The Eagle Tree

by Ned Hayes

That is what true means. It means reliable, and as straight as you can make it.

The interesting thing about a tree falling is that it is rare for a single event to cause a tree to fall. Human beings tend to think of a tree falling as a single event. Someone took an ax and chopped a tree. Or someone took a chainsaw and cut the tree.

In the natural world, however, the fall of a tree is part of a complex system. There are many questions to be answered to determine what causes a tree to fall: How solid is the soil that holds up the tree? How much clay and how much sand? How much organic matter? Answers to these questions can tell us how deep the tree’s roots can penetrate, and how strong and well-founded the tree’s roots can be. And a tree’s fall is not just dependent on the tree itself. The tree is part of an overall ecosystem. Are there burrowing animals that have destabilized the ground the tree stands on? Are there termites eating dead wood underneath the tree, or even inside the tree? Are there other creatures who have dug or changed the composition of the ground around the tree?

Then there are still more factors about what makes a tree fall. The tree’s overall weight is a contributing factor. And the tree’s outstretched limbs, and its balance among those different limbs. What holds the tree balanced? Is there any imbalance caused by the loss of a limb or a shift in the hillside that holds up the tree, or perhaps a misalignment in the tree’s growth circles, so that one side of the tree is heavier than the other side? And the ecosystem around the tree includes the other trees and plant life. Smaller plants can create a network of roots around the tree’s roots, a fine mesh which makes the soil both stronger and more absorbent of rainwater and flooding. This is why open fields flood more easily than forests or wildland. The forestland can absorb water, and it is stronger than human-constructed landscapes stripped of vegetation. Shorter trees can shield a taller tree from wind and other weather effects, and can deflect some of the wind shear t...

Most trees, when they fall, can in fact be used in the rest of the ecosystem. They are able to become part of the overall ecosystem and immediately nurture other plant life. Some trees, in fact, keep living on the ground for some time after they fall. Depending on the way that they fall, their upper limbs—the ones facing the sun—can continue to collect good things from the air and from the soil. Eventually, their systems fail, as they are invaded by other species, and by that time, their cells are being used by other creatures.

But people seem to have removed themselves from the natural ecosystem anyway. They take from it, but there is no direct connection. The feedback loop is all negative.

make new things out of the broken things. I do not know if we can be as strong as trees, though. A tree does not care if something else in the forest is moving. A tree does not care if a deer walks by it. I am a tree in the forest, moving very slowly, only barely touched by the wind. Everyone else just moves past me, and I watch them go, because I cannot be moved from who I am, and what I am, and what I know. It makes me special, unique. My knowledge is a secret that only I possess.

We are not truly—or only—individual people. It seems to me that we are like aspen groves. We are actually connected to one another underground, and must rely on one another for sustenance, and for the ability to continue to thrive in this world.

into us at every moment? There is an ocean of light around us. We are surrounded by it. We swim in it. We move through it every day. But I am the only one who seems to have my eyes open. I am the only one who can see it. Sometimes, this is very lonely.

Can’t it be enough that I wanted something so badly that I was willing to risk my life to make it happen?