Comments on: Haunted tree

By: Dave Bonta

Dave Bonta — Sat, 06 Nov 2010 22:03:23 +0000

In reply to Dorothee Lang. Not very long in comparison with our existence as a species, I should've said. It's only the near edge of deep time, really.

By: Dorothee Lang

Dorothee Lang — Sat, 06 Nov 2010 14:40:46 +0000

thanks for the walk back into time. this is still hard to grasp: “13,000 years isn’t a very long time — not even for people”

By: Dave Bonta

Dave Bonta — Fri, 22 Oct 2010 18:18:48 +0000

In reply to quiet regular. Thanks. I'm glad.

By: quiet regular

quiet regular — Fri, 22 Oct 2010 14:34:23 +0000

even the spines have spines! enjoyed this, thank-you.

By: Dave Bonta

Dave Bonta — Wed, 20 Oct 2010 22:48:46 +0000

In reply to pohanginapete.

Thanks for the thoughtful comment. Yeah, I’d heard about the moas — and like our megafauna, their disappearance followed the arrival of human beings. Sad. and you’re right, wildness is different and more important than mere wilderness. It can permeate our lives if we let it. It doesn’t have to remain apart.

By: Dave Bonta

Dave Bonta — Wed, 20 Oct 2010 22:46:43 +0000

In reply to pohanginapete. Have you spent time in Japan? In conversational Japanese, most sentences end with "but," I think!

By: Dave Bonta

Dave Bonta — Wed, 20 Oct 2010 22:46:00 +0000

In reply to marly youmans. Yes, indeed. Thanks for reading.

By: Dave Bonta

Dave Bonta — Wed, 20 Oct 2010 22:45:36 +0000

In reply to dale. Thanks, Dale. Good point.

By: Dave Bonta

Dave Bonta — Wed, 20 Oct 2010 22:45:10 +0000

In reply to rebecca. That sounds like a book I really need to read. Thanks for the comment.

By: rebecca

rebecca — Wed, 20 Oct 2010 21:29:12 +0000

I just finished Barbara Kingsolver’s novel Prodigal Summer, one of the major themes of which is the haunted nature of the Appalachian forests: the ghosts of red wolves and Carolina parakeets and chestnut trees. So this was very timely. I remember the first time I heard the theory about locust spines being a defense against mammoths and their kin – it took my breath away. It’s amazing that creatures so long gone continue to shape our landscape.