One of the brain twisters I used to ask my middle school children was, “What happens when you cut down all the trees in a forest?” To their reaction to such desecration I inform them, “They grow back!” It is awe inspiring to suddenly realize how many seedlings there are hovering on the floor of a forest just waiting for a chance at the sun. They grow.
I was reminded of the tenacity of life on one of my recent morning walks. One of our neighbors had a large, vigorous tree blown down in the last series of drenchings and wind storms. It was tragic, or so it seemed. They cleaned up most of the branches and broken wood but didn’t seem to be moving too fast on the stump. They leaned it back up and left it and I noticed something strange: Green sprouts were appearing. At this point the tree seems to be reviving itself from what seemed to be death. There are several vigorous mini-trunks reaching for the sky.
So I guess nature responds to its own attempts at suicide just as it does to man harvesting the bounty: It grows back.
homo unius libri
Those sprouts will never be truly stable, though, since the stump tore most of its roots.
ReplyDeleteYou would know much more than me on that. It seems like new roots would grow but I am a city boy lost in the woods.
DeleteGrace and peace