The following is an excerpt from Grandfather Poplar. In an effort to save her favorite forest, main character Melissa writes to the county commissioners. This is a passage from her letter.
© copyright 2005 Lillian D. Henderson
Playing alone, many times I was the only human witness to the forest wonders: flying squirrels leaping from limb to limb, opossums carrying their babies on their bellies, young wrens taking their first flights, deer pausing to drink at the stream in early morning, the water flowing slowly as it glinted with sunlight amid the reflections of the trees. I’ve seen rainbows kiss the treetops and sunsets blazing through the forest in fiery hues. I’ve looked on as countless butterflies danced together in the summer. I’ve watched falling leaves in autumn glowing brightly beneath the waning sun as they spiraled to the forest floor, sprouting blossoms in the spring and summer that scented the air with sweetness, tendrils of sunlit spider webs fluttering in the wind, robins pecking the ground for juicy grub worms, hawks gliding high in search of prey. I’ve seen what seemed like a thousand starlings descend upon the trees and then suddenly ascend at once, murmuring against a cloudless sky. Once when I was younger, a red fox walking upwind from me came within five feet before he caught my scent and stood stunned and motionless for just a second before high-tailing it in the other direction.
I remember the time before Christmas when I was eight. My daddy took us out in the woods to cut down a small cedar. But he finally changed his mind because I cried and pleaded the whole way, begging him relentlessly not to kill one of my tree friends. That’s how I feel about them, you see. They are my friends—every tree, every animal, every rock, every insect and arachnid (except maybe mosquitoes and ticks), every fern, mushroom, or weed in those woods. Just like I’ve witnessed the quiet miracles of nature there, they’ve looked on as I grew and became the person I am now. They’ve stood beside me while I argued with my brother, while I cried about something someone said or did to me, while I complained about school or chores. They’ve inspired me, supported me, listened to me, shaded me in the heat and sheltered me in the rain.
Melissa’s feelings about trees and forests express my own. I have lived alongside trees all my life and have loved them always. Please join me in caring for the trees and saving the forests. Contact government officials and implore them to save our national forests and to maintain the Roadless Rule that keeps the wild places from harm (if already rescinded, please contact to reinstitute it). Without the trees, humans will not survive for long. The forests are this planet’s lungs. We need them to live.