Tag: Trees

West Coast Wander, Day 3: Newport, Oregon to Eureka, California

The Day of the Tree.

We had a two-week vacation, and decided that it would be fun to drive down the coasts of Washington, Oregon, and California and then drop off our rental car and take a train back home. I’m calling this journey the West Coast Wander, and plan to blog about it every other day so as not to totally alienate those who have no interest in travel, and yet allow those who do to travel vicariously with us. Here’s the first in the series, if you want to start at the beginning.  I hope you enjoy it, dear reader.

I woke up hearing the sea lions barking at Newport’s waterfront. That made me smile. I wonder if I’d be equally enamored of them if I lived here and contended with that sound on a daily basis. No matter. I enjoyed it.

Once again we got a late start as errands had to be run first. Then we drove down the coast, enjoying Oregon’s gigantic rhododendrons and its equally impressive sand dunes. And more invasive Scotch Broom.

We happened upon a little free library covered with hand prints in North Bend (which, as I mentioned yesterday, is south of South Bend). Naturally we left some books behind. Then we stopped at the Port Orford rest area to enjoy the huge rocks in the ocean.

We passed Bruce’s Bones Creek, and I knew there had to be a story behind that name. Sure enough. A lazy Google search yielded this information: “In 1950 a crew was surveying for the new alignment of US 101. Bruce Schilling got lost and his buddies said they would find his parched bones next spring. Bruce did find his way back without mishap, however.”

I’m affectionately calling this “The Day of the Tree” because I would be seeing my very first redwood trees, ever. These trees are the tallest living things on earth. Pictures can never do them justice.

Once upon a time, there were about 2 million acres of old-growth redwoods on coastal mountains of California, but thanks to European immigrant expansion in the mid1800’s, these trees were viewed as dollar signs. Now only 5 percent of those redwoods still stand. Of those remaining trees, 35 percent are protected by Redwood National and State Parks, and I was to have the great privilege of visiting them.

Our first stop on our arboreal journey was to the Jedediah Smith Redwoods State Park, about 15 miles south of the Oregon border. Some consider this to be the most perfect of all the remaining redwood forests. I will definitely concede that it was the best one I was to see on this trip, bar none. I wish I could have seen them all.

We were gratified to discover that we’d have these trees mostly to ourselves. I have no idea why that was the case on that lovely spring day, but I certainly wasn’t complaining.

When you stand and look up, up, up, your jaw tends to drop. That’s a function of our anatomy. But in this case, the reaction wasn’t purely anatomical.

We were standing amongst the largest trees we would ever see in our lives. The tallest redwood is 370 feet. That’s 5 stories taller than the Statue of Liberty. You could stack up the three largest whales in the world, nose to tail, and they’d still fall short of that height by about 50 feet. These monster trees can be 30 feet wide at their bases, and they have a circumference of more than 94 feet. That means it would take about 17 people, arms outstretched, to envelop a full-sized redwood in an all-encompassing hug. Imagine.

I’m telling you to imagine this, but I have been imagining it for my whole life, and yet nothing prepared me for the reality of these things. Each tree can weigh more than 50,000 pounds, and could crush you like a bug without thinking twice. And that’s what I felt like. A bug. An ant. If trees have even the slightest bit of sentience, they probably don’t notice us at all. Some of these trees have been around for 3,000 years. To them, we’re gone in an instant.

It’s a humbling feeling. It puts things into perspective. I mean, in the overall scheme of things, who cares if your partner leaves the cap off the toothpaste all the time? These trees sure don’t. I mean, I’m sure they’d prefer it if we’d stop chopping them down and they’d really rather avoid all this global warming we’re causing, but other than that, we don’t even amount to a tick on a dog’s behind to them.

It’s actually liberating, standing in a forest that is so completely quiet that you can hear the trunks creaking and groaning when the wind blows. It makes you realize what a tiny speck you actually are in the universe. I have to stop taking myself so seriously.

It was kind of weird not seeing any squirrels. They’re not very common on the West coast. Lord knows why. But if I were a squirrel and I saw these gigantic things, I’d be in instant party mode. These groves ought to be squirrel heaven. Go figure.

We briefly considered visiting the Trees of Mystery, an attraction that would have allowed us to get up into the canopy of this forest, but the huge Paul Bunyan statue, complete with his blue ox Babe, was a bit of a turn off after gazing at natural beauty all morning. Besides, we had 313 miles to cover on this day, the longest drive of the entire trip, and time was sifting through the hour glass.

We enjoyed much more of Redwoods National Park as we drove, but we did not see the world’s tallest tree there, as it requires a hike and time was limited. Besides, we were suitably impressed with the trees we were seeing. We also stopped briefly at Prairie Creek Redwoods State Park, where we saw 18 Roosevelt elk calmly grazing by the roadside.

Speaking of grazing, it was getting dark and the sandwiches we had made for lunch were long gone. We were still in the middle of nowhere. Finally we came upon the small town of Trinidad, and had one dining option: Headies Pizza and Pour. It was too close to closing time to order a pizza, so we settled for their leftover pizza by the slice, and sat in the car to eat it. It actually wasn’t half bad. It sure beat starvation.

We had hoped to explore the town of Arcata, which has gorgeous Victorian houses and craft shops, and we did enjoy driving through it. It’s a pretty town, worth more time than we had. We also enjoyed driving around the campus of Humboldt State University.

When we finally rolled into Eureka, California to stay at the Carter House Inn, we understood why the town got its name. We were really glad to finally be there. We dragged all our stuff inside as quietly as we could, so as not to disturb the other guests, and then we almost instantly went to sleep.

Zzzzzz…

Check out Day 4 here.

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Mid-Month Marvels: PeaceTrees Vietnam

This organization was born out of grief, as many profound things often are.

A recurring theme in this blog is the celebration of people and/or organizations that have a positive impact on their communities. What they do is not easy, but it’s inspirational, and we don’t hear enough about them. So I’ve decided to commit to singing their praises at least once a month. I’m calling it Mid-Month Marvels. If you have any suggestions for the focus of this monthly spotlight, let me know in the comments below!

I first learned of PeaceTrees Vietnam because my Unitarian Universalist church donates the proceeds from its collection plate once a month to various charities, and this was the charity in question for January. It’s a Seattle based nonprofit, and it just so happens that an article about it had come out in The Seattle Times that very day as well.

This organization was born out of grief, as many profound things often are. Jerilyn Brusseau, the founder, lost her brother, Dan Cheney, when his helicopter was shot down during the Vietnam War. She knew that her grief was also the grief of countless other families, both in America and Vietnam. Healing was needed. She imagined both groups coming together to turn battlefields into places where new trees would be planted.

Fast forward to 1995, when the United States resumed full diplomatic relationships with Vietnam. That’s when this organization was finally able to take flight, both literally and figuratively. Much traveling ensued to make the necessary connections. The plan had expanded by then, because there is so much unexploded ordinance from the war that nothing could be peacefully planted on these former battlefields, let alone trees.

According to The Seattle Times article mentioned above, the US has dropped three times more bombs on Vietnam than they had on both fighting theaters in World War II. The heaviest bombing occurred in Quang Tri province, which is PeaceTrees Vietnam’s focal point. Only 11 of the 3,500 villages in this province escaped the bombing. The failure rate for these cluster bombs, shells, landmines and grenades was so significant that it’s estimated that 800,000 tons of unexploded bombs were left behind in the country, and to this day they still take out innocent children and farmers who are simply trying to survive to a shocking degree. There is much work to be done.

For the past 25 years, PeaceTrees Vietnam has been doing that work. They sponsored munitions experts to train landmine clearing teams. They educated children and families about avoiding bombs. They opened a landmine education center for children.

As the land began to become habitable again, PeaceTrees began building homes, kindergartens, libraries and community centers. They also have a scholarship program, and in addition they teach farmers how to grow black pepper in the now farmable fields.

I am very intrigued by the citizen diplomacy trips they hold each year. They allow you to travel to Vietnam and meet the people, visit the schools, watch the demining in action, and plant trees. There’s also time for tourism in the large cities. I’d love to take that trip someday. I think it would allow me to see the country in more depth than a simple tourist jaunt would.

The work must continue. Just recently, after some major flooding and the accompanying landslides, seven 500-pound bombs were exposed and had to be dealt with. Only 20% of the land has been cleared.

To learn how you can help support this organization in its noble efforts, please visit their website here. And since you’ve taken the time to read this far, perhaps take a moment to look about you and appreciate the fact that you can most likely walk anywhere in your area without worry about being blown to pieces. It must be terrifying not to have that sense of confidence. People in Vietnam are sometimes blown up while working in their backyard gardens. Next time I’m harvesting my garlic I vow to remember just how lucky I am.

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Trees Know More Than You Think

They remember. They learn.

I just read a fascinating article, entitled, “Never Underestimate the Intelligence of Trees” by Brandon Keim. It was both gripping and educational from beginning to end. I strongly urge you to read it.

Here are but a few of the things I learned from this article:

  • There is a fungal/root connection that allows nutrients to flow, but it also connects trees to each other.
  • They form networks with mother trees at the center of communities, exchanging nutrients and water.
  • Plants communicate. They perceive and receive messages, and will change their behaviors based on those messages.
  • They remember. They learn.
  • When a forest is under attack, it actually emits a defense chemistry that you can smell.
  • Trees can recognize seedlings that are related to them, and give advantages to those seedlings over those of a “stranger”. They are capable of making that choice.
  • When a plant is stressed out, it releases serotonin, just like we do.
  • If you clip a plant’s leaves or put a bunch of bugs on them, their neurochemistry changes. They send warning messages to their neighbors.

Mind officially blown. I think I’ll be seeing my next hike in the woods entirely differently. Hopefully this new mindset will give me comfort, rather than the creeps. Like I’m being watched. Like their talking about me. Hmm…

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Bonsai Drama

Bonsai are subtle. They’re peaceful. They’re quiet.

I have always loved bonsai. This is where nature meets sculpture. It is the careful cultivation of miniature trees so that they draw you in to their magical world. Bonsai tell silent stories. They make you hear wind and water even if it is not there.

They also carry with them a history of love and care. Many are extremely old and have been doted upon for decades. They have a way of creating a universe of their own, and they allow you to visit, provided you behave respectfully. Bonsai make you want to whisper as you walk carefully among them.

So I was delighted to discover that the Pacific Bonsai Museum is not far from me, and I plan to visit very soon. It will no doubt be the subject of another blog post. But I am heartbroken by the reason that this museum has come to my attention.

Bonsai are not about drama. They’re subtle. They’re peaceful. They’re quiet. But sometimes drama is visited upon them.

Recently two bonsai were stolen from the Pacific Bonsai Museum in Federal Way, Washington. (Read more about it here.) They were more than 70 years old, and each worth thousands of dollars. One of them had been cultivated from a seed, in a tin can, by a man who was held in an internment camp during World War II.

There is shadowy footage of two individuals walking in and just taking them in the early morning hours. It’s tantamount to an abduction. It’s horrifying. These trees require special care, and they’re not meant to be hidden away beneath a cloak of shame.

Fortunately, the thieves seem to have figured that out, because they left them on the road leading to the museum two days later, and they were discovered by security guards. One of them had been transplanted and had suffered some damage. The other one, thank goodness, was unharmed.

I don’t understand the instinct that some humans have when they see something beautiful and fragile and defenseless and can’t resist taking that thing and trying to possess it and ultimately ruining it for everyone. It happens all the time, and it defies logic.

We all should make space for quiet, tiny, beautiful things, and we need to share these things, gently and respectfully, with the wider world in a spirit of grace and generosity. To do anything less is uncivilized.

Bonsai

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Hug a Tree Right Now

We need to dwell amongst trees.

This:

I just read a study that determined that the more forests and shrublands in your county, the lower the Medicare costs tend to be for that county. (Read more about that here.)

And this:

Doctors are finding that just being in a forest, not even necessarily hiking or jogging, has a link to a decrease in stress hormones, reduced depression, anxiety, hypertension, diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and fatigue. (Read more about that here.)

And if the above wasn’t enough, there’s this:

An article entitled 21 reasons why forests are important discusses everything from our ability to breathe to their ability to cool us down and fight flooding to their feeding us and giving us medicine and jobs.

Forests are awesome. We need them. We need to dwell amongst trees.

As a bonus, I leave you with one of my favorite poems,  by Robert Frost, because this is how I try to live my life:

The Road Not Taken

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;

Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,

And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.

I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.

Happy Arbor Day, dear reader!

Forest

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EcoSikh

On Earth Day, I stand with the Sikhs.

I was feeling a little blue today about the state of the world, so I sought solace in The Good News Network. It always reminds me that not all news has to leave me feeling hopeless. That’s how I came across this uplifting article entitled Sikhs Are Celebrating the Birth of Their Beloved Founder by Planting 1 Million Trees in 2019.

There’s a large community of Sikhs in my town, and I have a great deal of respect for them, because they’ve always treated me with respect. Isn’t that how all human beings should treat one another? You’d think that would be obvious.

Unfortunately, since 2016, hate has been ramping up in America, to the point where one Sikh man in my town was in his driveway, working on his car and minding his own business, when a man approached him and said, “Go back to your own country,” and shot him in the arm. (Read the Seattle Times article here.) That’s scary.

My instinct in these situations is to try to learn more about people, not remain ignorant. Ignorance is where hate resides. So whenever I see anything about the Sikh culture, I read it with great interest.

After reading the above-mentioned article, I was drawn to the EcoSikh website, and yes indeed, 1 million trees is the goal, and Sikh communities the world over are taking part in it. Since the majority of Sikhs live in Punjab, India, every village there is dedicating themselves to planting 550 trees. Can you imagine? New forests are being planted! And Sikhs in Australia, England, Kenya, Canada and the US are on board as well.  And each group is making an effort to only plant trees native to their area. I find this really exciting.

Any group that has such a love for our planet is alright by me. May they succeed in their mission. I have planted a tree or three in my lifetime, so on this Earth Day, and indeed every other day, I stand with the Sikhs.

https _c2.staticflickr.com_8_7244_7215324156_7021d443df_b

Clicking Your Way to a Better World

I must admit that I spend entirely too much time on the internet. You do, too. Don’t believe me? What are you doing right now? Tiptoeing through the tulips? I think not.

(Not that I’m not happy to see you. I’d miss you if you weren’t here. I really would.)

Sometimes I think I really should make a permanent, all-encompassing change in my life and reduce my screen time to, say, an hour a day. But gimme a break. I’m as likely to do that as I am to give up pizza, and I have the thighs to prove it.

I do try to do the next best thing, though. There are quite a few sites out there that allow you to have a positive impact on the world simply by clicking a button. That’s amazing. I can save the world while staying comfortably potatoed on my couch. (Yup. Potato is now a verb. Because I say so.)

What follows are some of my favorite “positive click” sites. I hope you enjoy them as much as I do.

  • Ecosia. This is a search engine, similar to Google, with an important difference. For every 45 searches you do on Ecosia, they will plant a tree. They’ve planted more than 20 million trees so far. That makes me incredibly happy. So Ecosia is now my default search engine.

  • Free Rice. This is a fun site. You can feed the world while learning things. Basically, you choose a topic, such as English Vocabulary, or World Landmarks, or Language Learning, or SAT Test Preparation, or Human Anatomy, and you’ll then be asked a series of questions. For every question you get right, they donate 10 grains of rice to the World Food Program. 10 grains of rice doesn’t seem like much, but it adds up quickly. So learn stuff and feed people. It’s the ultimate win/win situation!

  • The GreaterGood. I cannot say enough about this site. Everything you do there will have a positive impact. They have various categories, such as Hunger, Breast Cancer, Animals, and Veterans, and if you go to those sections of the site once a day and click, you will be helping these causes, and it won’t cost you a penny. But beware. They also have a store, and it has the coolest clothes and shoes and jewelry that you have ever seen in your life. And when you buy an item, more donations kick in. For example, I bought an awesome jacket, and because of that, they donated 50 bowls of dogfood to an animal shelter. I think about that every time I wear that jacket, and it makes me feel even warmer.

There are all kinds of websites out there that have positive side effects. You just have to look. If you can suggest any other sites of this type, by all means, include them in the comments section, below! And keep on clicking!

make a difference

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The Sun Will Still Rise When the World Ends

It baffles me that wanting to save the planet is even the slightest bit controversial. What are the down sides to it? It may take time and money, yes, but those are things we won’t have anyway, if we continue to destroy the environment.

It seems that the most primal motivator for humanity is, unfortunately, greed. The worst perpetrators of global destruction are those who are exploiting resources to get every single penny out of them while they still can. To hell with the future. They are only concerned with instant gratification. They think trees were put on this earth to provide the wood to build their three-car garages.

Perhaps those of us who are ringing environmental alarm bells are going about this all wrong. Selfish people, by definition, care only about themselves. They are incapable of the concept that we need to put the planet first. To get them to hop on this life-or-death bandwagon, we need to make the issue about them.

Here’s what these selfish people need to know. We don’t need to save the planet. The planet is, basically, a rock that’s hurtling through space. There’s not much that we can do that is going to mess with that rock. We can burn the entire world to the ground, blow everything up, kill every living creature and leave not one drop of drinkable water on the earth’s surface, and that rock will continue on its path around the sun. The sun will rise and set, and the earth will spin, with or without us.

What we need to save is ourselves.

For humans to survive, we have to maintain the environment in a state that is conducive to humans. It behooves us to keep it from getting much hotter. It’s a good idea to make sure we can grow the food we need to eat. We may also want to think about the fact that we need air to breathe and water to drink. And maintaining this system is rather complex. It means that we need bees to pollinate, and a diverse web of flora and fauna, or the whole project will fall like a house of cards, and that, dear readers, will be the end of us.

So if you can’t be bothered to care about the planet, think about saving yourself.

Environment conflict

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Nifty Websites that Junk Mailers Do NOT Want You to Know About

It seems these days that the US Postal Service is mainly a purveyor of junk mail. When’s the last time you got an actual letter from Aunt Mabel? I miss those. What I won’t miss are the catalogs, flyers, credit card offers and magazines that I never asked for and do not want. With the holidays coming up, it will only get worse.

According to rainforestmaker.org, more than 4 million tons, or at least 62 billion pieces of junk mail are printed yearly. And 40 percent of that junk never even gets opened. Imagine how much more rain forest we’d have right now if each one of us stood up and said no to all this crap?

Well, you can do that. And it only takes a few minutes. Please visit this website and opt OUT of all this stuff today! It won’t cost you a dime. https://www.dmachoice.org/

And while you’re at it, opt out of getting phone books, too! Who uses phone books anymore anyway? https://www.yellowpagesoptout.com/

For countries other that the United states, if you have similar websites, please print the links in the comment section below. And if your country does not provide you with the ability to do this, ask them why not!

I may not be the Lorax, but I think I can speak for the trees on this one. Thank you.

rainforest

Contemplating Trees

Today is Arbor Day. I bet a distressingly small number of people are even aware of that. It is a day to plant trees and appreciate those trees that already exist. Today I’m thinking about the forest and our relationship to it.

Many rears ago, I used to vacation in Pisgah National Forest in North Carolina. I’d rent a cabin for two weeks, take my dogs and a whole bunch of books and groceries, and just go. I wouldn’t see another human being the entire time. I’d have no telephone and no television, and this was before the internet, so being on line wasn’t even a concern. I’d sit on the porch and read. I’d take a nap. I’d cook something and eat. But mostly what I’d do is watch the wind in the trees. Pure heaven.

My coworkers thought I was crazy. “Weren’t you scared?” they would say. But to be honest I wasn’t the least bit nervous. Not even for a second. Not even at night. It’s humans that are scary, if you ask me. No tree has ever done me harm. And there were no humans for miles. If a serial killer were persistent enough to find me, let alone kill me, then he would deserve to succeed after all that work. No, I am much more fearful in the big city than I am in the deep forest.

But forests show up in our myths and scary movies for a reason. When you are surrounded by pure nature, as far as the eye can see, you sense life. It’s easy to feel paranoid. Normally we place walls between ourselves and this type of life, so when you make the effort to surround yourself by a thick blanket of it, just you and nature, it can be overpowering.

I don’t look at forests that way. I don’t view them as malevolent. I feel the celebration of life. I see the beauty of creation. I feel embraced and at peace. I feel like I’ve come home.

forest

The woods are lovely, dark, and deep,

But I have promises to keep,

And miles to go before I sleep,

And miles to go before I sleep.

Robert Frost

As an extra treat, I give you this link. It’s a radio interview with David George Haskell, a biologist who spent a year studying just one square meter of old growth forest in Tennessee. He’d go there every single day and just observe. And he has some profound things to say about what he learned. “We find wonder in the world by giving the world our attention, not by running around the world to find the most wonderful place, but to look at our homes, look at the places where we are in a new light, and that light is the light of our focus and concentration. And by doing that, whether it’s in a square meter of forest or a particular trail through an urban neighborhood, or a tree in a park, as we focus in, we see more and more, and the riches unfold in front of us.” It’s a fascinating interview. Check it out.

Happy Arbor Day. Hug a tree, people!