One morning, a man planted Sitka Spruce somewhere on the Secret Coast. Scattered showers fell. The terrain was steep and littered with all manner of slash left behind from an ill-advised clearcut that murdered this slope five years ago. It goes without saying that all clearcuts are ill-advised. They should have been banned decades ago. They are an obscenity against nature. They look exactly like what they are. Stand in one after this uniquely American form of industrialized massacre and you will cry if you have any heart or soul whatsoever. Many Americans don’t. These are the people that see watersheds as something only to destroy for profit. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
But here the man was, laboring with the\nseedlings in his tree bag, in corduroys and a dress shirt underneath\na fraying Pendleton sweater, black rubber boots, Fort George Brewery\nstocking cap, a canteen of water. Several years ago, the man would\nhave never imagined doing this kind of grueling work, in a place like\nthe Secret Coast, but an opportunity to work arose, and he needed the\nwork, and a lot more. He needed to get back to the ground. Once he\nwas rooted there, but then one day, he wasn’t. \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n
As he planted, he was mindful of the\nmany people in his country who could not work and were at risk of\nlosing homes, apartments, spaces in RV parks, and their sanity. They\nwere sheltered in place. He was lucky to be working and having the\nslope kick his ass. It is always a good ass kicking when it comes\ntrying to heal a watershed. \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The man’s boss told him he had to carry\nhis phone with him while planting. If the man tripped and rolled down\nthe slope and injured himself, possibly breaking a leg, they had to\nfind him. \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A phone! While planting! Absurd! Our\nboys at Valley Forge didn’t have phones, or toilet paper for that\nmatter. \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Nevertheless the man complied and took\nhis phone along, encased it in an soiled cotton glove for protection\nand shoved it in a pocket. Pretty hick. Pretty anti-chic. \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n
After a time, rain subsided. Some\nhummingbirds darted here and there. All around the man were the\nancient burned stumps of cedar giants. A fire had raged through this\nland centuries ago and left behind these beautiful black sculptures\nof ecology and history. They deserved admiration and the man gave\nthem exactly that. \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Two hours into the planting, the man\nwas winded, and rested on the ground. He looked around, swigged some\nwater, and noticed a clump of Oregon grape, the state flower. He\nmoved in closer to inspect and beheld the most astonishing Oregon\ngrape he had ever seen, and he had seen thousands upon thousands of\nthem. This one was all purple, a deep purple. Not a streak of red or\ngreen. It was taller than the others in the clump. It had rain drops\nglistening on its jagged leaves. Its buds were poised to unfurl and\nflower into yellow. \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The man considered digging out his\nphone and taking a photograph of the purple Oregon grape. No one\nwould believe him unless he provided documentation. And perhaps he\nhad a duty to capture this rare beauty and send it out via the\nvarious digital conveyances because seeing this beauty might help, if\nonly for a second, someone suffering isolation and depression. \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n
No, the man had his tree bag wrapped\naround his waist and couldn’t retrieve the phone. His hands were also\nwet and muddy. He had to forego the photograph and keep planting.\nMore and more trees. As the man planted, the image of the purple\nOregon grape expanded in his mind. It grew an idea\u2014a literary\njournal called Oregon Grape<\/em> that would contain writing and art\nof all things Oregon. He would recruit writers and artists to\ncollaborate on this new editorial venture. Now was the perfect time\nto launch! \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n The man smiled. What a fringe benefit\nfrom he had received. He finished planting and trudged up the slope\nand out into a meadow. Rain began to fall again. What other ideas\nwould spring forth from more planting. \n<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" One morning, a man planted Sitka Spruce somewhere on the Secret Coast. Scattered showers fell. The terrain was steep and littered with all manner of slash left behind from an ill-advised clearcut that murdered this slope five years ago. It goes without saying that all clearcuts are ill-advised. They should have been banned decades ago. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5963,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5962","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-meditations","has-post-title","has-post-date","has-post-category","has-post-tag","has-post-comment","has-post-author",""],"builder_content":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nestuccaspitpress.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5962","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nestuccaspitpress.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nestuccaspitpress.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nestuccaspitpress.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nestuccaspitpress.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5962"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.nestuccaspitpress.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5962\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5965,"href":"https:\/\/www.nestuccaspitpress.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5962\/revisions\/5965"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nestuccaspitpress.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5963"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nestuccaspitpress.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5962"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nestuccaspitpress.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5962"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nestuccaspitpress.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5962"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}