Dwight Norris posted the following article on "The Ivory-billed Woodpecker -- Rediscovered" group on Facebook:
Visions of Glories Past; Manhandled Mobile River Basin Sadly Diminished; in Hidden Places, Hints at Wonders of Long Ago
(Address: www.al.com/news/index.ssf/2014/12/visions_of_glories_past_manhan.html#incart_river )
I was moved to write the following response:
"I've stood beside several giant cypresses such as the one in the photo -- relicts -- in the Pascagoula River basin. All were spared the axe and saw because they are hollow. Passenger pigeons and Carolina parakeets likely roosted in their crowns; they likely were touched by the hands of Native American hunters, and saw the movements of Native tribes, for hundreds of years. I put my own hand on their trunks, and wonder what a forest full of such giants must have looked like... and imagination fails me. I am moved from awe to sadness, and feel the need to offer some kind of apology for the colossal stupidity of my species. But it would be akin to a former Nazi offering an apology to someone who lost their entire family in the Holocaust. It is a wrong that can never be erased, until the victim survives and thrives, and the wrongdoer vanishes completely from the face of the earth."
Will we as a species ever regain our perspective, and see beyond our own immediate want?
Visions of Glories Past; Manhandled Mobile River Basin Sadly Diminished; in Hidden Places, Hints at Wonders of Long Ago
(Address: www.al.com/news/index.ssf/2014/12/visions_of_glories_past_manhan.html#incart_river )
I was moved to write the following response:
"I've stood beside several giant cypresses such as the one in the photo -- relicts -- in the Pascagoula River basin. All were spared the axe and saw because they are hollow. Passenger pigeons and Carolina parakeets likely roosted in their crowns; they likely were touched by the hands of Native American hunters, and saw the movements of Native tribes, for hundreds of years. I put my own hand on their trunks, and wonder what a forest full of such giants must have looked like... and imagination fails me. I am moved from awe to sadness, and feel the need to offer some kind of apology for the colossal stupidity of my species. But it would be akin to a former Nazi offering an apology to someone who lost their entire family in the Holocaust. It is a wrong that can never be erased, until the victim survives and thrives, and the wrongdoer vanishes completely from the face of the earth."
Will we as a species ever regain our perspective, and see beyond our own immediate want?
Brian Carlisle and Treebeard, a relict cypress in the Leaf Wilderness and a living, breathing link to an older world.