Wanderers in Wonder

‘I think that I shall never see, A poem as lovely as a tree”.

Rather than having the gentle rhyming one of my mother’s favorite poems, Trees by Joyce Kilmer, easing our peaceful way along our trail to Pyramid Lake, or Ben Cosgrove’s piano interpretation of our friend Howard Mansfield’s writings in his most engaging book Chasing Eden: A Book of Seekers (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NeGakRo-EsY) our auditory systems were attacked by the WHOOP, WHOOP, WHOOP of helicopters and the…

incessant roar of planes attacking a fire on Sourdough Mountain across the canyon from where we tread.

From a distance the forests of the United States, north and south, east and west look, for the most part, green and healthy. Walk into the bosom of most forests and a different story unfolds.

The oldest trees which should withstand a natural forest fire are stressed from competing with the other less mature trees and underbrush which unnaturally create overgrown forests weakening them and leaving them susceptible to attacks from pests.

Many trees, green at the top which from a distance make them appear healthy, are kindling below their green crown. Forests need fires to remain healthy. Fires keep the underbrush down and allow the healthiest trees to thrive. a hundred years ago forest fires never ‘crowned’, that is fires never reached to the top of the healthiest trees, the forest’s canopy.

Today, at least in the West, there is so much kindling on the forest floor that fires almost always crown. These fires are so hot they can create their own weather systems and are virtually impossible to stop…see Canada 2023.

At the moment the only answer seems to be to suppress fires to protect homes and infrastructure. There appears to be no long-term solution on anyone’s table. These two firefighters were going up to check on a ‘hot spot’ smoke jumpers had suppressed the day before.

One never knows what visual delight Mother Nature may throw one’s way. Is that you Daffy?

“Poems are made by fools like me,