Watching the trees

     I am generally a pretty even-keeled person. There's not a lot that storms my boat.

    But watching trees die distresses me no end. It's happening all over Southern Oregon and is especially noticeable in our Ponderosa pines. Everywhere, Ponderosas are turning brown. It's true that the pines lose needles at this time of year, anyway, but what I'm seeing goes beyond the normal cycle. The trees are dying. I wring my hands; I lament; I wail, and the trees turn browner and browner. Some are already but trunks and branches. I weep for the trees.

    I have a beautiful Ponderosa in front of my house. In winter frost etches the needles in silver. The sun sets every needle, every limb a-glimmer. In summer the sun slides behind the tree, shading the deck where I'm eating my lunch. The tree is the tallest in the view from my house, towering over the California live oak and apple tree in front of it and the madrone beside it. I have loved this tree for years. Its needles are browning, slowly, but there's still a chance it will live, given rain. But day after day goes by this October, and the sky is blue nd cloudless and the weather is warm.

    Caterpillars have invaded the madrone beside the pine. At first there was one nest on one branch; now four or five branches are webbed with nests. The tree looks weak, stressed.

    I have numerous California live oaks around my house, a species I don't see often in other places, much less at other homes. They are thick-leaved, sturdy trees and were seemingly invulnerable. Now, however, for the first time since I have lived on this mountainside, the leaves are turning brown. Oh, that just doesn't happen to these trees! I am so distressed.

   The trees on Humpy Mountain, my immediate view, seem dry and pale, even at that distance. 

    I have six or eight dead firs and pines close to my house that need to be taken down. Other neighbors and friends have talked about cutting down dead trees on their property.

    Drought. Climate change. 

    It distresses me beyond words, but all I can do is watch it happen, pray for rain (in my own way), and wish with all my heart that things would get better.