Such sheets of fire, such bursts of horrid thunder,
Such groans of roaring wind and rain, I never
Remember to have heard. Man’s nature cannot carry
Th’ affliction nor the fear.
     ~ The Earl of Kent, caught out by a storm in King Lear

 
Early this week a line of powerful thunderstorms ripped through the area. Anyone who has been in a typhoon or hurricane knows the terrible consequences that follow powerful storms, and while this event was much more limited in extent and range, the result is no less awful. I watched as a hedgerow of mature maples, pines, and spruces bent and shook, as torrents of water reduced visibility to a few yards, and as bits of vegetation were ripped apart by the raging wind. The road flowed like a river, and the sound of snapping, crashing trees rang in my ears. For some wildlife, the world came to an end in the space of a few minutes.

This is the time of year wildlife rehabbers call “baby season.” Birds are brooding eggs and raising chicks in nests ingeniously lashed to tree limbs or inside nesting holes, and squirrels are tending to families of young deep inside their own tree holes. So as I watched the canopies of those maples, spruces, and pines flying wildly in the wind, I wondered who was being killed, whose future was being destroyed.

In the storm’s wake, clean-up crews struggled to clear debris and restore power, and homeowners pulled out chainsaws to cut up downed trees as well as standing dead trees, even if those dead trees endangered nothing. More than once I was told by folks that this was a good opportunity to clear the woods of standing and downed dead trees. After all, they said, these trees are DEAD, and they were eyesores.

Eyesores? Not to my eye. Dead? Up to a point. The trees themselves might be dead, but there’s life in them that extends well beyond their own demise.

In the Midst of Death We Are in Life

That’s turning the once-familiar words from the English Book of Common Prayer on their head, I know, but it’s no less true for all that. My photo collection contains hundreds of examples of dying and dead trees that support and nourish new life. And every picture tells a story. Read more…