Re: Article: Trees Transform
Shepherd, thanks for the lovely and thought provoking essay. I spent time in Panama too and I still recall the way all the animals inhabited the realm of the trees! The monkeys would go tree to tree with such grace and ease I was quite envious. Thanks for sharing the illustrations as well. I have seen a rainbow bark tree, that is wonderful. I do believe the range of trees in our area is something to behold and treasure - to spend much time with as you suggest.
Jeff
Quote:
Posted in reply to the post by Shepherd:
By Shepherd Bliss
WaccoBB.net
Morning: Listening
Trees transform, shield, shade and provide oxygen, fruit, and beauty. They offer many other gifts. Without trees, humans would not survive. Through the magical process of photosynthesis, tree leaves and other green plants release oxygen by transforming carbon dioxide and water. As you walk into the woods, I invite you to experience the plant community. See and feel the trees and all that surrounds them—above, below, and around, in all directions. Feel the trees and what they hold and ground, together as woods and apart, individually. Each tree is its own self, with its own way of being and standing, or bending after contact with its dance partner, the wind. Borrowing a phrase from forester Aldo Leopold, changing one word, I invite you “to think like a tree.”
Consider this an exercise in ...
What is your favorite tree?
Mine is the rainbow bark tree, which I planted where I lived in a jungle in Hawaii. Its trunk is many-colored.
...
Re: Article: Trees Transform
Quote:
Posted in reply to the post by jar:
Thanks for sharing the illustrations as well.
The illustrations for Shepherd's wonderful article were selected by my new assistant, Ashley, and myself. :waccosun:
Re: Article: Trees Transform
Thank you so much, Shepherd for this lovely piece on trees and their place in our very survival. While living in Oregon I had the privilege of helping to salvage and reforest 7 acres that had been carelessly clearcut and literally "trashed." I also spent several years in Washington returning cow pasture to its native state of brush steppe in the foothills of Mt. Adams.
Ironically it was on a trip to Ireland many years ago in search of more authentic material for my repertoire that my affinity for trees was really peaked. I rounded a corner on a drive down the west coast of Ireland, looked at a barren hillside and felt a pang of loss in my chest. Somehow I intuitively knew it had been covered by trees in the distant past. I then researched and learned that under British occupation these great forests had been dessimated. The song "Bonnie Portmore" written several hundred years ago is a lament for the loss of the great oak forests that were clear-cut and turned into British ships of war.
I felt a deep sorrow for the loss of Irish forests, but I was even more distressed when children wanting to know what animals I had encountered in the wilderness of the American northwest and they shuddered and gasped in horror at each animal I mentioned. I realized they were so far-removed from the wilderness that our beloved creatures were part of a great fearful unknown. I returned to Oregon heavy-hearted and very cognizant of trees and their interwoven importance.
When I had the opportunity to help clean up a 7-acre parcel in Oregon I was fiercely committed to the idea that every little bit helps, that if each of us do SOMETHING to plant or save a tree, the effects would be monumetal. My son and I hauled away over 2000 pounds one pick-up load at a time.
When we opened the burlap bags with the tightly packed 3-4 inch seedlings we were overaken by awe as we felt a happy green spirit rise from the bag and wash over us. We looked at each other and gasped, "My God! Did you FEEL that?" It is laborious and dismal to traverse uneven hillside in the rain, popping in seedlings with a hoedad every 20-feet, but it was among the most sacred and rewarding experiences of my life. My awareness of each little seedling and its spirit will be with me until my last days.
Later I reclaimed cow pasture in Washington to native Ponderosa, Garry Oak, Choke-Cherry, Elderberry, Snowberry, Gooseberry, Quaking Aspen, Birch, Spruce, Wild Hazelnut, Wild Current, Hawthorn and much more. It The plants were large and required digging holes, not just popping in a hoedad. My work was slow and spread out over time. My sweat and my prayers mixed together in the digging and planting, and it remains an experience I want to repeat until I can no longer stand on this sacred earth.
Thank you again for your tribute to trees.
Marilyn O'Malley
Celtic Vocalist and Songwriter
Quote:
Posted in reply to the post by Shepherd:
By Shepherd Bliss
WaccoBB.net
Morning: Listening
Re: Article: Trees Transform
For the past two months sleeping under huge mature madrones at my place I have watched multitudes of birds stop over for red madrone berries, some even pausing long enough to moult new feathers. What a gift to, live on the pacific flyway. In the spring a pair of red tail hawks return to nest once again in the same tree and the fledglings take their first flight into these same madrones. Can heaven be better than this?
Quote:
Posted in reply to the post by jar:
Shepherd, thanks for the lovely and thought provoking essay. I spent time in Panama too and I still recall the way all the animals inhabited the realm of the trees! The monkeys would go tree to tree with such grace and ease I was quite envious. Thanks for sharing the illustrations as well. I have seen a rainbow bark tree, that is wonderful. I do believe the range of trees in our area is something to behold and treasure - to spend much time with as you suggest.
Jeff