National Champion Green Ash Elk Rapids, Michigan David Milarch, Founder Champion Tree Project International

Forests of Champions
Part One
Whither the Trees?
© by David Yarrow , January 1997

Tall, bearded, broad shouldered, with stout limbs and a thick trunk, he looks like a latter day Paul Bunyan. Or a full size chestnut tree in flesh and blood. But his lumberjack physique is dwarfed by his immense ideas—and his ardent exposition of them.

However, the Paul Bunyan figure interrogating me is no lumberjack yelling, "Timber!" His vision is to grow, not cut trees—to renew, not remove, forests.

And the big man is talking about the biggest of the big trees: the Champions.

Gaia's Lungs

"How long do people live after a lung cancer diagnosis?" his gentle voice challenged.

"Not long. A few months."

"Up to 26 weeks," he supplied, then asked, "What are Earth's lungs?"

"Trees," I replied. "A free-standing tree's limbs and leaves even look like the bronchial tubes and air sacs of a lung."

"What removes greenhouse gases, counteracts global warming, restores oxygen, improves air and water quality, makes topsoil, reverses industrial impacts, and makes land habitable?"

"Trees," was my easy answer.

"What one act can improve Earth for future generations?"

"Planting trees," he continued without awaiting my reply.

"Seems simplistic," I countered.

"That's why it's so important," he nodded, "and overlooked."

"So Earth has lung cancer?" I posed.

"Effectively," he said, shaking his head. "Gaia's lungs—which allow the biosphere to breathe and turn sunshine into sugar—are withering away. Fast."

"Seems so," I agreed. "I noticed this back in the '70's. Our good green friends aren't doing even as well today."

Yep," he affirmed, nodding sagely. "Yet our partnership with trees and forests stretches back to Earth's early evolution."

Troubles with Trees

David Milarch is upset about Earth's fragile, deteriorating ecosystems—especially forests. This Michigan tree farmer's daily work with trees gives him a keen sylvan sensitivity, and Milarch says trees everywhere are dying prematurely. Old forest giants—elders of the ecosystem—are nearly gone, and nine of ten reforested trees die their first season.

National Champion American Elm Buckley, Michigan height: 112 feet — girth: 23.5 feet crown spread: 115 feet

"What threats do you see to the today's forests?" I inquired.

"The biggest threats I see in all forests are ozone, acid rain, air pollution, UV radiation. Climate change affects forests all over America with greater stress, hotter, drier summers, colder, longer winters. Combined with other stresses, this opens them for annihilation by pests."

"This happened in Germany's Black Forest and most European forests. Up to 70% of sugar maples in eastern U.S. are dead or dying. A study by Dr. Robert Bruck at No. Carolina State University shows even in favorable conditions, red spruce seedlings planted in the Smoky Mountains have 80-90 percent mortality."

Sylvan Holocaust

"For 25 years I've gone to Oregon and Washington every summer, and there's no more forests. They're gone. Looks like an atomic war took place. Mountains are mostly devoid of any old growth, or even second cut timber. They replant with monoculture—mostly Douglas fir—and didn't check the genetics they replanted with. It's opened up a whole host of ills that make less-than-quality timber."

"Deforestation is a major cause of the disastrous floods that currently and chronically afflict that region," I asserted.

"Wherever I travel, I see the same epidemics, deaths, threats and dangers in forests. And it really bothers me—enough to do something about it." His soft, tenor voice faded into sad shadows.

It's true. Chestnut and elm are nearly gone; hemlocks are turning orange. Deciduous trees show fall color in early August. Trees are more infested by pests, less resistant to disease or tolerant of climate change, unlikely to live long. Globally, Amazon and African rainforests are being clear-cut. Earth's land covered by forests shrinks, while deserts grow.

Today trees face conditions more extreme and hostile than ever in history. Climate has changed drastically in this century: winters are colder, summers hotter, storms more intense. Rapid global industrialization is disturbing more local habitats to create more pollution, stress and extremes. For testimony to our diseased ecosystems and vanishing forests, David suggests "Forest Farming" by J. Douglas and Robert Hart.

In the next century, humans will need forests more than ever. Trees provide lumber for building, pulp for paper, remove CO2, supply oxygen, shade soil, cool water, circulate moisture, break winds, create topsoil, and so much more.

Trees not only are affected by climate, they create and regulate atmosphere, climate and weather—local and global.

The Old Green Way

The Milarch's are serious tree-people, rooted in Michigan's northwest peninsula. Their Manistee County farm has been in the family five generations.

"The farm we own and grow trees on is about 330 acres. But I have family members with contiguous parcels of land two miles long and half a mile wide amid rolling hills of half forest, half farmland."

"My family is four generations of horticulturists. Not crop farmers. They've been nursery people. Farther back, they had to be subsistence farmers also to grow food, but even then their main cash crop was horticulture: shrubs, flowers, trees. It's a long line."

Everything they have—food, clothes, house, farm—traces from their work with trees. David's father Edward started a shade-tree business 40 years ago. Now David and sons age 15 and 17 run it.

"I went to five different colleges on and off seven years or so," David explained. "I don't have a degree. I learned horticulture by working 35 years."

"I didn't finish college either," I empathized. "I quit as a junior to learn life firsthand. In New Mexico I found an old Indian pot shard made when Spain first settled the Rio Grande. In my travels I carried it to meditate on: 'How did the land look when this pottery was made? How has land changed in 500 years?'"

"I learned a lot in that one year," I went on. "One insight was that when Columbus arrived, eastern America was one vast forest of giant trees. Today all those trees are gone—most logged to clear land for farms, towns, factories. The east has been clear cut at least twice since 1500."

"Michigan was nearly the last state settled." David reflected. "Pioneers bypassed here to go west. Michigan was heavily forested with giant white pine. Farmers thought it impossible to cut such trees and pull stumps—too tough to farm."

"Well, 100 years ago a lumber baron destroyed them all—every single virgin white pine. I'm talking pine on average four to six feet across. Most went to build Detroit and Chicago. Chicago burned down, so it was all for naught."

'Yes," I affirmed. "I've seen pictures of America's virgin forests—when every tree was a giant. They were forests of champions. The woods were a cathedral of high, arching branches-a real temple."

"We didn't learn from our grandfathers mistakes," said the tree man. "I mean, we still overharvest what forest is left on third and fourth cut. We've over-ridden common sense or plan for the future."

"Well, we are a consumer society. And that's what we're doing: consuming the Earth," I observed wryly.

Response Ability

"Well, I believe we've found a path away from eco-catastrophe to Earth regeneration," David replied.

"There are things we can do alleviate the problems," he began hopefully. "Do I think we will? No, not until we're backed into a corner—like we are with Pacific salmon, which don't run in Northwest rivers anymore. Or New England cod—the world's greatest fishery—down to less than 1% what it was 100 years ago."

His bleak critique continued, "Government will do like they did with fisheries: close the barn door after the horses get out. They'll howl they don't have the money. They have $25 billion more for military, but when it comes reforestation, they say, 'we're broke.' So don't look to state or federal government, they had the opportunity, and haven't."

"Yep. Government's first duty is to assure us everything is OK," I chimed.

"If industry is, I haven't seen it. I see lots of claims, but no evidence of it here in Michigan. Any parcel of land they control they eliminate hardwoods and put in pine—pulpwood for paper industries."

I chuckled, "Native Americans say 'industry' means 'in dust trees,' so white men improve land by cutting down forest."

David went on, "It's a quick cash crop, which is a mining operation, not forestry."

I had to add, "Yep, they say 'forestry' used to mean 'for us trees.' Now it's the Forest Service, which means 'forest serve us.' And 'mining' is when he digs holes in Mother Earth, saying 'mine, mine, mine.'"

I heard David smile over the phone, but he was relentless, "This generation seems blinded by ignorance, greed and self indulgence at the cost of Earth's health and the next several generations. Most Americans 30 years or older are too lazy, too out of shape, and uninformed to do the necessary physical labor. Manual labor has demeaning meaning to most."

Earth Healing

But David Milarch is no doom-and-gloom fatalist. His diagnosis of global sylvan sickness is no death sentence, only an opening phrase in a song of hope. This Earth healer has a vision and plan.

Turning amiable, he uttered, "We can dream the future, we can talk about the future, we can visualize the future, but if we really want a future, we must act."

"There are people in touch with the Earth who see the signs—and it's obvious we're in big trouble in the forests. The best thing I see is a few with the intelligence and integrity to get a message to the next generation there's been dire mistakes made, and how we might act for a turn around. It's up to us to educate the next generation—that's our best hope."

"So I say it's in the hands of youth. We must harness their energy and clarity through schools, 4H, Boy and Girl Scouts to a habit of putting back what you take year by year. The average 10 year old can outplant most 40 year olds ten to one, and not even feel it physically."

"But more important is re-education to fresh hope. There's lots of awareness of our dire ecological predicaments, but few effective ideas to improve on our fate. Youth need a positive vision with a practical plan for action. It's their future, and they have to do the work to realize it."

My own vision agreed, "We can't bring back the old green way, but the next generation must bring back the forests."

The New Green Way

"As Earth stewards, our Prime Directive is to create forest preserves," David insisted, "to put more land under trees. The planet needs more forests; we need more trees. Planting trees is a simple, inexpensive way to assure Earth's health and future generations. Anyone can do it; everyone should do it."

"If future generations go on star treks," I daydreamed, "to survey other planets for settlement, they'll look for blue and white, colors of molecular oxygen and water—and green, color of atomic oxygen and chlorophyll—of plants. Blue, white and green are colors of life—Gaia's colors."

An excellent model for Earth healers is "The Man Who Planted Trees" by Jean Giono, the tale of a man who planted one hundred acorns every day—thousands in his lifetime. His simple daily ritual transformed a dry, barren land into moist, fertile forest with creeks and wildlife. American folk legend Johnny Appleseed portrays another tree planting hero who made land habitable and productive.

"How long before reforestation affects global climate?" I asked.

"I don't have numbers on CO2 conversion, but I'd say there can be noticeable improvement in 5 to 7 years," David offered.

Then he injected, "Why reforest with ordinary plants, when you can get gold medalists? National Champions are the largest, oldest trees of their variety in America. Like Olympic athletes, they're the best of the best."

       

TERRA: The Earth Restoration and Reforestation Alliance — www.championtrees.org — updated 8/14/2003