Construction, Destruction--And Other Forces of Nature.

After I have lived in the UP for a year, I will know more stuff.

I am exploring, studying, living the seasons here, in a way I never did in Iowa.

I remember when I was a kid, I was fascinated with nature trails.

You know, like when you go to a state park and there is a sign marking a trail into the forest.  Most parks have one or more.  We used to go to parks often when I was a kid, mostly because Dad loved to fish. He'd come inside in the afternoon after working on the farm and tell my mom we were going fishing. She was always prepared for this by being stocked up on picnic supplies.  She would pull the cold meat out of the fridge, butter, and make some open faced sandwiches on soft white bread.  A jug full of Kool-aid or iced tea, a can of Van Camps pork and beans, and we'd be on our way.

Just like most kids, a quiet summer evening of fishing wouldn't hold my attention for very long. After a few casts, unless the fish were biting ferociously, I'd be done with that and off exploring.  I would usually stop at the sign to the nature trail in whatever park we were visiting, asking to take the tour of mysterious forest beyond the sign, and just as usually, my mom would say no.  Various reasons, I might get lost, it was too close to dark, there were probably ticks, mosquitoes, bees, poison ivy, cockleburs, mud, lions, tigers and bears (not really).  I was always disappointed, because the forest was, and still is, so alluring to me.

As an adult, I have found myself on those forest trails more often.  Sometimes just to sit on fallen log and BREATHE all the respiration from the myriad green things around me, or to listen and wait for the birds to get used to my presence and show up.

Fast forward to present:  Here I am, in the middle of Forest World.  It's like a shopping mall of forests.  What kind do I want to explore today?  There are old growth forests....few areas of them left after the rampages of logging that took place in UP's history.  There are VERY new growth forests, often regenerating aspen trees or small evergreens.  More often it's a mix of hardwoods and softwoods, deciduous and evergreen, sometimes selectively logged, and therefore allowing light to show far into their depths, or not logged, with a dark wild look. Nearly a million acres of forest to be explored.

Everywhere there is an extreme mix of living and dead, healthy, unhealthy, straight, twisted, falling, fallen, dead, decayed, parasitized or partially consumed. You don't have to go far to see the entire circle of  life. Each stage of a tree's life provides something for some THING, and strangely, there is beauty in every aspect, if you and look and really SEE it.

I took a picture recently and titled it "I like lichen," which I thought was kind of clever.  But it's true, I love lichen, and moss and algae, and everything else I see in a forest. There is even beauty in a tree that has been struck by lightning, broken, twisted by wind, even taken over by pests and diseases. You may not agree.  I'm okay with that. Here are my pictures to help you decide.

Even naked trees are beautiful

after their covering fall to the ground.

Pine trees don't like to give up their clothing.

Trees fall prey to other lifeforms for many different reasons...

to build homes...

or dams.

Sometimes they provide homes for other critters...

or they become a restaurant

where many different courses

are served.

They can provide recreational activities, like this climbing wall for woodpeckers.

Even though I love trees, sometimes I think I love moss more,

When it grows on rocks

or fallen trees

AND, are you fascinated by fungus?

I am!

And this whole algae/lichen thing...

intriguing, don't you think?

See, I think there is a metaphor for humans here...that even in death, there is life.  

I also think about, as I look into the forests, all the things I don't see. We hardly ever see an animal, or bird, yet I know they thrive here. And sometimes, I see something that really ISN'T there.

at first glance, I thought this was a man walking through the woods...Mick Dodge-like. 

Then I saw this.  Do you see her?  Graceful woman of the forest.

I saw a commercial yesterday for a TV show that was talking about it's not to late to rescue the natural world from the terrible influences of humankind.  Then I look at the forest and see that in spite of humans, it continues to flourish and recreate itself...all in this little remote bit of Michigan.  And THAT'S the allure.  There is a wildness, growing, flourishing, untamed, untamable, here.

And I long for it.