The Cold Weather is Good for Something

Ben Potts Class of 2022 • January 31, 2026


I am not a fan of cold weather!  I enjoy working in the various Master Gardener Projects around the city, hiking with friends on most weekends, and puttering around in my own yard. I don’t enjoy any of those activities when air temperatures are below 30° and the wind makes it feel worse.


Forced indoors by the cold, I search for things to do. Maybe I read the newspaper and websites that I follow more thoroughly. Sometimes I clean the house more thoroughly, though I’ve found that my house looks a lot cleaner without much effort if I just take off my glasses! Finally, I might look at my bookshelf to see if there is a book I might enjoy rereading. 
Looking through my shelves a few weeks ago, I saw American Canopy Trees, Forests and the Making of a Nation by Eric Rutkow. I remembered purchasing the book a couple of years ago when a fellow NMG thought I might enjoy it because of my participation in the Significant Tree Project. A bookmark, fifty pages in, told me that I had never finished reading the book. 

It is a fantastic read about the history of trees and what they meant to this country from the time English settlers arrived through the 21st Century. It seemed appropriate to read it this year as we will be celebrating the 250th anniversary of the founding of the nation. Its 350 pages introduces us to men who saw the trees as business opportunities and others who saw their ecological value. You learn how trees helped win wars and how other trees were wiped out by disease and insects.   

Whenever I am around very large very old trees I think of all of the things they have witnessed on their time on earth. If only they could talk, I think. Author Eric Rutkow speaks not only for the trees in this book but also for past giants of the forestry industry, presidents who created our national parks, and environmentalists who fought for that to happen. 

If you find yourself at loose ends during this cold winter, or you like reading historical nonfiction, I highly recommend this book.