It is interesting, gratifying, mystifying? to see this place through a new set of eyes….

I took a logger/forester/person in charge of the day-to-day ‘keep it running without a budget’ operations that 30,000 acres of watershed entails around the place the other day.*  A tour of some of my favorite trees so to speak. He is the first person not to be bored by the tree tour. Being dragged off into tick country to look at a gorgeous example of an ash tree, why not!**

I’ve grown up here.  My sense of what a big tree is…warped, badly. My sense of the diversity of trees one might have on a typical property….warped, badly. Who doesn’t have Multiple trees listed in the top twenty for size in the state, who doesn’t have dozens of different species?  But when someone whose job experience includes looking at thousands of acres of trees, ranging from urban parks to forest is captivated by the place….that is not to be taken lightly.  Whether it is the oldest of the Norway Spruces, the big lone hemlock, the Norway maples (invasive nightmares but usually not that big), the old Sugar Maples, the Cucumber Magnolia, or the Black Locusts; there are a lot of gorgeous trees here.

What does that mean? I don’t know, except validation for the growing conviction that this place has a value beyond the personal. What that means….?

*Technically he isn’t, but union shops are interesting.

**yes, yes, of course the fact that it was me giving the tour may have helped….