| Trees
at the MN State Fair |
Lee
Frelich |
| Sep
02, 2006 11:32 PDT |
ENTS:
Last evening I visited the Minnesota State Fair, and besides
attractions
like the biggest pumpkin in the state (813 pounds), the food
(lots of dogs;
corn dogs, super dogs, pickle dogs, pronto pups and elephant
ears, cream
puffs, cheese curds, etc.), the life-size sculpture of the
Princess of the
Milkyway done from a solid block of butter, the crop art
portraits of all
our past presidents, and the animals like the biggest pig in the
state
(1040 pounds), and cows (unfortunately a few stalls were empty
because 600
cows were sucked up into lasts week's tornado, became 300 tons
of flying
hamburger, and were killed before they arrived at the fair),
there are a
considerable number of interesting trees.
The elm cathedral for example. Six magnificent American elms,
three on each
side of the street, all in excess of 4 feet dbh, and forming a
canopy over
the street. They are among the few left after the fairgrounds
were hit by
several derechos and a resurgence of Dutch elm disease in the
last several
years. How many times must these ancient trees have bent to the
violent
summer winds and bitter winter winds of Minnesota in the last
150 years?
Not having a ticket for last night's Prairie Home Companion show
with
Garrison Keillor, and having eaten too many pronto pups to
continue
standing, instead I sat under the elms and wondered why they are
still
there. Then it struck me that the Grandstand, a large stadium
that holds
over 10,000 people, which is 100 feet tall and 1/4 mile in
length, lies
just to the west of these trees. The grandstand splits the wind
and creates
a calm spot where these giant trees grow.
Those giant elms that have succumbed to disease or wind on the
fairgrounds
are still with us, since the base of the trunk of each is turned
into a
sculpture. When the stump rots, a concrete base is put under
these wooden
sculptures so part of each tree remains in the exact spot where
the tree
stood in perpetuity. Its just one more of the oddities of
Minnesota
culture--over time the fairgrounds have become a tree cemetery.
The six
elms in the elm cathedral have been treated with Alamo, which
should
prevent them from getting the disease until it runs its course
in the
area. New elms, actually named cathedral elms, a disease
resistant
variety, are being planted throughout the fairgrounds so that an
elm
cathedral will someday cover the entire place once again.
Then there is the large black maple tree, probably 70 years old,
and 30
inches dbh. Its leaves are deep green, thick and leathery,
curled upwards
at the edges, with very long toothless points on each of the
three lobes.
How did this tree get here? Who was planting black maples 70
years
ago? That part of the fairgrounds, on a hilltop, was an oak
savanna before
the city was here, so it can't have been native to that spot.
Someone had
to bring it from Wood-Rill, which is 20 miles away.
Last, but not least, is the absolute star of the fair, the
bonsai exhibit.
Since all of our forests are going to die soon from global
warming and
exotic diseases, we can all get into bonsai and have our own
little forest
ecosystems right in the house. I saw 400 year old ponderosa
pines, cypress
forests, a tiny tamarack forest (2 feet tall, actually not that
much
shorter than a real tamarack forest in northern MN on a poor
site) on a
slab of rock with tiny timber wolf figurines walking around on a
mossy
forest floor. For a moment, looking at those little wolves, the
tamaracks
looked like they were really 6 feet dbh. Tree size is all
relative, and its
all in your mind.
Lee |
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