Branching Reality
Tree Tag #3079 on Baylor's Sustainability Map
By Erich Scholz for Dr. Joshua King's ENG 2301: British Literature class, Fall 2025
This reflection is part of a series of “Tree Stories” by Baylor students that take root in their observations about a tree on campus, branch into connections between their tree and their experiences and education, and leaf out into a creative response to the tree.
Welcome
I hope this tree story will allow readers to question some of the things that are considered normal in society. Readers are walked through the encounter of a tree in today’s world and then are pushed into thinking critically about certain ideas by a unique poem.
Roots
The tree is a pecan tree, it is tagged on the BU trees website as #3079. This is a tree many students unknowingly encounter every day when walking to and from campus. The tree is a large co-dominant based tree that is located close to a road that leads away from campus. The tree splits at a little over 6 feet off the ground, this being the place where the trunk splits into two large branches. The tree looks relatively healthy and has a crown spread of 70ft and seemed different from traditional trees in the area. It spans outward with two large branches from the trunk, something not normal in most trees. Upon further research, this condition is referred to as a co-dominant structure that a tree can take which results in two stems growing in one spot. The family for pecan tree’s is Carya Illinoinensis, and the tree itself is native to Texas and North America as a whole. The pecan tree is the largest in its family, this family trees being known as hickory trees. The most common human entanglement with the tree today comes from its use as firewood and flooring. Texas A&M Forest Service speaks on how the wood from a pecan tree is not strong, which allows people to better use its wood for aesthetic and for barbeques. One of the interesting facts that stuck out was how the tree is the state tree of Texas, which many people in Texas surprisingly don’t know.
Branches
Today, I went to go look upon the pecan tree once more. This time, I noticed something different from the last time I saw the tree. There was a squirrel that had climbed up onto the tree and was jumping around on branches of the tree. Perhaps it was foraging for the pecan nuts from the tree, or maybe it was exploring the tree out of curiosity. Either way it was quite the peculiar site for eyes as it scurried throughout the tree.
One of my earlier readings from my English class in the fall of 2025 reminded me of an aspect of my tree. These lines come from William Wordsworth’s “Three years she grew in sun and shower”: “Even in the motions of the storm / A beauty that shall mould her form / By silent sympathy.”
These lines reminded me of the pecan tree I have been watching because the tree is no longer in a forest and surrounded by typical nature settings. I interpreted the storm as humanity and human innovation around the pecan tree. It is a tree that is shaped by the environment around it like our roads, sidewalks, or even people who walk on the soil above its roots. Though the tree was likely planted by humans, in this context it would have spent it’s entire life surrounded by an environment contrary to usual. In spite of being surrounded by human innovations, this pecan tree has survived and endured. Its form we see today has been molded based off those motions of storm like in Wordsworth’s poem. It is also interesting to interpret the storm like this, at least for me, because it makes me feel even more sympathetic for the tree since it is constantly at the front of humanity (the storm). This tree also reminds me of the tree in my backyard back at my family home. Back in 2020, when the large winter storm hit Texas, most oak trees in our neighborhood fell apart and lost their lives over the span of the storm. However, some few trees including the one in our backyard survived. Our tree had lost many of its limbs, yet was able to endure and re-grow based off the motions of that storm. So in a sense every environment that surrounds trees is a storm, whether a storm of winter or of humankind. Trees all around the world live through these storms which shape them into the form they have today.
Leaves
Introduction
For my creative response, I have decided to write a poem that highlights what I have learned from my English course, and some of my currents thoughts on society. In particular, I was inspired to pursue doing a poem in contrast to the other options from my English course. The poem that inspired me to do this comes from "The Dream of The Rood". In the poem, the author is the tree and it’s thoughts are laid bare for readers to read. This widely inspired the way I went about making my own poem below when going through something similar. I was inspired to mix it up this time around for my created poem. Therefore, my poem changes structure halfway through and adopts more of a "Dream of the Rood" style of writing. I also really wanted readers to question some of the lines of the poem and think about what they really mean. The other inspiration to write this poem comes from some of the things going on in the world and in history. The poem is shaped to help the reader think about the past few centuries and the effects of humans on life everywhere. But it doesn’t stop there, I wanted people to think about the effect people can have on other people in society. In particular, the widespread decrease in freedom, humility, and overall Christian ideas as the world continues to progress. I wanted my reader to hopefully come to a better understanding of the extent of humans controlling each other, and the loss of life by people who only take and never truly understand what it means to give. Things like cancel culture and social media have also recently exploded in popularity and are having their own effects on society. This poem is designed to help the reader question some of the things society has considered normal today, such as the destruction of nature in the creation of urban areas and cities.
Creative Response
Works Cited
“Texas A&M Forest Service - Trees of Texas - List of Trees.” Tamu.edu, 2025, texastreeid.tamu.edu/content/TreeDetails/?id=22&t=P.
“Sustainability Map.” Baylor.edu, 2025, sustainability.web.baylor.edu/sustainability-map/sustainability-map.