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TOPIC: The Wild Trees
http://groups.google.com/group/entstrees/browse_thread/thread/5d04e9992333d1fe?hl=en
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== 1 of 4 ==
Date: Tues, Nov 6 2007 6:02 pm
ENTS,
This book is way cool and knowing that Andrew Joslin is the book's
illustrator makes it all the more exciting. On page 154, Richard
Preston briefly discusses BVP. I was unsure if Bob made it into the
book. It would have been incomplete had Bob not at least gotten
mentioned. In an interview with Bob, Preston learned of Bob's
culinary talents. Bob once served as a cook in Sequoia National
Park. I well recall Bob's specialties when he stayed at my house in
Oct 2001 and again in Oct 2004 for the Forest Summit Lecture Series.
At the ENTS rendezvous events, he climbed the Joe Norton Tree in
2001 and the Thoreau Pine in 2004. In the evenings, Bob took over
some of the cooking when he stayed with me and I for one was
thankful. He's truly a great cook. I'm hoping Bob will join us again
in 2008. Four years is a long enough time for him to be away from
his adoring fans.
Well, I can't recommend Preston's book enough. The redwood
researchers he covers are intimately profiled, and I do mean
intimately. That part came as a surprise. But Preston mixes up the
themes. There is ample discussion of the crown architecture of the
redwoods and the unique ecosystem that old growth redwoods create.
It is the uniqueness of the old growth ecosystems that exploiters of
old growth redwoods will never understand or appreciate. They would
have the public believe that their bland plantations of young
redwoods substitutes for the redwood old growth. Lumbermen who
disparage redwood old growth know so little about anything in a
forest except tree removal.
Bob
== 2 of 4 ==
Date: Tues, Nov 6 2007 6:28 pm
From: "Will Blozan"
Bob,
Yeah, I thoroughly enjoyed the book, and talking with Steve and
Marie this
summer they were surprised at the "detail" that made it in
to the book as
well! But after spending several days this summer hanging out and
climbing
with Steve, Marie AND Richard Preston I can see how! Those folks are
WAY,
WAY COOL!
Will
== 3 of 4 ==
Date: Tues, Nov 6 2007 7:46 pm
From: DON BERTOLETTE
Bob-
Having read the Preston book (I also highly recommend it), I
recalled my own times in the redwood forests, as a student spending
more time in the woods than classes...Preston's accounts of the
bushwacking necessary to get to some of the trees ring way
true...I'd be interested if Preston has had occasion to take on the
hobble bush or down in Will's country, rhododendron 'groves'?, and
how they compared to the redwood undergrowth!
-DonB
== 4 of 4 ==
Date: Tues, Nov 6 2007 9:39 pm
Don,
Preston is not a stranger to the southern equivalent of the redwood
undergrowth. Will took him through some pretty tough stuff when he
visited Will. But as rugged as the Smokies are and as thick as the
undergrowth is, there is nothing like the downed obstructions that
must be circumnavigated in the redwood forests. I can't quite get
into my head coming upon a downed log that is 12 to 16 feet thick
and 250 to 300 feet long.
Bob
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