Left Standing
A one-trunk bench for a land trust team
The ask
My sisters and I just sold our mother's hardwood forest to the land trust instead of the timber buyer, and their land team spent years raising the money to close. I'd like to thank all five of them with one thing they share. Our budget is around eighty-five thousand dollars.
The gift
A Tiquara bench by Hugo França, carved with a chainsaw from a single pequi trunk and long enough to seat the whole team. His pequi comes only from trees that fell, died or burned in the forests of southern Bahia, wood with no timber value, and fallen pequi this large is growing scarce. It is crated in Brazil and delivered to the trust's office.
Why it's extraordinary
They spent years making sure the trees on that land would be left standing. The whole bench is one tree that had already died, so nothing living was cut to thank them.
The moment
It stands in the front room of the land trust office, where the whole team sits on it together before walking out to the woods they bought.
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