What feeling do you get in the old-growth redwood forests that are left?

They seemed inaccessible at first, though I was drawn to walking in them like a cathedral or art museum. I forced myself to paint and learn about them and I gained a religious fervor for them. When I walk in an old-growth forest the feeling is the closest to a real religious deep-seated meaning I've ever come across. I don't know if one can put their finger on it.

On the other hand, the forests are now so small. It feels like I am in a primordial forest, but when I see trails and hear traffic that feeling of old-growth forest is gone. I think it is important to save the Headwaters (in its original state) and not cut it up with roads and campgrounds. Have it be the last place people can experience wilderness that they can't get with just one tree.

Aside from the Headwaters, there is not really an old-growth redwood forest issue any more. To me, they represent museums, not real forests. Tourists come here and see redwood groves beside the road on Hwy. 101 and think there are lots left. This is not true...they're only beside the road, not on the hills.

I like to make the distinction between a redwood tree and a huge old-growth forest like the Headwaters. People ask how many acres does it take to make a forest. Spotted owls need several 1000 acres. For me, I'd like to not see light at the edge of the forest where it has been clear cut, not hear or smell cars, or see worn trails.

Save The Redwoods is now buying hillsides around parks, even if they have been cut, to protect watershed in hopes that in several hundred years there will be an old-growth forest there, not just a pocket of trees.

Do you believe trees have spirits?

Yeah, I do. I am not sure they are the same spirits we have. Where do you draw that line? I think they must have great experience and the fact they all join their roots together suggests a community or family. It is interesting to think there are all these groups to save the whales or the gnatcatchers, but there are few groups saving less-animated creatures. I think that is a young job--chaining yourself to a tree. The young activists here are fervent in what they believe. People really care about the redwoods once they get to know them. It just takes loving and understanding them. I don't think you can understand them by whizzing past them at 60 miles-an-hour. I make my living doing nature art all over the country and I keep coming back to these forests. It is in my will to put my ashes in a redwood forest and let my nutrient go back into the soil.

Have you ever seen plant spirits or devas in the forest?

I don't think so. I have had deep feelings. I feel these forests are strong and knowledgeable, like an old man. Yet they seem so fragile and unprepared to fight for themselves, like an old man. Like the Dyersville Giant in the Roosevelt Grove. A woman in 1919 stood in front of bulldozers to protect that grove. The Dyersville Giant fell awhile back. It had been the tallest tree in the world. It was one of the most tragic things I've ever seen, like a cathedral that had collapsed. I was one of the first people to see it down and I walked the length of the tree. When I came back a week later it felt like rigor mortis had set in, just like in a human body.

Have you been in the Headwaters Forest?

I flew over it years ago before most people knew it was there. The Headwaters was brought to people's attention because Hurwitz came along and was planning to liquidate all those trees. Otherwise, it might have been cut acre-by-acre slowly and disappeared without anyone knowing. Hurwitz may be a blessing in disguise! My sense is that in a hundred years no one is going to care if we gave money to a crook .You don't stop to think what Yosemite cost when it was purchased, all that matters is that it is preserved. Same with the Headwaters in a hundred years.

Go To The Living Spirit of Old Growth Forests Part Three