the caren range

as the day dims outside, the greyish dusk that fills my living room is like smoke – i have to turn on the lights to assure myself it is only a trick of shadows and nothing more. this is something i have forgotten while living in the city, how nuanced natural light can be when there are no artifical bulbs cluttering the nightscape. when darkness comes and i turn the lights on in my living room, i can see the wide pool of daytime they cast over my front yard and, loathe to disturb the beings out there with this need, there are urges to burn candles instead. how much space does one being need to take up? i know that this being already takes up too much.

one of the oldest forests in north america exists here on the sunshine coast – with yellow cedars reported to be as old as 1800-2000 years. they have found the oldest known tree to have existed in canada by counting the rings on trees already felled by industry. they speculate that possibly an older tree than that still stands in that small grove now protected from the fellerbunchers and self-involved businessmen – but this has not been proven. it is like a hope that slips from the imaginations of conservationists – we have not destroyed all the elders yet, we have not yet killed all tumbling endlessly down steep slopes and into the faraway sea.

but even those people, even myself – live in a country where each citizen uses the ecological footprint of four earths – and it is evident on the sunshine coast that the good conservationists are often those driving 4 wheel drive suvs so they can access the nature they so crave. we have lost the thread of the story somewhere in our social and ecological narrative and most days it seems there is no picking it up again.

i find myself whispering prayers as i search for what has not yet been destroyed – wishing a different culture which could recognize what value exists in a forest uncut or a fish uncaught. a small piece of the caren range old-growth was saved by those who could see this value (though as you can see in this photo, the trees are like islands among the clearcut) – a small offering to an earth badly scarred, but an offering none the less. to move beyond and end oil-dependence or the endless stream of petty consumer products – this seems less a possibility unless the issue is forced.