Trent Preszler - Evergreen

A Book with Legs

Smead Capital Management

Management, Investing, Business

4.2 • 1.1K Ratings

🗓️ 5 January 2026

⏱️ 71 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

In this episode, learn about how evergreen trees have uniquely shaped America as we know it today, impacting how we build our homes, celebrate holidays, and more. In fact, the American Revolutionary War might have really started with the Pine Tree Riot, which happened a year before the Boston Tea Party! Smead Capital Management CEO and Portfolio Manager Cole Smead is joined by Trent Preszler, author of “Evergreen: The Trees That Shaped America.” Trent is also a professor of practice in the Dyson School of Applied Economics and Management at Cornell University and serves as director of the Henry David Thoreau Foundation's Planetary Solutions Initiative. To hear more, check out the full episode!

Transcript

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0:00.0	You're listening to A Book with Legs, a podcast presented by Smead Capital Management.
0:08.1	At Smead Capital Management, we advise investors who play the long game.
0:12.4	You can learn more at Smeadcap.com or by calling your financial advisor.
0:40.6	Welcome to a book with legs podcast. I'm Cole Smead, CEO and portfolio manager here at Smead Capital Management. At our firm, we are readers, and we believe in the power of books to help shape informed investors. In this podcast, we speak to great authors about their writings. The late great Charlie Munger prescribed using multiple mental models and analysis.
0:45.1	We analyze their work through the lens of business, markets, and people.
0:53.8	In this episode, we will talk about the history of a particular group of conifers, their use, their problems, and in some respects their future.
0:59.3	Joining us as Trent Pressler to discuss his book, Evergreen, The Trees That Shaped America.
1:02.0	A little background on Mr. Pressler.
1:07.2	He is a professor of practice in the Dyson School of Applied Economics and Management at Cornell University and serves as director of the Henry David Thoreau Foundation's Planetary Solutions Initiative.
1:12.3	He serves on the board of directors of one tree planted, a nonprofit focus on restoration
1:16.4	projects in 72 countries. Trent received a BS from Iowa State University and a master's in PhD
1:23.7	from Cornell University. And my last fun fact on Trent is he also interned in the
1:29.5	Clinton White House. So Trent, thanks for joining me today. Hey, thanks for having me. It's a pleasure.
1:35.0	So, like, you know, I let, there's more to your background in bio, obviously, I didn't, that I didn't
1:40.0	go into, but why evergreen trees? Like what hit you one day?
1:45.5	Was it something in your background of planting or what kind of captivated your mind on this
1:50.6	subject?
1:51.6	Well, there was one day during COVID, during the first COVID Christmas, when I'd been home
1:56.7	alone for too long and hadn't talked to or seen any people in a while, and I decided that it
2:01.3	might cheer me up if I left the house to go buy a Christmas tree. So I put on my mask and I drove
2:08.4	to this tree farm a couple miles from my house on Long Island where I was living at the time.
2:13.4	And I pull in, and it's one of those Christmas extravaganza. So it has the ice skating rink and
	...

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