Hear SIU forestry professor’s Earth Day message in original song

CARBONDALE, Ill. (KFVS) - A Heartland educator and conservationist is putting his message to music.

A professor in SIU Carbondale’s School of Forestry and Horticulture, Dr. Michael Baltz has dedicated years to helping people understand the importance of caring for the environment.

His latest effort is a new original song, titled “How to Love a Forest.”

“Forests are an interesting animal,” Baltz said. “People look at them and they don’t really understand them. And as a forestry professor, the reality is that there are a lot of threats to forests, and that forest management is actually something that’s important in forests in the 21st Century.”

He said management can include things like prescribed burns and invasive species control.

“Even sometimes cutting some trees is how you sort of tend to the forest if you’re a good steward, so if you listen to the words of the song, all that information is sort of conveyed...but in a kind of upbeat and happy way, you know, not depressing and preachy.”

Baltz said his inspiration for the song came from Ethan Tapper’s book of the same name.

People can find “How to Love a Forest” on streaming platforms under his stage name, Michael Eric.