They are guiding us. I read the world through them. I want to talk about them in this thread, talk about them in all kinds of ways -- how they help us, how they help you, how they are a key solution to climate change.
I'd like to start with this story about one man's mission to repopulate the planet with old growth sequoias.
@lovendures @bluebelle @deetoo @cc21 @journeywithme2 @tesseract @raincloud @tonyaW
@jeanne-mayell I just love this, Jeanne! I had read about him before, but only in passing and didn't see all the details. What a mission! Spectacular. I love trees, so I love that he is doing this - and right in my own metro area!
@jeanne-mayell Love that article, Jeanne.
When I walk through the trees, I feel my anxiety lessen and I become more relaxed and in touch with my intuitive self. I look up at the Douglas firs, noticing their lower branches have broken off like bones of a skeleton until my gaze turns further up the tree to see the green branches reaching to the sky. The trees are healthy despite their lower broken branches. It’s a natural process. Whenever I notice those broken branches, I think of our country with its democracy in tatters and realize that we can rise and grow past this period as a nation.
As much as I love my pines and mixed hardwoods in my bit of rural heaven... I have been finding myself intrigued and inspired by all of the old apple orchards that date back to the beginnings of our country... how important they were to our peoples ... sustaining us and more.
I recently read this story and am sharing it for inspiration: https://www.mainepublic.org/maine/2025-06-02/on-verona-island-historians-discover-one-of-the-oldest-living-apple-trees-in-north-america
And a modern day Johhny Appleseed of Appalachia https://www.kcrw.com/culture/shows/good-food/apples-cider-tortilla-tournament-ancient-healing/tom-brown-rare-apple-varieties
As American as Apple pie.... apple cider....apple jelly....apple crisps... apple betty... hardy, enduring, surviving, feeding, inspiring
May we be as resilient and nurturing as our historical apple orchards.
@jeanne-mayell The world desperately needs much more initiatives like David Milarch's. From my perspective, it is needed that we safeguard our trees much more, both globally and through legal measures. For instance, it would be prudent for humanity to agree that the cutting down of healthy trees simply because they are in the way of a building project or other financial interest should be prohibited.
I also wanted to share this regarding trees. Here in Germany, there has been a series of incidents involving an unknown perpetrator who appears to be mentally ill and has a history of systematically destroying trees. Several trees in various cities have reportedly been poisoned with glyphosate. It is with a heavy heart we must report the death of these trees, including natural monuments that have stood for over 200 years. The unknown perpetrator follows a similar pattern: holes are drilled into the trunks of trees, and the toxic liquid is then injected into them. If caught, the perpetrator may face a maximum sentence of two years' imprisonment. Legally speaking, the concern is not the infliction of serious harm upon a living being, but rather significant property damage. This highlights the difference between a spiritual view of trees as a sentient being and the current legal perspective.
This video is so wonderfully remarkable that I am asking you all if it is accurate. It's about the destruction of four dams and the stunning recovery that nature orchestrated in a short time. They said the salmon came back in a matter of days after sixty years that the river was dammed.
https://www.instagram.com/reel/DMbUVDvy5SF/?igsh=NjZiM2M3MzIxNA%3D%3D
@jeanne-mayell - yes, this is true. https://www.americanrivers.org/dam-removal-on-the-klamath-river/#:~:text=The%20dams%20along%20the%20Klamath,in%20the%20summer%20of%202024.
I live in Oregon and have been reading about the removal of four dams in the Klamath River basin. We do sometimes get some things right.
I am blessed to live in pine forests w bountiful water on either side. People revel in, respect, and rejoice w clapping when the sun sets… a reminder that the day is done and the sun will come out tomorrow… whether we can see it or not. Small and mighty joys indeed
@journeywithme2 I grew up in a small town along the Hudson in the mid-Hudson Valley. This area is known for its fruit orchards, and especially apples. Our front lawn was apple trees, Italian (oblong) plums and cherries behind. Pears down the road on one side and peaches on the other. Eventually, our parents in this family enclave put a stop to ddt spray trucks and the orchards eventually were plowed down to make way for development. DDT def was a huge risk to life and limb, but growing up w freshly picked fruit was a wonderful experience.
I don't know if this is the right topic to post in, but I would like to share a personal journey involving nature with you. I do a lot of hiking and have been since I was a child. I've been many places throught the years, but nothing has felt quite like a valley I visited the first time in 2017. It was quite remote and it actually took me a few years just to figure out how to get there (the solution in the end was getting a small inflatable boat, carrying it for a few hours up hill and then paddling across 3 km of lake). Once there it felt incredible. The landscape itself was amazing, but there was something else. A certain calm perhaps, but also a sense of a positivly charged force being present. I got drawn back there again and again, and somehow the idea manifested that I needed do some work there. There was an old cabin there. No more than a shed really. I couldn't afford to buy the land, but I managed to find the owner and lucky for me I was given permission to use the cabin if I restored it. This felt like something I needed to do quickly because I would need it next year, so in 2019, despite having just lost my job and not really having the money, I got materials and a helicopter and restored the cabin over the summer. I've never restored anything in my life before and the result was not amazing but the roof and window is fixed and there is now a small stove to keep you warm when the weather is cold.
Just a few months later, in early 2020, two kids turned up in my life and I found myself to be a foster parent. The kids loved the valley and the cabin, and we ended up going there a lot in the years since then. I would easily say that valley has changed lives. In the very least it has changed mine.
As thankful as I am to the valley I feel like it wants something more from me, but I can't figure out what. As it happens, I am a bit of a hobby-archaeologist. Not that I do any digs, but I have made it a sport to find and locate old settlements or abandoned places hidden under vegetation and moss. In this valley there is a lot of old walls from old buildings and structures. Most of it is probably hay sheds and no more than 150-250 years old, but there is also some stuff that feels older and more important. Unfortunately for me, there is very little information to be found about the place. There is no written history, and the old people who are still alive only remember keeping animals there in the summer and cutting hay on the bogs. I have a strong sense that the valley has something more to reveal to me, but the last years I have hit a wall. I discover something new almost every year in bushes and hillsides, but I seem to get no closer to figuring out the history of the place or what the next page of the story is supposed to be.
I am thankful for just having this sanctuary in my life and being allowed to be there, but if any of you intuitives can help me figure out what secrets the valley holds and point me in any direction that would be very much appreciated.
Because of the one-file attachement limtation on the forum I am adding the other photos of the valley as links to ImgBB
https://ibb.co/Xf1Wp6PB
https://ibb.co/VWgN44Bg
https://ibb.co/BHh4S8b8
https://ibb.co/cSyJqczH
https://ibb.co/LDbjRKvv
https://ibb.co/5hD4Qp2P
https://ibb.co/gQgGwYQ
@fjellvandre Omg, that place is a Shangri-la. Thank you for sharing it it with us. Your discovery, the foster kids, and the whole adventure fills me with hope that some of the greatest beauty awaiting us is still waiting to be discovered.
Animal connections.
Not sure if this is the best place, but I wanted to share a visit I received. On New Year's Eve right before mid-night I woke up and noticed the sky seemed very bright, almost white. Thinking that maybe it had started to snow and that was what was causing the brightness, I went over to the window to enjoy snowflakes.
To my surprise there was no snow but a visitor, and not one or two, but three beautiful deer nibbling on the birdseed in the grass under the oak tree.
They were just a few feet away and I froze to keep from startling them. For several minutes I kept watching and then decided to get even a little closer and slowly opened the window.
There was so much joy watching them, I could now hear them munching on the seeds.
A wonderful gift from Nature to end the old year and start the new.
@seabreeze Thank you for sharing your perfect moment with us, and, yes, this is the right thread to post it in! Happy New Year!
would that have been a glacier in a past life that wore down the mountains and created the valley?
Matildagirl
@matildagirl Yep, well spotted! That's a U-valley shaped by the ice. Morene sand and gravel at the valley floor.
Wow, that place looks magical! And what wonderful things it has brought to your life, too.
I took a look at the pictures. I often get information in my dreams and will share them if anything seems relevant for you.
When I saw the pictures I did wonder if there had been mining or prospecting there before? It's clear there was a glacier that moved through there and people may have looked for minerals or metals there. They would have done it by hand or non-modern-industrial means.
@fjellvandre Wow, the photos are amazing. How wonderful to have found this place, and to experience all that has transpired since.