Michelle Nijhuis writes a thought provoking essay titled "To Take Wildness in Hand" to bring about the plight and story of the Torreya taxifolia or better known as Stinking cedar tree, found mostly in Florida, it's future unknown. The author tells the tale of a ancient tree, an ice-age relic possibly "left behind" after the last glacial retreat and very possibly better suited for cooler climates. Why is it's future unknown you may ask? experts are not exactly sure, possibly due to a mysterious disease, animals, drought,or stressful climate or perhaps maybe a combination of everything. Their numbers have been reduced to just a handful of rotting moss covered trunks, in riverside ravines it once had been so plentiful it could have been cut for Christmas trees.
Connie Barlow, a writer and naturalist takes on a personal mission to save the trees and move them north, to a cooler, less diseased climate and "since it couldn't move fast enough alone, she would move it herself". Her journey from when she first visited the Torreya State Park in 1999, taking a look at its hiddened treasure, the Torreya taxifolia up to the present, has been an uphill battle not only for the trees survival, but for other species of plants and animals as well. Discussion arose among scientists about the future of simply moving a species to a different climate for its survival, could it work? A graduate student would eventually coin a term for the idea in 2004 and assisted migration it would come to be known as. As you read about some of the other solutions conservationists have suggested, rather than move the trees north and the reasons why they will or won't work is interesting. The author also gives background information about the secluded area that has been ignored by chainsaws and hidden from time where the tree is slowly disappearing into extinction.
Activists of moving the tree up north are the same ones who believe it will work with other plant and species. Those who believe that it is a bad idea, calling it tinkering recalls one case in point, a case where Kudzu a vine like plant from China was planted by farmers in the 1950's. Suggested by the soil conversation in order to help with the irrigation of the soil down in the south of the US, the plant would eventually take over and was then listed as a pest weed in 1953. When speaking about the suggestion of assisted migration of the tree the manager of the perserves where the tree is barely holding on to it's existence, says "such efforts threaten to take attention and funding away from the work in the preserve and make an already bad situtation even worse".
I believe what the essay informs the reader about is yes, the future of an ancient tree and its road to extinction and those who wish to save it, but it tells of a much bigger and more important story between the lines. The story in my opinion is that the earth is changing, the climate is changing, species are created and species become extinct everyday. The world is not a perfect place, it makes mistakes, it re-invents itself and no matter what we attempt to do as humans, you can make matters worst or just spin in circles and do nothing and let nature take its course. The earth knows what it is doing, it is still evolving, growing, no matter how many scientists, naturalists, conservationist whatever "ists" you get in a room, you will not change what may not be changeable. When you sit and contemiplate the solutions, you come up with more questions, it is the nature of the beast. Perhaps the tiny tree has lived its life here on this planet and it just is its time...perhaps there is another tiny tree somewhere just born and not yet discovered. I say yes, try and help nature along, study it, marvel at it and be in awe, but don't be too disappointed if you can't change it, the zebras can't change his stripes nor the leopard it's spots even if you move them to a different place.
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