Maya Lin's Ghost Forest in Manhattan Brings Climate Change Front and Center

Famed sculptor and designer Maya Lin has a powerful new installation entitled “Ghost Forest“. Located in the heart of Manhattan, the forest consists of 49 large, dying cedar trees, erected just like a natural forest might be. However, the dying trees symbolize the very real devastation that is impacting our woods and forests around the world.

Sourced from New Jersey’s Pine Barrens, the Atlantic white cedars were destined for removal, due to climate change’s impact on the surrounding areas.

Installed through winter 2021, the dying cedars will begin changing color as their life slowly seeps away, turning a ghostly grey.

When the installation concludes, the trees will be turned into furniture and mulch. Impactful, sad, and hoping to spur action, it’s another impressive project from Lin.

Via Design Milk:

“Climate change is threatening forests around the world and creating mass die-offs of once vibrant woodlands. They are referred to as ghost forests and this phenomena is becoming much more frequent as the climate changes more rapidly. The trees in Ghost Forest were suffering from of salt water infiltration and were being cleared as part of regeneration efforts in the Pine Barrens of New Jersey, an extremely vulnerable site of the Atlantic coastal pine barrens ecosystem which encompasses more than one million acres.”