Man has the distinction of being the smartest animal on the planet. So, when it came time to conquer the giant redwood trees and they didn’t have the equipment to do it they left them alone until they could design the equipment. Being smart, it didn’t take them long to figure it out and down came 95% of the oldest living things on earth. So, why did it take the smartest animal on the planet until only 5% of the trees were left to figure out that they shouldn’t have done it at all?
We got our first taste of what we thought were really big trees at our campsite in the Redwood National Park when we snuggled the rig in next to several of them. It made the campsite still, quiet, dark and a bit eery. It made one want to respect their place like an elder in a tribe, to listen to them, to learn from them, to give them the space they need to impart their wisdom after all, they had been there a long time and we were just visiting.
Then we went on a few hikes into groves of really big trees, ones estimated to be over a thousand years old and it made the ones at the campground look like saplings. I noticed other hikers moving about slowly and quietly. Were they trying to listen or were they struck dumb and in awe of their magnificence? Why didn’t the loggers feel this way?
Can you imagine what these trees have endured for centuries and still keep growing. We saw trees that were hollow and burned by forest fire and yet they still stood tall and continued to grow. We also saw some giants that had been toppled by time and were now a nursery for new plant life.
Some of the trees had been turned into carnival attractions and they, despite the major insult, go on thriving without most of their foundation and core.
There were times when walking through and driving among the trees made me feel like I was part of a fairy tale. These trees couldn’t possibly real, it’s just some kind of special effect to make it look like an enchanted other worldly place.
But, it was real, very real and amazingly beautiful. I just hope the Dudes came away from the experience with an appreciation for how valuable these giants of the forest are for it will be up to the next generation(s) to keep the remaining 5% safe from man’s destructive hands.
It’s time that the smartest animal on the planet develop another part of their brain, a part in which living in harmony with nature supersedes their desire to conquer it. After all, something that has managed to survive and thrive on it’s own for 2000 years deserves our respect and an opportunity to live for as long as it wants.
“This land is your land, this land is my land, From California to the New York Island. From the redwood forest to the Gulf Stream waters This land was made for you and me.” Woody Guthrie
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