The Overstory

No wonder this book is sad--it's true. Glad to know about Wright Park. I've been there but didn't know the details about the trees. A nice physically distant outing for me sometime.

Reading Overstory has me pumped up for trees - for those of you relatively new to the area, Wright Park has lots of trees, many of which are over 100 years old. Included are Horse Chestnut, Giant Sequoia and Red Woods. A nice way to take a socially isolated stroll and see some interesting trees from as far away as Asia. Each tree is marked with name, normal range and year planted.

The Overstory section that made references to Douglas Fir was especially meaningful to me. I grew up in Southern Oregon in the heart of timber country. In the Summer the highways were dominated by logging trucks by the hundreds, and everyone I knew was touched in one way or the other by the timber industry. I had a job myself working in a sawmill the summer between my freshman and sophomore college years.

We were intimately aware of and cynical of the practice of leaving a couple hundred yards of trees standing along the highways while decimating the hundreds of thousands of acres of virgin forest that lay behind the screen. The virgin forests were populated with gigantic Douglas Fir. Now they are all gone, with just a few relics that escaped by virtue of their inaccessible location. All the others cheerfully and enthusiastically cut down, the land laid waste.

From my perspective, most of what passes today as “forests,” are really not forests. They are farms. Actual Douglas Fir forests are pretty much gone forever.

You can find lots of these kinds of pictures on the internet.

Related to our reading in Overstory: Many of you may have seen the article about the American Chestnut in today's New York Times - if not, here's the link: Can Genetic Engineering Bring Back the American Chestnut? https://nyti.ms/2KRrJk9

The scientists most responsible for the work described in the article are from State University of New York Syracuse. Coincidentally, my son Sean's GF Alice is exploring a Phd program at that university in mycology.

Thanks, Sue, for your persistence in getting this going! It’s a really nice change of pace, and fun to have something different to look forward to!

I started the 2nd part tonight & got right into it. As each character entered the scene, I was able to remember the previous stories about them. I was glad Olivia didn't die & I like her now even though she seems nuts. That Thespian couple is depressing. No thoughts on Mimi yet. Doug seems like a pretty good guy. Looking forward to picking it up again tomorrow. I knew this would happen but didn't expect it this fast.

Hi everyone, just a reminder that we meet tomorrow at noon. Hope you can make it! The zoom link is right here on the forum, in John‘s post. Please let others know if you think they might be unaware. See you soon!

Ok, I'll be there. I'm almost finished with the book at this point.

Here's the URL for our Book Club zoom meeting on April 29 12:00 Noon:

https://us02web.zoom.us/j/89511932557?pwd=ZHhZSkdkYW1raXBtN2hON2h1TmVqQT09

Meeting ID: 895 1193 2557

Meeting Password: 56943984 (Password is encrypted in the meeting URL)

Phone (if you don't use computer audio):

Meeting ID: 895 1193 2557

Phone Password: 56943984

Find your local number: https://us02web.zoom.us/u/kbUH0bO3TO

I thought I heard somebody say we're only reading the first part for the 29th. Is that right? We need to make sure everyone knows that because maybe all the book club members weren't at the meeting where that was discussed.

I'll add it to my busy calendar! 😀

April 29th at noon. That works!

I have a proposal, since I don’t think we have picked a day yet. It would be easy to remember if we meet the Wednesday following our monthly meeting, for now at noon. What do you think?