Monday, September 06, 2010
I have an innate need to finish whatever I start. While this may be a virtue most of the time, the flip side is that I am not able to cut the losses and move on even when I realize a particular task I am pursuing is probably not worth it. This thought came to mind when I finally finished reading Richard Preston's "The Wild Trees - A Story of Passion and Daring". :-)
Topic of the book is the Red Wood trees that stand near California coast. They live for hundreds of years often spanning even a millennium..! Longest surviving trees are 2500+ years old. They also grow up to be several hundred feet tall. Tallest one identified measures 387' which is probably taller than a 32 story building..! This is indeed amazing/humbling.There is a subculture of tree enthusiasts that pretty much dedicate their lives to climbing such trees, identifying them individually by giving them names, recording their height, and even sleeping on the trees couple of hundred feet above the ground. Some of these people work as grocery store clerks while others earn their Ph.D. in Botany, write grant proposals to get NSF funding living off of them as scholars. In his usual style Richard Preston has spent couple of years researching this topic, spending time with the subculture tree experts/addicts, collecting information and learning to climb trees himself. As these trees grow up hundreds of feet, branches at that height form a canopy creating another floor at that level. Over centuries those canopies gather enough water, soil & compost to support flora/fauna to grow right there..! Redwood forests are often completely dark, even in the middle of the day since their canopy forms a full plane at more than 100 feet above the ground blocking off the sunlight altogether. While climbing, it is possible to get lost in these trees due to these sprawling canopies. Older branches near the top could have rotten over centuries leading to inherent risk in climbing these trees since a branch suddenly breaking off may lead to serious injuries or death to the climbers. Despite such risks hardcore enthusiasts seem to dedicate their lives to working with these trees. They also have their own lingo to describe dangerous situations ("head ache" to describe a falling branch, "crater" to announce someone falling down) as well as to capture ideas related to climbing ("sky walk" to describe moving from one tree to another directly without having to come down).
There is a lot to learn and so these details are quite intriguing/interesting. But this material could be better presented in the form of a video documentary. Couple of pictures/drawings included in the book does not seem to do justice to the topic. I did a quick search on the web to locate aNational Geographic video clip talking about the same material including the same experts. We would be better off watching these clips that present the same material in a much more visually interesting way than reading this book which slows down often trying to describe individual researcher's marital/financial problems, recollection of their childhood memory, etc. I am sure NatGeo TV will put together an hour long video soon since theirSeptember 29th issue this year seem to feature Redwoods prominently.
Take a look at this picture (a composite of 84 separate images) and take note of the size of the individuals in the tree: http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/redwoods/gatefold-image
Book had no such photos to drive home the point. Don't miss at least the first two videos posted here.
Similar trees are also found in Oregon and even in Scotland. I should remember to look for sites likehttp://www.redwoodhikes.com/RNP/TallTrees.html that promote hiking among these trees so that I can try one next time I am in the West Coast. :-)
Still need to finish "Age of Turbulence" by Greenspan. Also picked up "Case for God" by Karen Armstrong. Hopefully will finish them both before the end of this year.
-sundar.
No comments:
Post a Comment