Safety in (small) numbers

The landform consists of low lying eroded drumlins, oriented northwest to southeast.  The hills and ridges formed are incised in places by short gulches. The Ponderosa pine stand structure on the hillslope shows recovery to healthier patchy growth.  The pine is interspersed with young Douglas-fir with a sparse understory of kinnikinnick growing through the pine straw.

 

Ponderosa pines like their neighbors close, just not too close. The pines in our hilltop forest gather together in threes and fours, small conversational groups in the larger forest party.  Douglas-fir sneaks in, filling in the spaces, shooting up quickly and overtaking the slower, more measured pace of the pines. Pines converse in scent, in times of danger, of beetle or fungus attack, they send out warning signals on the wind.  If they are too close together, the danger arrives before the warning signal and well before the tree can react. In this wood, someone came through and removed all the Dougs 50 years ago, leaving the oldest pines to their business. The wood in the late afternoon smells like a bakery, rich vanilla, a waft of caramelized sugar, and some hint of an unfamiliar musky spice. Maybe roasted cardamom... or something equally exotic.  That perfume is the pines’ voice. As I lean back on the springy duff, eyes closed, I wonder what the trees are conversing about on this sun-warmed slope in their cookie-flavored voices.