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Pastimes : Don't Ask Rambi -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Crocodile who wrote (39626)	10/14/1999 11:17:00 AM
From: Gauguin	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 71178

No; I'm glad you made me remember it. Also, when you walk, the floor is so padded. So soft. Who knows how deep it is? And the light you mention. The foliage of the redwoods is that particular green, that when you see a branch within the grove lit by direct sunlight, it looks like a Mormon Temple wall mural. And that velvet brown.... Auburn. The super-corduroy bark. Craning your head back til it's sore..... Looking for the largest one in any group, walking around the trees. I've been to the Muirs many times. I had the good fortune to have redwood-lover parents, who took me to see them many, many times, from the time I was five or so. They would be discussing "where to go" and I was always excited when it was the redwoods. Man. Never disappointing. I always spent many hours playing in them in dozens of campgrounds and nearby woods. Running around and hearing the virtual drum sounds of the hollow floor; looking up and hurting my neck. Walking along the lime colored streams; having a warm sun pump up that melodious smell. Til it overflows. Guess I should take advantage of that trip. I remember the first redwood MJ saw. It was at night. She couldn't believe it. It was like she'd seen a dinosaur by the side of the road. Well, they're the same age, if you think about it. Redwoods have existed almost unchanged for 200 million years. They're very sophisticated and successful "primitive" trees. Gosh, I gotta go back. I can't do anything about waste, except not do it, but I can sure see why people get pissed off when they murder the few remainders of these giants. It's like if "Man" doesn't kill it, even passive things, he thinks it will sneak up and kill him. (The trees should be so lucky.) Their majesty is the real challenge, the challenge to leave them alone, instead of fear them as a threat. I know this sounds like an immature cliche, but I am immersed in these industries, and I can tell you where to shit. Logging is not just usage; it's "projecting." Don't let loggers and mill men tell you it's not about control; the woods are about "harvest." They're every man's Moby Dick. It's a challenge to fall the largest trees, to render them civilized, to "square them up." It's like killing the rivals. There's almost something homosexual about it. ("Not that there's anything wrong with that" ~ but there is something wrong with the perpetual need to "have things to cut." And frankly, they need to be the biggest things. It's like ritual murder. "Fall," a 12 foot thick two thousand year old Sitka Spruce, "lay down" the last Port Orford Cedar, and tell me it isn't a mental, sexual experience. Bullshit.) Redwoods are easy targets. They surely don't move so fast, are soft, compliant, and sometimes you can't hear them cry and shame you. You can't hear yourself cry and shame you. But the least you can do is GROW the freaking ones you want to cut. You say the lands you cut are sustainable yield harvest? Then what do you need with these? And, in the words of well, me, "If you can't grow em fast enough, tough shit." That's OUR problem. Farming I don't object to. I support. Rape and War are a different story. I guess appreciation of the trees and their defense are both human qualities; the trees can't do it themselves; not as long as they "consume space" and have "board feet" inside them. Sorry. I get mad sometimes. (I think it was that dog bite.) But there are some things you just can't take, or I'm going to get pissed off. The shoreline is one, and the old giants are another. (Whew. I'll try to be good.) Some of my favorite groves are on the Smith River. Been there?