Hey! Check This Out! Sequoias

While Yosemite's sequoias are well known as the ancient trees which populate Yosemite, Terry Tempest Williams urges each of us to listen in on their messages. Terry Williams speaks with an ex-lead biologist at Yosemite, Sue Beatty, who tells us her story. She talks on how she often would walk through the millennia old groves of Sequoias and listen in on what they were 'saying'. One day she imagined the big trees speaking to her, saying "We are suffering. We are dying. Can you hear us?" She saw the roots of the trees had been parked on, that the ground water was being diverted away, and that the great trees continued to grow despite their proximity to the road. Sue had a vision of restoration, and proposed an analysis of the grove. They gathered the info, which allowed them to begin work on improving the habitat of these great sequoias. It seemed that the main issue was that the trees could not breathe, the soul had packed around the roots, and the xylem and phloem were not moving properly. They got to work, removing the asphalt and moving all the tourist attractions miles away. 3 years later, the work was complete, they had pulled up miles of asphalt, moved the gift shop and tram rides miles away, and put in gentle walking paths instead. Finally, they let out an invitation to all the people who visit Mariposa grove, can they hear the trees speaking?

Source article: https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/books/story/2019-10-07/erosion-terry-tempest-williams-excerpt

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