by Randy Stemler
May 10, 2001

This year, in cooperation with the Bureau of Land Management, HearthSong, and Klutz Press, the Mattole Restoration Council planted 10,000 trees grown from native seed.

It’s a simple act to plant a tree. But a lot goes on in the minute and a half that it takes for an experienced planter to select the spot, open the hole, and set the transplant in the ground. It’s the hardest work I’ve ever done, and at times I’ve thought that it’s the hardest work there is, but I suppose an oilfield roughneck or a plumber thinks that about their jobs too. And, I’ll have to admit, I’d rather be covered in mud than oil, and have the smell of rich humic topsoil on my hands than yuck from a broken pipe.

Early morning vistas are exhilarating from atop a stump that serves as vantage point to survey as far as the eye can see. The fulfillment of planting trees serves my passion for fixing broken things. I bless each little tree with a wish for health and longevity, and that it have vitality for holding on to the landslide-prone soils or steep creek headwalls where I plant them.


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Table of Contents for Mattole Restoration Newsletter, Issue 16 - Spring/Sumer 2001