A walk in the woods with old growth guide, John Bates makes the forest in Presque Isle come alive. With grace and wit, Bates shows how even in an older forest, new life abounds in many forms. From the tallest tree to the tiniest mushroom, he sees and shows all. In it, he finds reason for reverence.
“When somebody dies, we mourn, we grieve, and rightfully so. But when a tree dies out here,” Bates said, “it has an ecological function that’s really significant and should be celebrated.”
It’s a lesson Bates learned again and again researching and writing his guide to Wisconsin’s few remaining patches of old growth forest, “Our Living Ancestors”. Living ancestors because the oldest trees may have stood for many centuries but remain a part of a vibrant ecosphere.
“They’re not something that’s fossilized that we’re looking at in a drawer,” noted Bates from his perch beneath a canopy of trees.
Indeed, along the trail are many examples of regeneration, including fungus that’s eating bark away to “nurse trees,” fallen giants that have new trees sprouting up along their trunks.
Knowledge is shared along the trail but also a way of thinking – a way of being, shared with anyone who walks with him.
“Opening up that space to them,” Bates concluded, “to fall deeper in love with the natural world.”
