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Transcript

The Trees Speak · Relatively Stable

• 0:00
  [music]
• 0:11
  SPEAKER_00: The trees speak, and they don't care about my calendar.
• 0:21
  SPEAKER_00: A few weeks before we were married,
• 0:24
  SPEAKER_00: Christopher and I walked the woods at our old farm, scouting a spot to say our vows.
• 0:31
  SPEAKER_00: Tucked between old beech trees and a seldom visited section of the forest,
• 0:37
  SPEAKER_00: there was a large pond.
• 0:39
  SPEAKER_00: Its surface thick with lily pads and centered by a drain wheel like a submarine's,
• 0:46
  SPEAKER_00: locked shut by years of neglect and corrosion,
• 0:50
  SPEAKER_00: the water leaking slowly through a rusted pipe at the base of the dam.
• 0:56
  SPEAKER_00: Some years the pond filled to the brim,
• 1:00
  SPEAKER_00: other years it seemed to be receding, draining slowly into the memory of the woods.
• 1:07
  SPEAKER_00: The pond was fed by a spring that curved through the cavernous roots of old oaks,
• 1:13
  SPEAKER_00: exposed like swamp cypress and mythical in shape.
• 1:18
  SPEAKER_00: If you look closely, you'd see the outline of an animal in the sculpted roots.
• 1:24
  SPEAKER_00: Look again and you'd see the form of a human.
• 1:28
  SPEAKER_00: The water was temperamental like the moods of the neighbors who slowly encroached on the woods.
• 1:35
  SPEAKER_00: Christopher and I'd spent many hours at the Spring Head, terraced in weathered rock.
• 1:41
  SPEAKER_00: It was a bit of a hike from the farmhouse,
• 1:44
  SPEAKER_00: but after scouting other locations,
• 1:46
  SPEAKER_00: we decided that we'd guide our wedding guests down the hills in a single file
• 1:52
  SPEAKER_00: and stand beside the clear water of the shoals on the day of the wedding.
• 1:58
  SPEAKER_00: Knowing that we didn't own the land that the farm rested on,
• 2:01
  SPEAKER_00: we figured that anywhere between two trees would be a great place to make promises,
• 2:07
  SPEAKER_00: because wherever we went in the world,
• 2:09
  SPEAKER_00: we'd be able to find two broad trunks to mark the spot.
• 2:14
  SPEAKER_00: As we counted down the days to our wedding, we made many trips to that place beside the pond.
• 2:21
  SPEAKER_00: It seemed like the perfect spot.
• 2:24
  SPEAKER_00: Until the very reason we chose to hold the ceremony there told us
• 2:28
  SPEAKER_00: in no uncertain terms that we needed to reconsider.
• 2:32
  SPEAKER_00: A tree spoke.
• 2:35
  SPEAKER_00: It wasn't a windy day.
• 2:37
  SPEAKER_00: The tree wasn't diseased or damaged.
• 2:40
  SPEAKER_00: It was the same tree we had seen countless times before.
• 2:45
  SPEAKER_00: You can find a video of the tree talking in this post if you click on Stable Roots on Substack.
• 2:52
  SPEAKER_00: The sound is faint in the recording,
• 2:54
  SPEAKER_00: but it was so loud and continuous as we stood in the woods that day listening,
• 2:59
  SPEAKER_00: trying to capture the noise that sounded like weeping or music,
• 3:04
  SPEAKER_00: the pitch changing in volume and tone.
• 3:08
  SPEAKER_00: We decided to hold the ceremony in a different spot.
• 3:12
  SPEAKER_00: I'm glad we listened to that tree.
• 3:16
  SPEAKER_00: A few days after the wedding, Hurricane Helene tore through the forests.
• 3:21
  SPEAKER_00: Like dominoes falling, the landscape was altered.
• 3:25
  SPEAKER_00: And soon I was bringing my estranged father home to live with us.
• 3:29
  SPEAKER_00: And then we lost the farm entirely.
• 3:32
  SPEAKER_00: Throughout it all, the trees continued to speak to me.
• 3:36
  SPEAKER_00: They're still speaking to me today.
• 3:41
  SPEAKER_00: Drought and flood, hot and cold.
• 3:44
  SPEAKER_00: The trees, like us, are at the mercy of the elements.
• 3:48
  SPEAKER_00: We moved into Lavender Hill in September of last year,
• 3:51
  SPEAKER_00: when the trees were still heavy with summer foliage.
• 3:55
  SPEAKER_00: We've had time now to live four seasons together.
• 3:59
  SPEAKER_00: As humidity drenches the bowels,
• 4:02
  SPEAKER_00: the trees and I are motionless together in the heavy July air,
• 4:06
  SPEAKER_00: my roots creeping downward to withstand the next buffeting storm.
• 4:12
  SPEAKER_00: We inherited acres of Hurricane Helene damage when we moved to this land.
• 4:17
  SPEAKER_00: The farm was vacant when the winds tore through,
• 4:20
  SPEAKER_00: no livestock in the fields,
• 4:22
  SPEAKER_00: so the massive trunks of fallen trees were left like monuments along the wood line.
• 4:28
  SPEAKER_00: The root ball of one toppled white oak near the creek is unbelievable in size,
• 4:33
  SPEAKER_00: even when you're standing beside it.
• 4:35
  SPEAKER_00: It's like uncanny valley in the woods.
• 4:38
  SPEAKER_00: My human brain can't comprehend the enormity of this tree facing the wrong direction.
• 4:45
  SPEAKER_00: This year, the South was already deep in a drought when we sank into the heat of summer.
• 4:51
  SPEAKER_00: Every so often, rain fell for days like little monsoons, followed by weeks of bone dry weather.
• 5:00
  SPEAKER_00: In every season we've lived here so far,
• 5:03
  SPEAKER_00: storm winds have brought down an expected number of branches.
• 5:07
  SPEAKER_00: But recently I've noticed large boughs from healthy trees dropping in still weather.
• 5:14
  SPEAKER_00: I walk hurriedly along certain sections of the fence lines as I work
• 5:19
  SPEAKER_00: because I've watched certain old trees drop limbs the size of their brethren.
• 5:25
  SPEAKER_00: It isn't just happening on our land.
• 5:27
  SPEAKER_00: My great grandmother's house is lined by oaks and they are also ejecting branches,
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  SPEAKER_00: like distressed ships dropping weight.
• 5:36
  SPEAKER_00: And so many other people are telling me about
• 5:38
  SPEAKER_00: the random branches falling off their trees this summer.
• 5:43
  SPEAKER_00: As we wait for the tree company
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  SPEAKER_00: to schedule taking down some unhealthy suspects around the farm,
• 5:48
  SPEAKER_00: I'm paying attention to this pattern.
• 5:51
  SPEAKER_00: The trees are talking.
• 5:54
  SPEAKER_00: There are names for this phenomenon.
• 5:57
  SPEAKER_00: Dropped bowel syndrome, summer branch drop, sudden limb failure.
• 6:03
  SPEAKER_00: Arborists are familiar with this happening,
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  SPEAKER_00: but no one yet understands the mechanism or the purpose.
• 6:11
  SPEAKER_00: Whatever we call it,
• 6:12
  SPEAKER_00: it is a known fact that large,
• 6:15
  SPEAKER_00: Healthy-looking branches will suddenly break free from mature trees on hot,
• 6:21
  SPEAKER_00: still days, often without the warning of wind, decay, or obvious disease.
• 6:27
  SPEAKER_00: There are many theories about why this happens.
• 6:31
  SPEAKER_00: It could be the tree's internal plumbing shifting focus during times of drought,
• 6:36
  SPEAKER_00: the water system changing in response to heat and high humidity,
• 6:41
  SPEAKER_00: or it could simply be pressure along invisible cracks.
• 6:45
  SPEAKER_00: But no one knows why.
• 6:47
  SPEAKER_00: People who spend their lives working on and beside trees argue
• 6:52
  SPEAKER_00: about why trees drop branches in the heat of summer.
• 6:55
  SPEAKER_00: Whenever I find a new bough on the ground,
• 6:58
  SPEAKER_00: I marvel over how much the branch must have lived through before falling
• 7:02
  SPEAKER_00: without warning.
• 7:06
  SPEAKER_00: While filling out a grant application, I came across an actual int.
• 7:13
  SPEAKER_00: When a water oak fell without damaging a single fence after heavy rains contained
• 7:18
  SPEAKER_00: within the parentheses of drought early this summer,
• 7:22
  SPEAKER_00: Christopher had just finished walking the fence lines as he does every night
• 7:25
  SPEAKER_00: when arriving home from work.
• 7:28
  SPEAKER_00: I reached out to everyone for advice on the best arborists to tackle this tree
• 7:32
  SPEAKER_00: and many others we'd put on the bottom of the list at the farm.
• 7:37
  SPEAKER_00: We made great contacts and are anxiously awaiting the weather
• 7:40
  SPEAKER_00: and Hub City Tree Company to align on the schedule and build us a mound
• 7:46
  SPEAKER_00: of wood chips to use on the pathways,
• 7:48
  SPEAKER_00: while also removing the Widowmaker branch that is hung over the ditch on the street
• 7:53
  SPEAKER_00: since we moved in here.
• 7:55
  SPEAKER_00: When I put out my call,
• 7:57
  SPEAKER_00: someone sent me a link to a grant opening up in South Carolina
• 8:00
  SPEAKER_00: for cleaning up timber tracks damaged by Hurricane Helene.
• 8:05
  SPEAKER_00: I immediately registered and began compiling data, filling in all the blanks.
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  SPEAKER_00: To apply,
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  SPEAKER_00: landowners must either hire a South Carolina registered forester to walk
• 8:16
  SPEAKER_00: the property,
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  SPEAKER_00: measure the damage,
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  SPEAKER_00: and document the value of what was lost,
• 8:21
  SPEAKER_00: or accept a far more conservative estimate from the Forestry Commission.
• 8:27
  SPEAKER_00: The first forester I contacted told me he wanted to retire because his feet hurt,
• 8:32
  SPEAKER_00: but he gave me the name of someone he trusted.
• 8:36
  SPEAKER_00: There are 689 certified foresters in the state of South Carolina.
• 8:41
  SPEAKER_00: They are collectively responsible for 13 million acres of forest.
• 8:47
  SPEAKER_00: They belong to a profession so small that most of us will never knowingly meet one.
• 8:52
  SPEAKER_00: Yet they spend their lives translating the language of forests to those of us
• 8:57
  SPEAKER_00: who are too busy to hear the trees speaking.
• 9:01
  SPEAKER_00: I have since learned that foresters conduct timber inventories,
• 9:06
  SPEAKER_00: assess storm damage,
• 9:08
  SPEAKER_00: prepare long-term forest management plans,
• 9:11
  SPEAKER_00: appraise the value of standing timber,
• 9:14
  SPEAKER_00: oversee timber harvest,
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  SPEAKER_00: Develop reforestation plans,
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  SPEAKER_00: map forest stands,
• 9:21
  SPEAKER_00: evaluate wildlife habitat,
• 9:23
  SPEAKER_00: and prepare the technical reports required for conservation programs,
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  SPEAKER_00: disaster recovery grants, and sustainable management.
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  SPEAKER_00: Most of their work involves documenting the condition of a forest in a snapshot
• 9:37
  SPEAKER_00: while making recommendations that may not fully come to fruition for decades.
• 9:42
  SPEAKER_00: This is how I met Marvin.
• 9:45
  SPEAKER_00: I was so busy.
• 9:47
  SPEAKER_00: Let me rephrase that.
• 9:49
  SPEAKER_00: I am so busy.
• 9:52
  SPEAKER_00: I'm so busy right now that when I tried to explain that I was busy,
• 9:56
  SPEAKER_00: Amy in Knoxville gifted me a new Southernism that is now a part of my vernacular.
• 10:02
  SPEAKER_00: I am as busy as a one-handed paper hanger.
• 10:06
  SPEAKER_00: I'm so busy,
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  SPEAKER_00: I have no patience for anything around me that is not efficient,
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  SPEAKER_00: driven, and purposeful.
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  SPEAKER_00: I'm working 15 hour plus days and I'm routinely going to bed at 2 a.m.
• 10:18
  SPEAKER_00: and rising with the morning.
• 10:20
  SPEAKER_00: I explained my need for a forester to Marvin and he agreed to come walk the land
• 10:26
  SPEAKER_00: and fill out the 6,000 forms needed to complete the grant application.
• 10:31
  SPEAKER_00: I gave him my contact information and he put me on his schedule for
• 10:35
  SPEAKER_00: a potential possible meetup in three weeks.
• 10:40
  SPEAKER_00: I tried to wait patiently, but my foot started pattering.
• 10:45
  SPEAKER_00: At week four,
• 10:47
  SPEAKER_00: which I deserve a certificate or a medal for waiting,
• 10:50
  SPEAKER_00: I asked when I would finally get to see him.
• 10:53
  SPEAKER_00: The grant deadline was looming.
• 10:56
  SPEAKER_00: Marvin gave me the vaguest answer ever, but assured me I'd most likely see him on Thursday.
• 11:04
  SPEAKER_00: On that Thursday morning, I asked if he was coming.
• 11:08
  SPEAKER_00: He said he might arrive sometime in the afternoon if all went well.
• 11:14
  SPEAKER_00: I wondered if he had my address.
• 11:17
  SPEAKER_00: Late that Thursday afternoon,
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  SPEAKER_00: Marvin showed up looking like a caricature that I would draw if someone asked me
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  SPEAKER_00: to improvise a concept of what I felt a forester might look like.
• 11:29
  SPEAKER_00: He wore suspenders and brush gaiters.
• 11:31
  SPEAKER_00: He carried a walking stick.
• 11:34
  SPEAKER_00: His curly hair was professional yet unkempt.
• 11:37
  SPEAKER_00: He embodied the soul of an old man housed in a young face.
• 11:42
  SPEAKER_00: Marvin spoke slowly,
• 11:45
  SPEAKER_00: slowly, but there was deep intelligence and consideration to all that he said.
• 11:52
  SPEAKER_00: I met him on the edge of the riding ring and pointed to various points on the ridge
• 11:57
  SPEAKER_00: and in the forest for him to explore.
• 12:00
  SPEAKER_00: He set off through the mere pasture, and I really didn't see him after that.
• 12:05
  SPEAKER_00: He told me he would have his reports ready in a week.
• 12:09
  SPEAKER_00: After a week, I checked in.
• 12:11
  SPEAKER_00: He told me he needed another week and another.
• 12:16
  SPEAKER_00: This continued for a month until I received an email from the Department
• 12:20
  SPEAKER_00: of Agriculture stating that while the grant deadline remained in effect,
• 12:24
  SPEAKER_00: foresters had requested an extension on their reports so they could be filed at
• 12:29
  SPEAKER_00: a later date.
• 12:31
  SPEAKER_00: Even they had no control over a forester's timeline.
• 12:35
  SPEAKER_00: I had met an actual end.
• 12:39
  SPEAKER_00: In J.R.R.
• 12:41
  SPEAKER_00: Tolkien's mythology,
• 12:42
  SPEAKER_00: the Supreme Creator was asked by the Guardian of all growing things to give
• 12:47
  SPEAKER_00: the trees some defenses against axes and fire.
• 12:52
  SPEAKER_00: The Guardian wanted the forest to be given protectors who could speak, think, and move.
• 12:58
  SPEAKER_00: In response,
• 12:59
  SPEAKER_00: the creator promised that the shepherds of the trees,
• 13:03
  SPEAKER_00: the Ents, would awaken when the time was right.
• 13:07
  SPEAKER_00: The eldest and best known of the Ents is Treebeard,
• 13:11
  SPEAKER_00: who recounts much of their history in The Lord of the Rings.
• 13:15
  SPEAKER_00: Ents are ancient beyond measure.
• 13:18
  SPEAKER_00: They witness the rise and fall of kingdoms,
• 13:21
  SPEAKER_00: the coming of elves and men, and the countless changes to the landscapes.
• 13:27
  SPEAKER_00: Ents move deliberately and speak slowly.
• 13:31
  SPEAKER_00: They make decisions only after long consideration.
• 13:35
  SPEAKER_00: Their language,
• 13:36
  SPEAKER_00: called intish,
• 13:38
  SPEAKER_00: is intentionally expansive,
• 13:40
  SPEAKER_00: so much so that a person's entire history might be wrapped into the way
• 13:45
  SPEAKER_00: an int makes introductions.
• 13:47
  SPEAKER_00: It can go on for hours.
• 13:50
  SPEAKER_00: Marvin, the certified forester, understood the task.
• 13:54
  SPEAKER_00: He wasn't being dismissive or vague, but I think he just worked by an entirely different clock.
• 14:00
  SPEAKER_00: He was trained by the forest and he thought in seasons instead of afternoons.
• 14:05
  SPEAKER_00: When your life's work is bound by measuring trees that were saplings
• 14:09
  SPEAKER_00: before your great-grandparents were born and writing plans
• 14:13
  SPEAKER_00: for forests your grandchildren may one day inherit,
• 14:17
  SPEAKER_00: there isn't much reason to rush through a Thursday.
• 14:21
  SPEAKER_00: Listening to Marvin ramble,
• 14:23
  SPEAKER_00: I realized that I had been trained to speak the language of calendars
• 14:27
  SPEAKER_00: while he was measuring time by the slow growth of rings on a trunk.
• 14:34
  SPEAKER_00: Speaking the language of calendars for me is a math of abundance and scarcity.
• 14:41
  SPEAKER_00: I count lesson schedules and camp sessions,
• 14:44
  SPEAKER_00: grant deadlines, invoices waiting to be entered, and emails to send.
• 14:51
  SPEAKER_00: Trees measure time in rings hidden beneath their bark,
• 14:55
  SPEAKER_00: while I measure minutes by things not crossed off my list.
• 15:00
  SPEAKER_00: The falling branches are a reminder to let go.
• 15:05
  SPEAKER_00: And
• 15:06
  SPEAKER_00: while arborists don't know why mature trees sometimes shed enormous healthy limbs in
• 15:12
  SPEAKER_00: the suffocating heat of summer,
• 15:15
  SPEAKER_00: they understand the importance of the trees dropping unneeded weight.
• 15:20
  SPEAKER_00: So many of us are now being called to take inventory of the details in our lives
• 15:25
  SPEAKER_00: that truly matter and those that we've been doing by rote.
• 15:30
  SPEAKER_00: The trees are leading the way with the lesson.
• 15:33
  SPEAKER_00: It's time to let go of our bowels.
• 15:36
  SPEAKER_00: Even the strongest living things have limits.
• 15:39
  SPEAKER_00: At certain times,
• 15:41
  SPEAKER_00: surviving means letting go of things that once seemed inseparable from who we are.
• 15:47
  SPEAKER_00: The free fall might seem sudden But those hidden cracks have been working for years,
• 15:52
  SPEAKER_00: separating slowly and waiting for the right time to drop.
• 15:57
  SPEAKER_00: When the tree by the pond spoke to Christopher and me before our wedding,
• 16:02
  SPEAKER_00: before Helene came,
• 16:04
  SPEAKER_00: before the new farm,
• 16:06
  SPEAKER_00: before any of this, I used to believe that we were being warned of something coming.
• 16:13
  SPEAKER_00: But I'm beginning to see that the things that seem most permanent A wedding site,
• 16:18
  SPEAKER_00: a farm, a version of myself can be let go of in a single afternoon.
• 16:24
  SPEAKER_00: And that the letting go isn't always loss.
• 16:28
  SPEAKER_00: Sometimes it's just weight our trees don't need anymore.
• 16:33
  SPEAKER_00: I'm still learning to hear the difference between a branch breaking and damage
• 16:37
  SPEAKER_00: and one that's falling because it's time to be set free.
• 16:42
  SPEAKER_00: What branch are you holding on to even though it's struggling to finally fall?
• 16:49
  SPEAKER_00: Drop it in the comments.
• 16:52
  SPEAKER_00: Pun fully intended.
• 16:55
  SPEAKER_00: Love, Kim.