issues and potential solutions. The book brings heightened awareness to the consequences of climate change in ways everyone can understand.

Personally, I was especially interested in the book's discussions of geoengineering and sequestering trees as ways humanity might push back against rising global temps. But another reader might find Tidwell's recounting of local flooding or his profiles of climate scientists involved in climate change research to be of particular interest. In short, there's a lot to pull you in and as a reader, you can't help but think what you're learning about is important.

I would highly recommend this book to people who want to broaden their understanding of climate change and the very real challenges it presents to all of us right now. And I'd go a bit further; get a family member or friend to read it as well. The more of us taking each day as an opportunity to understand and actively fight against rising temps, the better.

[Mathieu · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a different perspective on climate change. Most writings talk about climate change from the global perspective of how humans are changing the climate. This book brings it home to a typical (in the USA) suburban or small town perspective.

Through the loss of suburban trees, the majestic trees under which so many of us live or have grown up under, Tidwell describes how this visceral impact of climate change motivated him and others to research and work for solutions. He describes the global problems and causes that are well known, and then some of the proposed ways of fixing or slowing human caused climate change. He also describes how this does impact local neighborhoods, using his own community as the primary example.

Tidwell offers some avenues of hope, but not many, as the reality is harsh. He encourages the ongoing efforts at education, research, clean energy, and carbon storage, while acknowledging that "Donald Trump's reelection is a clear setback for efforts to address this emergency." (p. 263) This book is a good addition to the ongoing discussion and enlightenment so necessary in this society.

[Natalie Pien · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was hard for me to put down. I'm a climate activist myself and on the Chesapeake Climate Action Network Board of Directors for which Mike is the executive director. Reading Mike's work is so different than attending a board meeting and I was enthralled with the book. Each chapter is filled with information about what causes observations, such as how exactly do giant oak trees and other species suddenly die due to climate change impacts? Observations are not limited to observations of nature, but also observations of human behavior; and Mike provides behavioral science studies to offer explanations for seemingly illogical behavior. Not only do we glean the carefully researched information secured by an investigative reporter, we also learn about the people in Mike's neighborhood as well as the people he meets in investigating the devastating problem. Mike's story telling ability to develop each character in the book makes his book extremely readable. I enjoyed it immensely and recommend it to anyone who likes a good story and is open to learning a lot!

[Miriam Kahn · Rating 5 out of 5]

Tidwell keeps a monthly account of the death of oak (and other) trees in his Maryland neighborhood, most specifically on his street. Through it all, the author talks about climate change and its effect on trees in general and on the environment as a whole.

Drawing from science, nature, botany, climate data, and first-hand observation, he lays out the case for paying attention to the world around us, for recognizing that being conscious of how what we do and the energy we expend affects everything.

There’s lots of discussion about global warming, wind farms, solar panels, and many of the advances we’ve made in terms of pushing back the clock on environmental destruction through 2023.

Published in 2024, readers will be faced with the reality of 2025 and the government’s rollback of many environmental protections and advances.

Read it and make an effort to at least recycle, plant more trees, and use less fossil fuel. And try not to weep at what Congress has wrought.

Thanks to the BookLoft of German Village (Columbus, OH) http://www.bookloft.com for an ARC to read and review.

[Isaac collie · Rating 4 out of 5]

In a world of such uncertainty and fear surrounding the topic of climate change, this book does quite a wonderful job of breaking it down to a local viewable level.

Through the discussion of the own Oak tree on his street Mike shows us the impacts of climate change on a level that any individual could look outside their own home and relate. Through the conversations between himself and his neighbors, family, and friends Mike shows us how each of us is affected and can affect the outcome of climate change.

This book also discusses the solutions being research by climate scientist right now. Climate engineering, carbon recapture methods, and carbon sequestration are just some of the solutions discussed in this book.

In the end, the lost trees of Willow Avenue are still dead, but there is always hope where there is a dream. Continued efforts are still underway and will continue to be for as long as we live.

[Georgianna Morgan · Rating 5 out of 5]

I’m a climate and environmental supporter. Our survival depends on survival of our pkanet and inhabitants including animals, insects, plants, etc. I found this local story of the trees on willow, carbonization or burying of trees, geothermal info very informative as I was unaware of such methods. I am thankful we have people like Ming and the author working so hard for a healthy planet outcome. I enjoyed the book and trying my best to support climate activity. Donald Trump is doing everything he can to reverse this. I’ve decided as you quoted, “Even if I knew that tomorrow the world would go to pieces, I would still plant my apple tree. Martin Luther King”. I have six trees growing on my hillside now 5 dogwood and 1 redbud. I also planted a crimson maple tree. I’m supporting sempivirens for redwoods, multiple wildlife sanctuary’s and union of concerned scientists. Thank you for inspiring me.

[Brenda · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book sounded really interesting but I've read enough to know that a book like this can go one of two ways, either fascinating or a tedious read. I was thrilled from page one when I realized this was going to be far from tedious and was absolutely fascinating. Tidwell a former freelance author turned climate activist, tracked the life and demise of trees in his neighborhood for one year. Beautifully written, excellent information delivered in a storytelling way, at times extremely touching while still being informative. Meeting the people he met throughout this year, on the pages of this book, felt like a privilege. Each chapter started with a very moving picture. Whether you're a tree lover, a tree hugger, a climate activist, pro eco-friendly, a naturalist or whatever, this is an excellent book!

[BookBrowse · Rating 4 out of 5]

Although the book's scope might initially seem overly provincial, the strategy of understanding global phenomena through a local microcosm is very effective. I had a personal reason for wanting to read this: I was born in Takoma Park. Although I've now lived in England for 20 years, I hear from my sister about Maryland's weather, such as the rise in tornadoes, which never happened when we were children. Wherever we live, all of us will have more examples of crazy weather, as former rarities become commonplace. It may be sobering to sit with the facts of climate breakdown while reading a book such as this, but knowledge empowers collective action.
-Rebecca Foster

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