Big Old Trees

At Earthroots we go on quite a bit about old growth forests. And, we consider those old growth ecosystems of great importance to the natural heritage and continued sustainability of the wilderness, wildlife and watersheds of our province. We recognize that a critically important component of those ecosystems are giant, very old specimen trees. But that is not the only way to think about them.

The great trees can be viewed in a different light by people with a less technical perspective. They are not just big trees. They are seen as having a special cultural significance. Their age transcends the human perspective of a life time or even that of our history as we know it. The old white and red pines of Temagami, for instance, peak out at around four hundred years old. The seeds of those trees germinated when the European explorer Samuel de Champlain first encountered the Anishinaabe peoples of the eastern forests of what is now Canada. This surpasses our (European based cultural) knowledge and comprehension of these lands.

The forestry companies are quick to present timber cutting as similar to the cropping of grain. We cut a crop and it grows into a new crop. With trees it just takes longer for the cycle than in farming. And, there may be some truth to this perspective in the boreal forest to the north. In the boreal, the fire cycle is often 75 or 80 years between stand destroying fires that subsequently renew themselves. This is time period which we humans are comfortable with because it is like a lifetime. So it is hard to argue that we not cut and regrow these boreal tracks.

But the regrowth of a 400 year old tree cannot reoccur in any time horizon we can comprehend. Such trees can only be discussed in terms of archeology. They stand as living entities from a ancient world that came before. They do die from the diseases of old age and they will succumb to the severest of canopy fires, and, of course, they are readily cut down by humans, but there is no return or regrowth like in the boreal. Once they are gone the heritage ends and the cultural and biological legacy is lost.

And it this inherent ancient character that makes them special to us. They are life with an almost mystical nature that cannot be captured or reproduced. They are living biological entities given to us from the past and perhaps it is our obligation to pass on what we can of this Oneness to future generations that we can reach out to. And that is what Earthroots, with your help, will continue to pursue.