But obliterating whole tracts in one fell swoop would leave little foundation to help the forest recover. The trees grew in clusters, with the eldest and largest—one meter in girth, thirty meters in height—in the deepest part of the hollows where the water collected, with younger trees of various ages and sizes close by. Like chicks clutched around a mother ptarmigan. The grooves of their bark housed tufts of wolf lichen, easy for the deer to nibble in winter. Buffaloberry and soapberry shrubs grew between rocks. Bright-red Indian paintbrushes, purple silky lupines, pale-pink Calypso fairy
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