This summer, for the first time, I began paying attention to trees. It’s odd that I hadn’t previously noticed the wide variety of species that covers 30 percent of the globe. I’ve been birdwatching my whole adult life, and a good place to see a bird is somewhere in a tree. Why had I neglected to appreciate and catalog all the types of trees in the same way I have with birds for twenty years?

Befriending your backyard sycamore can change your relationship with the natural world.