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Trees

Sitting on bedrock, hidden in shadows of scrappy little Virginia pines, I watch another cloudless day pass over Lake Jocassee. Once upon a time in this very place, Tulip poplars would have reached toward low-hanging stars–mighty trees–felled by storms, lumber contracts, and man’s idea of progress. The giants are gone. A few miles from here, though, a single, giant Tulip poplar was saved from the scourge of clear-cutting by a quiet, gentle forest ranger named Bob Padgett. Three men, arms outstretched with fingers touching, could not completely circle the girth of this giant tree. Over four centuries old, it is, a living memorial to an ancient forest I’ll never know. ~K