Trees, Deforestation and lost Knowledge

Sylvester Ogbechie writes in H-AfrArts:

Balanzan tree, Mali courtesy of Christiane Lauschitzky

Since tree rings are evidence of significant life of these trees, the deforestation and very young age of the remaining trees will soon probably render the question moot. As for asking the local people for their oral histories of these trees, don’t bother. Those who know this history, i.e. those who actually lived in an era when these histories was required learning, hence people like my kinsmen who saluted the great trees and saw them as custodians of knowledge, most of them are dead and long forgotten.