THE MISSING TREE
Rex Burress
I was looking out over the river toward the Oroville Nature Center from the hatchery road, and something seemed to be missing, then I realized the lovely little pistacia tree behind the two benches was gone!
People grow use to a presence, and there is a sense of loss when it disappears. I couldn't understand why that harmless little tree had been cut--and the chain saw marks were evident. It brought out the “defense of wildlife” emotion that urged me to find out why the removal was necessary.
Perhaps revealing a tragedy could help prevent a future thoughtless action in maintenance. I knew it was cut by a maintenance crew as the entire row of new sycamore trees had been pruned of the lower limbs.
Part of the tragedy is that the missing tree is a descendent of the Little Red PistaciaTree gracing the rock island off shore. For at least 30 years that little red tree has survived floods, survived abuse that has stunted it into a six-foot dwarf, and it has surviived on the thin edge by sinking a 20-foot root through the rock-crack to the river!
Each autumn the stranded tree features some stunning red leaves before deciduous dormancy reduces it to a leafless sleeper. The kin that became established on shore behind the two benches stood a much better chance of a healthy growth...before it was cut...just as autumn color was commencing to embellish its leaves.
Sometimes it is lack of aesthetic intelligence in maintaining park plantings. Is a “pistacia hater” at large, putting undue emphasis on non-native plants? The Chinese Pistacia, Pistacia chinensis, was introduced by Chinese gold miners in the 1850's, populating the Oroville area with their sacred pistacia while in search of CA's “Gold Mountain.” Does Little Red Tree have another danger in native plant aficionados seeking to eradicate the prolific pistacia, as well as the Tree of Heaven, Ailanthus altissima, also a Chinese import? Both are common along Oroville's Feather River.
Just as the “Save Oroville's Trees” group had cherished the sycamores that lined the Oroville Cemetery, and had fought to save those gallant trees, it seems a variety of “Save” efforts are constantly struggling to defend our diminishing resources. “The wise use of our natural resources is good conservation,” but a certain condition should be set aside for preservation, too
In my nature interpretation state of mind, I also have been inclined to defend threatened wildlife including plants, just as my Oakland park 'boss,' Naturalist Paul Covel, and his boss, Park Director William Mott--and thousands of nature enthusiasts before them--extended their conservation consciousness into betterment of our environment. To those, who in the love of nature, hold devotion with her natural forms, I feel proud of helping to generate respect for Earth's occupants!
There are those who seek to succeed beyond reasonable success and sop up the surplus into private coffers, when they know deep down that they “can't take excess with them” into other states of being! Fill in some missing trees [there's a lot of them in wake of forest fires]. And be doubly considerate of the struggling trees in your community. “Everything on Earth [as well as in the Universe?] is hitched together by common denominators united by air, soil, sun, and water!” And on a higher dimension by compassion and love!
“In the end, we will conserve only what we love./ We will love only what we understand./ We will understand only what we are taught.”--Baba Dionum
“Trees go wandering forth in all directions with every wind, going and coming like ourselves, traveling with us two million miles a day, and through space heaven knows how fast and far!” --John Muir