SUPPORT FROM SUPPORTERS

Rex Burress

During the February Flood of 2017, I noticed a small cottonwood tree had fallen into the woody embrace of a larger cottonwood down by the riverside. The smaller tree still had part of its roots anchored, and the two would probably be intertwined for life!

A similar condition exists near the Feather River Nature Center, except the partially uprooted tree is a cottonwood resting in the arms of a boxelder tree. It is a drama that's been going on for at least 21 years [when the Old Bathhouse was converted to the Nature Center], and probably far longer than that when the throes of a past flood did its displacement deviltry.

Thus they have coexisted, the weight of the bulkier cottonwood becoming increasingly more burdensome, but both trees thrived in the trickle of the adjoining streamlet. The two trees were thrown together unintentionally, like human Siamese Twins, to coexist. As in people, they approach the end of their lifespans, and the boxelder appears to be the first to start receding. When it goes down, the cottonwood will have no support for its canopy, and all the woody creatures that live there will be unsupported.

Some would say that the tree's fate was destined, but it's more likely the result of a random arrangement accident of nature. Even though the two merged together at their contact fork, there was apparently no exchange of fluids as each retained its characteristic appearance of leaves and seeds. As in human reproduction, there needs to be a deliberate act of sexual cell injection with one of its own species for a successful union.

Intermixing of species is possible but rare, although it's never say never in nature. I have seen a black-crowned night heron and a cattle egret successfully breed and raise a 'half-and-half' chick! We know about the horse, donkey, and mule. Do hybrids and mutants aid evolution?

Support groups, however, exist throughout nature--[and throughout society!] It's the way of the web; the way of “everything in the universe being hitched together,” as John Muir said. Just as surely as society is dependent on neighbors and grocery stores and farmers and doctors, everything is supported by air and water and sunlight and food.

Some of the support systems are not obvious. In fact, most major supporters of life are molecular and internal. The support is like the blood systems under the skin; the phloem and xylem sap flow veins under the bark; aquatic life under the surface; the underground mysteries of a volcano. Most marvelous is the root support system of trees. The underground matrix of water-seeking roots of many trees forms a network that can share nutrients and even conduct a type of touch-communication for mutual benefit.

How many types of support can you visualize? Of course, vast infrastructure mechanical tangles holds our houses and cities together

I think of the Biosphere 2 project that took place in an Arizona desert within a giant 'bubble' greenhouse in which a number of people were sealed in to produce food and survive for a year. The experiment was to test the viability of a colony of people on Mars or the Moon in case Biosphere 1—Earth--succumbs to environmental atrocities.

I think of the supportive relationships between people in providing funds or help in maintaining a good cause. Theodore Van Gogh comes to mind. Theo provided support for his brother, Vincent, enabling him to concentrate on his painting and create his art for the ages.

“Art is long, and Time is fleeting/And our hearts though stout and brave,/Still, like muffled drums are beating,/Funeral marches to the grave...” Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

“A government that robs Peter to pay Paul can always depend on the support of Paul.”

--George Bernard Shaw

“Since oceans are the life support system of our planet, regulating the climate, providing most of our oxygen and feeding over a billion people,what's bad for oceans is bad for us.” --Philippe Cousteau