Wood Water Soul - Wood
Part 2 Yesterday and Today
This is the 52nd Wood Water Soul. Every time I think I know the path to take, I seem to drive into the ditch, so here goes, deep into the science of the tree. A thought for you to consider before we take this dive: In the 1600s, it took 400 acres of virgin British forest to build one British Man-of-War ship.
Agathis australis, or kauri, is a coniferous tree in the family Araucariaceae, found north of 38°S in the northern regions of New Zealand's North Island, the smaller of the two islands that make up New Zealand.
It is the largest (by volume) but not the tallest species of tree in New Zealand, standing up to 50 metres (160 ft) tall in the emergent layer above the forest's main canopy. The tree has smooth bark and small, narrow leaves. Other common names to distinguish A. australis from other members of Agathis are southern kauri and New Zealand kauri.
With its podsolization capability (a process of soil formation) and regeneration pattern, it can compete with faster-growing angiosperms. Podzols, also known as podosols, spodosols, or espodossolos, are the typical soils of coniferous or boreal forests, and are also typical soils of eucalypt forests and heathlands in southern Australia. A forest containing kauri is generally known as a kauri forest, although kauri need not be the most abundant tree. Kauri forests have a higher species richness in the warmer northern climate than those found further south. Kauri even acts as a foundation species that modifies the soil under its canopy to create unique plant communities.
The tree can grow fast and sometimes can benefit from fire. When forests are harvested, especially in New Zealand, loggers start at the edge and work their way inward. Today, when we think of cutting trees, loggers work way back in the woods and cut specific tracks. Not so long before any forest management was put into place, forest fires burned until they ran out of fuel or it rained; there were no “smoke jumpers” or ground crews with bulldozers to cut firebreaks to stop the spread. In 1881, the first of these really big fires burned through the Puhipuhi Forest, south of the Bay of Islands. It was 17,000 acres that were set aside as a reserve. The first fire caused extensive damage, with plumes of smoke reaching higher than the cloud from an atomic bomb. The second fire in 1887 was much worse. Feeding on the timber left by the first fire, it became uncontrollable, and the remaining forest was utterly destroyed.
The amount of timber burned in those fires was estimated at over 500 million super board feet, which is enough wood to build a large city. Fire wasn’t the only thing that destroyed this forest. Trees that could have been harvested were left to rot on the ground because of slight blemishes in the wood, so this resource was just wasted.
What can we learn from this? In California, we had vast forests of redwood. For the most part, these are gone. What we have remaining are smaller forests. There will never be trees that grow to over 200 feet. The environment won’t support old-growth redwood forests due to changing climate, pollution, and urban sprawl. To stand in one of our existing redwood groves with first-growth trees is an amazing and humbling experience.
The above two images need no caption. When you walk in the woods, direct your thoughts to the special experience you are having. One word comes to my mind: respect.
I’ll try to stay out of the ditch next time, until then, I offer up the idea of forest meditation, Click the link.
I appreciate you taking the time to read this, and I hope you enjoy the film and all of the full-length interviews. We do have some pretty cool things in the shop these days. like this t-shirt for Wood Water Soul. Please share this Blog with a fellow surfer or with a friend who needs some Joy in their lives. I invite you to watch Addicted to Joy for free, Aloha.
