Four facts about water and forests are well-known and commonly accepted, but conflict with the commonly held view that trees use water to the detriment of water catchments: - trees can transpire relatively large amounts of water, which is often considered "lost"; - cloud condensation nuclei produced by forest canopies mean that forests may be important in clouds formation; - the atmosphere holds relatively little moisture, setting a limit to the amount of transpired water than can be retained in the atmosphere; and - most water vapour in the atmosphere does not travel far before it falls back to earth. The apparent contradictions amongst these four points pose the question: what is the fate all the water "lost" from trees if it is not retained in the atmosphere, doesn' t travel far , and is likely to be condensed over forest? Is evapotranspiration "lost " or does it fall nearby as rain? These are important questions, but are infrequently addressed because relatively few researchers take a broad systems view that includes the atmosphere, and a narrower focus on individual trees can lead to a different (and potentially misleading) conclusion.