Making Kin with Trees: A Conversation with Solvejg Nitzke
Free, online, March 18, 2026
Making Kin with Trees: A Conversation with Solvejg Nitzke
Wednesday, March 18, 2026
12:00 - 1:00 pm Central US Time
Join us for this free online program from The Plant Initiative!
Join a conversation with author and scholar Solvejg Nitzke about her new book Making Kin with Trees: A Cultural Poetics of Interspecies Care
This conversation with environmental humanities scholar and author Solvejg Nitzke will explore intriguing questions that are raised in her recent book Making Kin with Trees. A Cultural Poetics of Interspecies Care such as: Is it ok for scientists to be, or to admit to be, tree huggers? What does referring to oneself (even ironically) as a "tree hugger" reveal about one’s stance toward trees, such as their potential sentience? Are there ways in which science and storytelling should or shouldn’t be connected?
What are the barriers between intellectual and emotional connections with trees, and what are the reasons for and results of these barriers? How does science and nature writing about trees impact caring about trees? Are there ways in which non-fictional writing about trees can foster future co-existence?
The conversation will be moderated by Laura Pustarfi, a Plant Initiative board member.
Join us for this free interactive program!
There will be time for questions from the audience following the discussion. This free program will be livestreamed with a link to be sent to participants before the event and will also be recorded and available for viewing online afterwards.
Note: A 20% discount is available for books purchased directly from the publisher at this link using the coupon code PALAUT.
About Solvejg Nitzke
Dr. Solvejg Nitzke is interim professor of comparative literature at Ruhr-University Bochum, Germany. Her research focuses on the production of knowledge under precarious circumstances. She writes about science fiction, catastrophes, climate change, nature writing and literary and cultural plant studies.
Solvejg's recent publications include: Plant Poetics. Literary Forms and Functions of the Vegetal (edited with Joela Jacobs and Isabel Kranz, Brill 2025); Making Kin with Trees. A Cultural Poetics of Interspecies Care (Palgrave Macmillan, October 2025) and her nature writing monograph The Elegance of Ferns. Portrait of a Botanical Marvel (translated by Helge Dascher) which will be published with Greystone Books in May 2026.
The Plant Initiative Podcast - With Pam Montgomery, January 16, 2026
The Plant Initiative is posting podcast episodes on our YouTube channel.
Our seventh episode, recorded on January 16, 2026 features an inspiring conversation between author and teacher Pam Montgomery and Plant Initiative board member Sue Fager. Topics include plant communication, the power of plants, and plants as helping partners in working for a better future!
If you'd like to watch another recent webinar by Pam Montgomery "Can Plants Save the Planet?" from December 9, 2025, check out a link to a recording of that program from Organization of Nature Evolutionaries here.
January 2026 Monthly e-mail newsletter
Each month, The Plant Initiative sends out an e-mail newsletter to provide timely information and resources about improving the plant-human connection as well as to keep you up to date on our work.
Here's the link to the January 2026 e-newsletter which was sent on January 15, 2026.
To subscribe to the e-newsletter, just visit our home page and enter your e-mail address on the form on that page. If you have a suggestion for a resource, event, or other item that may be of interest to subscribers, please consider sharing it with us at info@plantinitiative.org.
Thank you for your interest!
16 grants awarded by the Plant Initiative in October 2025!
We are pleased to let you know that 16 grants were recently awarded by The Plant Initiative!
These grants totaling $8,000 were provided in October 2025 to organizations working to increase respect for plants, encourage ethical behavior toward plants, and/or to support development of an effective movement toward these goals.
Grants of $500 each were provided to:
Aldo Leopold Foundation (Baraboo, WI) to purchase and plant an Eastern Redbud tree to be planted in a special ceremony in April 2026 as part of the Leopold Memorial Garden in Baraboo, Wisconsin, marking the spot where noted conservationist Aldo Leopold died fighting an escaped grass fire in 1948.
Center for Democratic and Environmental Rights (Spokane, WA) to support CDER's work in advancing the rights of small farmers to seeds and to recognize the right of the seeds themselves to be protected (and not corporatized, genetically engineered, or driven to extinction by being deemed illegal), with the grant focused on supporting CDER staff time and travel.
Center for Plant Conservation (Escondido, CA) to support the Center's work as part of Florida Plant Rescue which is seeking to preserve approximately 240 globally rare plants of Florida in genetically representative collections, with the grant used towards purchase of materials for ongoing curation research for rare and exceptional species that require special storage methods such as liquid nitrogen or tissue culture.
Dogwood Alliance (Asheville, NC) to expand the Alliance's grassroots advocacy efforts to protect the forests of the US South by strengthening volunteer and community outreach, including purchasing needed tabling supplies to help to more effectively engage the public at community fairs, educational events, and outreach opportunities.
Earth Law Center (Durango, CO) to support the Center's work on the rights of plants and plant personhood, with the grant specifically helping to cover travel expenses for Center staff to engage with communities in the Peruvian Amazon to advance the interconnected rights of stingless bees and pollinated plants as an ecological unit.
Global Alliance for the Rights of Nature (San Francisco, CA) to support plant-centered storytelling and education in GARN's participation at the COP30 UN Climate Change Conference in Belém, Brazil in November 2025, including designing and printing educational materials, supporting translation and dissemination costs, and contributing toward GARN's Indigenous Council programming.
Kerulos Center for Nonviolence (Jacksonville, OR) to create a free 10 - 12 minute overview video and marketing/outreach which describes the Center's online course Waking to the Tree: Science and Practices to Deepen Understanding and Connection with Plants which aims to introduce learners to plant sentience and consciousness through science and mindfulness meditation and to help participants to develop a personal ethos and connection with plants.
LYRA (Liberty, SC) to print and mail 30 gift copies of the book Entosophy: The Wisdom of Trees to selected individuals, schools, and organizations, and to purchase sound equipment such as an amplifier and microphone to facilitate clear communication at workshops, festivals, classes and other venues where the stories, songs, and medicine of Tulip Poplar and its fellow Green Beings are shared.
Mandaamin Institute (Elkhorn, WI) to support the Institute's work to re-find a more collaborative and productive kinship with maize based on working together in partnership, with the grant helping to cover costs associated with the Institute's field day held in September 2025 near Elkhorn, Wisconsin showing farmers and others how the Institute works with, lives with, and thinks about corn.
Native Seeds/SEARCH (Tucson, AZ) to seed Native Seeds/SEARCH's Conservation Farm's rainwater harvesting basins with a mix of native grasses and wildflowers which will help to transform the basins into vibrant, self-sustaining ecosystems to support NS/S's dry-farmed seed crops and the broader desert environment.
Old-Growth Forest Network (Easton, MD) to help offset the cost of the Network's ArcGIS Online subscription which allows for layering internal forest data with public forest maturity data to create maps that guide fieldwork and highlight where old growth is most likely to be found, as well as to help with the development of the Network's first interactive StoryMap being launched in late 2025.
Organization of Nature Evolutionaries (Danby, VT) to support the production and outreach of ONE's free annual webinar, "Can Plants Save the Planet?", a live public program held each December which brings together visionary herbalists, plant lovers, and Earth advocates to explore the question: what role do plants pay in healing our planet - and ourselves?
Seacology (Berkeley, CA) in support of a project to help protect seagrass in Croatia from increasing threats of destruction, with project activities including increasing public awareness through workshops, teaching children, informative signage, mapping seagrass meadows, developing educational materials, and other public outreach.
TreeSpirit Project (Petaluma, CA) to produce a music video about the problem of destruction of wild forests being conducted under the guise of forest management and wildfire reduction by public agencies and others.
United Plant Savers (Rutland, OH) to support UPS's work to protect native medicinal plants, fungi, and their habitats while ensuring renewable populations for future generations, with the grant used to purchase a 12' x 60' shade cloth to expand United Plant Savers' nursey and propagation capacity for shade loving woodland medicinal species and to help complete a new agroforestry site currently in development.
WildEarth Guardians (Santa Fe, NM) to support efforts to encourage public participation in decision-making regarding protecting the increasingly threatened Joshua Tree in California's Mojave Desert, with the grant supporting educational materials, outreach, and communications.
With your support, The Plant Initiative plans to continue to provide grants in 2026 to organizations working on behalf of plants!
The Plant Initiative Podcast - with Kollibri terre Sonenblume, August 19, 2025
The Plant Initiative is posting podcast episodes on our YouTube channel.
Our sixth episode, recorded on August 19, 2025, features a rich conversation between plant advocate and author Kollibri terre Sonnenblume and Plant Initiative board member Sue Fager. Topics include plant advocacy, plant sentience and communication, plant blindness, and invasive plants!
the Plant Initiative's 2024 annual report
Check out The Plant Initiative's 2024 annual report to learn more about our work in the past year!
2024 was another year of growth for The Plant Initiative! As described in this report, we hosted 7 free online events, 2 podcasts, awarded 13 grants totaling $6,500, sent out our monthly e-newsletter to over 3.400 subscribers, and further built our presence on social media.
A big thanks to Plant Initiative board member Mya Hummel for donating the design for the report and to Betsey Crawford of The Soul of the Earth and photo-based artist Sara Angelucci for allowing us to include their beautiful photos of plants. Also, thanks to Vegan Printer for their generous discount once again on the printed version of the report.
As an all-volunteer organization with no paid staff, we have done a lot with a modest budget. Thank you for all of the support and interest you have shown over the past year!
Learn more about our work by reading or downloading the report here or by clicking on the report cover or the button below.
The plant initiative is a friend of the journal
The Plant initiative is pleased to be included as a Friend of the Journal by The Ecological Citizen, a peer-reviewed free-access online journal that is working for an ecological civilization. Issues are published twice a year and are full of articles promoting respectful relationship with all of Earth's diverse beings.