Primal Forests - Ancient Trees
The Exploration, Preservation, Spirit, and Aesthetics of Nature
One Month in Maine
I am spending a rainy windy day in my apartment in Acadia National Park. This is the first day I've just gotten back to some of those personal, internal intellectual activities I am so into in the winter: blogging, posting to favorite online groups about trees and forests, reading.
I see that the weather on a northern coast island is beautiful and awful in the way winter is- blustery, hard to venture out into for long periods of time, beckoning one to curl up at home under a blanket. Kinda like this in the summer too! I like days to do this. MDI has many cold stormy wet days, which is fine and may keep my inner life going a bit. I do want some sun on my days off for exploring, though. It is so hard to work in the paradise days of May, with new growth, high bright sun, warblers and flowers. Nature lovers should get the month of May off for religious reasons!
But yesterday was nice and I walked a virgin hemlock forest path, in deep melancholy yet love, for their plight, and also I entered my ecstatic reverie once again as I wandered a local natives garden which I so like. I am using it to learn MDI plants but it is also forming my vision of a garden I will one day create.
Recently the Maine Forest Service gave presentations on the Hemlock Wooly Adelgid and the Emerald Ash borer. It seems inevitable that these pests will march slowly on until these species too become only a memory, at least as the extraordinary ancients these trees are. It is so hard to stop these pests, when people are just not conscious, aware and concerned about something besides themselves. Yet I have to imagine that we might save the trees on an island like Mt Desert, where we have one road in and could well stop the import of the pests on wood. I think I will make this my mission in fact. We still have time up here...
I return to my joy and leave my melancholy as I walk on.
MDI now is astounding, with service berry trees and others in full bloom, the aspens like silver light, against rocky cliffs with these bright trees among twisted pines and spruce. It glows with indescribable subtle color of maroon new leave blending with the white and silver of flowers, the chartruese of new growth and the dark shadows of old pines, all laced with lichens.
I see that the weather on a northern coast island is beautiful and awful in the way winter is- blustery, hard to venture out into for long periods of time, beckoning one to curl up at home under a blanket. Kinda like this in the summer too! I like days to do this. MDI has many cold stormy wet days, which is fine and may keep my inner life going a bit. I do want some sun on my days off for exploring, though. It is so hard to work in the paradise days of May, with new growth, high bright sun, warblers and flowers. Nature lovers should get the month of May off for religious reasons!
But yesterday was nice and I walked a virgin hemlock forest path, in deep melancholy yet love, for their plight, and also I entered my ecstatic reverie once again as I wandered a local natives garden which I so like. I am using it to learn MDI plants but it is also forming my vision of a garden I will one day create.
Recently the Maine Forest Service gave presentations on the Hemlock Wooly Adelgid and the Emerald Ash borer. It seems inevitable that these pests will march slowly on until these species too become only a memory, at least as the extraordinary ancients these trees are. It is so hard to stop these pests, when people are just not conscious, aware and concerned about something besides themselves. Yet I have to imagine that we might save the trees on an island like Mt Desert, where we have one road in and could well stop the import of the pests on wood. I think I will make this my mission in fact. We still have time up here...
I return to my joy and leave my melancholy as I walk on.
MDI now is astounding, with service berry trees and others in full bloom, the aspens like silver light, against rocky cliffs with these bright trees among twisted pines and spruce. It glows with indescribable subtle color of maroon new leave blending with the white and silver of flowers, the chartruese of new growth and the dark shadows of old pines, all laced with lichens.
Add a Comment
-
Comment by Larry Tucei on June 13, 2009 at 12:59pm - Aleta, Excellent descritive writing. What upsets me the most is the Forest Service maybe reacts to slowly trying to control these invasive pests. We dicuss this alot on the ENTS discussion lists. Will has been the most active member trying to save as many Hemlocks as possible and to spread the word before they are a memory. Larry
About
Badge
Events
© 2009 Created by Edward Frank on Ning. Create Your Own Social Network
You need to be a member of Primal Forests - Ancient Trees to add comments!
Join this social network