What is the importance of "Maple Nation" in the book, Braiding Sweetgrass?

'Maple Nation' is an imaginary nation invented by Kimmerer, more as an example of a set of principles and to explore a set of questions than as a real goal. To Kimmerer, maple trees represent the land she lives on and are leaders of the plant community, thus she conceives of maple trees as being the governing heads of this nation. She also states that 'Maple Nation' would consist of a democracy of species, in which all living things were given equal weight in governance and taken care of equally. The reason she even begins to imagine such a place as 'Maple Nation' is because she yearns for a form of imposed responsibility through which human beings learn to and are bound to act honorably towards nature.