The Wolf's Tooth by Cristina Eisenberg

The Wolf's Tooth by Cristina Eisenberg

Author:Cristina Eisenberg
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781597268189
Publisher: Island Press
Published: 2013-01-28T16:00:00+00:00


Old-Growth Reflections: The Spring Creek Project

In addition to world-class science, the HJA also fosters innovative cross-disciplinary work. Swanson’s view of this place as more than the sum of its parts has helped create a fruitful collaboration with the Spring Creek Project. Affiliated with Oregon State University and directed by philosopher Kathleen Dean Moore and poet Charles Goodrich, this program brings together environmental sciences, philosophy, and writing to find new ways to envision our relationship with nature. This approach is as relevant today as it was in the 1930s, when Aldo Leopold (a writer and scientist) and Olaus Murie (a painter and scientist) used the arts to inform their scientific work. At the HJA, the LTER program and Spring Creek’s Long-Term Ecological Reflections program create regular opportunities for writers and scientists to work interactively in the forest and tap into each other’s wisdom, yielding a rich body of writings and insights into old growth. The funding for Reflections comes from Forest Service research funds and from the Spring Creek Project. The Forest Service’s role in supporting this work is part of the agency’s responsibility to manage these places dedicated to learning. Emerging themes in the poetry and essays being produced at the HJA include the importance of taking the long view, the critical role of language, especially metaphor, and how the synergy between science and the humanities can help sustain ancient forests. This cross-disciplinary approach can produce a heightened awareness of relationships in the natural world, such as the ecology of fear, and why it matters.31

One recent autumn I participated in a program at the HJA. Moore and Goodrich gathered poets, novelists, and essayists from throughout the West to discuss our calling as writers in this time of rapid global change. Over a three-day period, we spent as much time as possible afield, enjoying the luminous late September days. Sitting in a hemlock stand at one of Harmon’s log decomposition plots, Swanson taught us how to “read the forest,” interpreting stories trees can tell us about earlier events, such as fires, windstorms, and floods. As we shared our writings and impressions about the nature of this forest, Swanson lay down on the moist, mossy ground and gazed up at the canopy far above, his face filled with wonder. Moore sat cross-legged at the base of a hemlock, eyes shut, a blissful expression on her face. Ancient forests have tangible (economic) and intangible (aesthetic) values. That this forest can inspire awe in a scientist who has studied it for decades and can give wings to philosophical ideas about science, the humanities, and relationships in the natural world illustrates its intangible value.

As Goodrich read us Tang Dynasty poems that probed the dark, damp depths of ancient forests, I leaned back against a Douglas-fir and recalled my first trip to the HJA in 2007 as a visiting scholar. By then I was a graduate student in forestry and wildlife with field experience in various other forest types. It was early spring as I walked into an area referred to as Watershed One.



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