A BLACK AND WHITE WORK IN PROGRESS

Illuminated Snag, 2013

One of the things that gives the ancient redwood forest a sense of timelessness is that the monuments to the ancestors remain for a very long time. In this old-growth grove, most of the trees are mature, and it is these that capture the attention. There are younger trees, but I do not notice them as much. The sheer size and mass of the giants tend to overwhelm my senses, and rightly so.

The forest that we live in on Fickle Hill, is comprised of mostly second, third, and perhaps fourth -growth redwoods. We know of a few old growth trees in the community forest, but they are very rare, and are with one exception, living snags.

That is why I love going to the protected forests. It is there that I can get a sense of what these environments were really like two hundred years ago. I am grateful for those who fought to save what  they could, and it does not get any better than at Prairie Creek State Park.