Hollywood
screenwriters and literary legends have long relied on the mystery, adventure
and magic a forest holds to tell their stories. And it's no wonder after
visiting the only aerial forest walkway in Canada that does not harm or hinder
a tree's natural movement: Greenheart Canopy at the UBC Botanical Garden.
The
weather is drizzly and grey - perfect conditions to meander through a coastal
temperate rain forest located just minutes from downtown Vancouver.
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| Access to the UBC Botanical Garden is included with admission |
There is
nobody else here, just my guides Bianca, an equally bubbly and beautiful
Brazilian girl, Ian the passionate conservationist behind the operation and
Matthew who has a Masters in Forestry Conservation. Tour buses don't come here,
it is one of the city's best-kept secrets but it is too magnificent not to
share here.
And to be
honest we weren't entirely alone. Bald eagles call this place their home:
dozens of them in fact. This aerial park atop a sea cliff provides the perfect
conditions of ocean winds and trees for eagles to soar. From the volar
playground their screeches of joy can be heard as they chase and dive-bomb one
another in adolescent bliss.
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| Bianca and Matthew |
As we
began the gentle and easy ascent through the forest canopy I half expect to see
ewoks and storm troopers whizzing past on speeder bikes but I soon realize that
the forest is far more entertaining than any Hollywood blockbuster. The canopy
is where all the action is and up until now this unique view of the forest has been
reserved for squirrels and woodpeckers. Solid and serene Giants, they are no
longer towering above - we are now at 'eye-level' and an entirely new intimate
relationship is quickly forming.
Like any
good script, the forest has heroes and villains, love affairs and wars - and
yes, I'm still talking about the trees.
Trees, according
to Matthew are competitive warriors and size doesn't always matter.
Some use
brute force to strangle their competitor’s life support system, while the shade-tolerant
Western Hemlock employs intellect and patience to snuff out his competition.
Under the branches of his taller neighbors the young Hemlock slowly accumulates
dense foliage to sun-starve his vertically challenged competitors.
The
patient Hemlock then waits for one of his neighboring giants to succumb to
disease or a particularly violent windstorm, leaving behind a window in the
canopy. The enduring Hemlock then leaps into action growing tall and strong -
easily done when the competition has long since been eliminated.
Armed
with this new knowledge, the famous tree battle scene from Tolkien's Lord of the Rings isn't such a far
stretch of the imagination after all. And even Tolkien - an avid tree lover
himself, defined his characters as good or evil in part by their feelings about
trees. Many of the evil forces in his story are tree-destroyers. Conversely all
the good people of Tolkien's world are tree lovers1.
But there
are healers, nurturers and love affairs in the forest as well. The medicinal
scent of the Grand Fir overtakes my olfactory senses at the first platform. For
thousands of years our native people have used it as an antibiotic and
antiseptic and still do today.
Compassionate
trees act as supportive crutches for damaged or weak trees and fallen trees
provide a nursery for young saplings to grow until eventually their roots
outgrow the nursery and they 'walk out'.
Stringy green
moss hugs branches in a symbiotic lover's embrace and woodpeckers pluck away
annoying and potentially fatal termite infestations.
The more
Mathew speaks, the more my appreciation for the forest grows: it's like seeing
an old friend in a new, fascinating light.
James
Cameron dreamed of the makings of Avatar
since he was a teenager for his life-long love of trees is sacred as depicted
in this award-winning film and sacred these giants are.
Trees are
intelligent beings that have a lot to teach humankind. Strong and solid they endure
Mother Nature's ferocious windstorms: yes the weak ones fall but others survive
because they've learned to 'roll with it'. Patience, strategy, nurturing and
survival - the forest is a proficient master in all.
Countries
like Bhutan and scientists like Dr. Elizabeth Nisbet, assistant professor of
psychology at Trent University have proven the distinct correlation between
nature and happiness. In Bhutan GNH - Gross National Happiness is more
important than GNP.
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| Greenheart Conservation Company |
Greenheart,
a privately owned company, recognizes that presenting nature with a little dose
of adrenaline brings out the conservationist in anyone who experiences it and
that is what will protect nature in the future as government funding dwindles. The
forest, as Ian says with a boyish smile, 'provides the perfect environment for
growing good, strong humans'. The unique design of the aerial walkway does no
harm to the trees and protects the forest floor from being trampled. No heavy equipment
is used; everything is carried in and built by hand. A tourist attraction
without the destruction of mass consumption.
Trees are
healers, trees are nurturers, trees are warriors but most of all trees are cool
- just pick up any Tolkien book - or any literary classic for that matter and
one can see how they have fueled imaginations for centuries.
The tree which moves some to tears of joy is in
the eyes of others only a Green thing that stands in the way. Some see Nature
all Ridicule and Deformity...and some scarce see Nature at all. But to the eyes
of the Man of Imagination, Nature is Imagination itself.
-William Blake, 18th century English poet.
Melissa
Haynes is the author of Learning to Play with a Lion's Testicles: A South
African expression that means learning to take chances
1 Essay: Tolkien's Trees by Claudia Riff Finseth
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