Tales from th' Trails

The Works of Rico Lighthouse
Tales from th' Trails
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    • Tree City USA

      Posted at 9:26 am by Rico Lighthouse, on April 22, 2023

      There are signs as you come into town proclaiming that our city is a “Tree City USA.” In order to get that certification a city has to plant more trees than it cuts down. Who actually counts the trees planted and the trees cut down is beyond me. There is no doubt that in order for our society to go on the way it’s going Nature has to be controlled. A place for everything and everything in it’s place. We simply cannot have Nature growing where it’s not supposed to.

      Last fall some kids built a lean-to in the woods along the river. They built by leaning sticks and branches they found on the forest floor against a tree trunk. It was a crude shelter, but beautiful. They built it, they loved it, they were proud of it. A homeless man found it and spent a few nights in it. When the city found out about it they sent the police in to run the man off. They took the shelter apart by removing all the branches and scattering them back down on the forest floor where they came from. Because that’s what a Tree City does, right? It protects the trees.

      But that’s not what actually happened. What Tree City USA actually did was cut the tree that they had leaned their branches against down. Ha! Take that kids. Take that thou homeless man. Can’t build a shelter against a tree if there’s no tree there, can you? I don’t think so, Tim.

      Now, as I ride along the river and the woods surrounding it I see more and more trees cut down. Nearly as many, it sometimes seems, as there are still growing. They are thinning the forest to keep it healthy, so the city claims. Nature forgot to take that forestry management course offered by CSU. But what they are actually doing is thinning the forest so a homeless man can’t hide in it.

      There is a small cluster of trees next to the Salvation Army. Some homeless folk made their camp there last summer. It gave them a little shade, a little respite from the heat. Tree City USA found their camp. What did they do? They cut the trees down. Just showed up in the middle of the day with their chainsaws and took care of business. The branches are still lying there to this day as a reminder of what happens when a homeless man sleeps under a tree.

      Just off the Spring Creek Trail there is a young Willow forest. It’s thick with shoots, lots of medium sized trees, and a few mature ones. It has, for the past few years, been a harbor and haven for homeless people. Every so often the police would show up and run everyone off, every so often people would return and go back to living there. But Robin Hood has no place in this town. What did Tree City USA do? They cut the trees down. Went in there with chainsaws and bulldozers and razed the forest to the ground. The Sheriff of Nothingham Town wins again. Robin Hood gets on his bike and rides out of town. When he gets to the edge he stops to shake off the dust of his feet. Right beside him is a sign which reads Welcome to Fort Collins, CO. A Tree City USA.

      Posted in River, Uncategorized | 0 Comments | Tagged Forest, Kids, River, Tree
    • Why People Don’t Eat Acorns

      Posted at 11:37 am by Rico Lighthouse, on October 8, 2022
      Because if they did
      they would know th' secret 
      to something 
      that's been secret for so long
      that even its origins are secret-
      Because you must find the acorns-
      Because you must collect them
      after they fall to the ground,
      gather them together into a sack
      right there where they're found,
      take them home and dry them out-
      (you can't leave them outside, 
             the squirrels will see to that)
      Because you must crack them open
      with calculated pounding-
      (get into a rhythm, you will like th' sound)
      Because you must wait for them to dry
      without letting the mold arrive-
      Because you must find a rock to 
      grind them with-
      (we have a favorite, 
            it lives in a drawer with th' woodenware)
      Because if you leave that rock outside,
      after pounding,
      a squirrel will gnaw and gnaw at it,
      and when he realizes he cannot eat it
      he will pee on it, and you will have
      to wash your pounding rock
      before you can use it again-
      Because while you are pounding 
      the acorn into flour
      grubby little fingers
      will try to avail you 
      of half your work and
      a tantalizing smell will
      assault all of your senses,
      bringing our ancestors back from th' past
      with molasses sweet remembrance-
      Because you must leach them
      this way or that,
      (it really does, yet doesn't matter which)
      No, I cannot tell you for how long,
      you will know it on your own-
      Because after you have done all this
      and you have realized
      that there is nothing better to do,
      and you remember th' birdsong,
      and th' breeze that shook th' leaves
      that are drying on th' trees,
      and the autumn light slanting down
      and th' dew in th' morning
      and th' sirens warning
      us all that we are closer than ever
      to th' fall, 
      after you've heard th' crow's cawing
      and th' geese honking, 
      and your legs are tired from sitting-
      After all this, 
      then you still have to cook them-
      (Bake a pie, 
      make some Nuppa)
      And then, you are not done yet, 
      you have to eat them, 
      with family, with friends,
      with thanksgiving
      for th' secret
      that now lives within you-
      Because you carry it around,
      and that is a responsibility
      you now have-
      Because that secret 
      must be guarded with care-
      Because that secret must be kept,
      and yet it must be shared-
      Because that secret 
      fell from trees,
      born on flowers nobody sees,
      grown from water 
      and sun on leaves,
      and colors everything we see
      
      Posted in Poetry | 0 Comments | Tagged Acorns, foraging, Poetry, wild food
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    • Recent Posts

      • Tree City USA
      • Why People Don’t Eat Acorns
      • In Favor of Electricity Pt. 3
      • Upon seeing a Heron, standing still, at the River
      • Lament for a Long Lost Friend
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