A Naif in the Forest by Darrell Berger

Wing Tips to Hiking Boots: Musings of a New, Full-Time Poconos Resident

Sometimes you can’t see the trees for the forest. My eyes have glanced over this eastern red cedar countless times without really seeing it, until Topaz the Aussie gave it special attention. 

I noticed that it was unlike other trees nearby. Its bark was hairy and thin, revealing the wood beneath. That wood was reddish-brown and cedar, familiar from chests, shingles and closet fresheners. It has many limbs and these also have many, all pointed upward and bereft of needles except for its very top. 

It appeared to be dying and if it were, it might take some time, as these have been known to live more than nine hundred years. According to botany, it’s not a true cedar, but a juniper. Its berries feed birds and deer and are used in making gin. 

It is a pioneer species, among the first trees to repopulate damaged land, though this ability sometimes causes it to be considered invasive. Native Americans used cedar poles to mark territories and fashion bows and other implements of hunting and war. The Red Stick Creek Native American tribe, who fought Davy Crockett and Andrew Jackson, took their name from the wood of this tree. Its later uses include pencils and building materials, as it is both lightweight and durable. 

It contains oil that freshens the air and in old rituals drove away evil spirits. It is a powerful allergen and causes the tree to burn easily, which makes it sometimes hazardous. 

This time of year, with leaves gone and snow intermittent, individual trees like this emerge. In sunlight while its neighbors are brown it is the deep red of a good ruby port. Its many branches are arranged in a complex harmony of angles. This may be an old or dying tree, but it is beautiful. 

Every day in the forest I walk by so many trees it is hard to notice any. When I lived in the city I walked by many people with a similar lack of focus. Overwhelmed by the vastness of both forest and city, I occasionally stumble upon beauty. 

The naïf will be on hiatus for a time and looks forward to his return.