72. National Lands

            I have written a little bit about my reverence for America’s national forests and parks but I would be remiss if I didn’t include all the federal lands that we as Americans share. Where I grew up and here, near where I live, are plenty of fine examples of Bureau of Land Management lands along the shores of Lake Coeur d’Alene and the Salmon River. There are campgrounds and rest stops on both of those bodies of water that are collectively owned by We, the People.

            There are huge swaths of the American west that are desert with beautiful rock outcroppings or endless fields of waving grass that we own and are able to enjoy. Some people write off the desert as some huge wasteland but those areas have a beauty all of their own and we own them together. No one ever thinks of National Grasslands but they are there in the plains and the hills and we own them as well. Oh, sometimes we might not like how these national lands are managed, but we have a say in that. We can contact the bureaus in charge of their management or the congressmen who we elect to be in charge of our national interests. I think that’s amazing. And I also know that while sometimes it seems like bureaucracies don’t listen, if we become squeaky wheels and gather other voices they will hear. Again, that’s a big Wow! that I have that right. And one I take advantage of.

            I love the wide open spaces of the American west but I am well aware of the fact that the American west is also the most urban area of the country. Yet we have all these open public spaces that are beautiful, mountainous or seemingly endless stretches of grass that are ours together. Few other countries have such precious resources available to their people but we do as Americans. I, for one, am extremely thankful for that great American privilege and I intend to protect that resource to the best of my ability so that my children have the same thing in the years to come.

71. Forests

           There are zillions of things that I like about the forest. In the United States I am particularly fond of the fact that so much of that forest, especially here in Idaho, is national forest. Now I’m not going to lie and say I always agree with how national forests are managed, but I am glad that they are there for multiple use, for people like me to go out and get huckleberries, firewood or Christmas trees.

            Forests bring us clean air and beauty. Sunlight shining through the deciduous forests of Vermont or evergreen forests of Idaho is my real love. Forests and trees bring a sense of freedom and wildness that I cherish, and this country has a myriad of forest lands that we can use for our recreation, our sport and quite often our livelihoods. And no one person owns the national forests, we all do. Every person from rural wooded New Hampshire to urban Los Angeles has a part of it. So we need to enjoy those forests and use them for their inestimable value to us, not abuse them for temporal gain.

70. The White Pine

           I know that there are many people who have not done as I often do: walk through the woods, the seemingly endless woods of the Northwest or anywhere, for that matter. Since I am from Idaho one of my favorite trees that wasn’t all that present when I was a kid but is having a resurgence is the white pine. Many of them were killed off by blister rust in the early part of the 20^th Century but since that time foresters have helped the state tree of Idaho and Maine along with some disease resistance. And, yes, the white pine of Maine is a little different as an eastern white pine with its longer outspreading branches.

            But, as I was saying, I like to walk in the woods and the white pine has a pull over me. Most of that is because it is Idaho’s state tree, but much of it is also the fact that its trunk was the preferred tree of the 19^th Century American ships. Moby Dick’s Captain Ahab watched over the sea from the top of a white pine! That’s what I can see as I walk through the woods, so oblivious to mankind—or not? The trees stand tall here with perfectly symmetrical branches unlike any other evergreen. They seem so perfectly symmetrical that they appear like a forest of artificial Christmas trees. I haven’t seen one of those replanted, perfectly rowed, forests of white pine but I imagine it frequently in some Dali universe. I like how a tree, all of its own nature, flies in the face of my sense of forested irregularity, forests without patterns at all. The white pine takes a main mast and fundamentally puts a pattern right into my very being even if there are no watches dripping off its branches. The white pine is my Idaho wilderness perfectly blending into my humanly artistic sense of being. I absolutely love that. So there’s yet another wonder of my country that I love.

69. The Grand Canyon

           

          Western rivers have a way of forming grandiose landscapes out of the mountains from which they flow. The Colorado is no different as it flows its muddy way from the central Rockies to the Gulf of California. In fact, probably the most spectacular of all the canyons in the world is America’s very own Grand Canyon of the Colorado in northern Arizona. I have read many attempts to describe the awesome sight of that canyon, but nothing, not even photographs, can truly prepare you for what you will see. My experience has always been driving through the barren desert and forests of Juniper and Ponderosa Pine as you get there. You will see places to stop where there are restaurants and various promotions for the canyon, but at that point all you see are plains.

            Then it happens. You might cross a bridge over some gorge where the earth seems to open to the chasms of the deep. This is where some creek has found its way from the heights to the depths of the canyon. You drive further and (in winter or spring, at least—during summer you can’t drive in the park) you come to the edge. There the world opens up into brilliant rusts and ochres against a vivid blue sky and you are truly awe struck. It is unbelievable and indescribable. When you first see it all the babble and noise of the other tourists just inexplicably disappears and all you can do is stare. I imagine for some, especially those first people who ever came upon it without any preparation, the experience must border on terrifying. Here you are reminded of how tiny and insignificant you truly are and that can be both humbling and frightening. But it is also immensely beautiful. There are places all over the world that pull us away from ourselves. Here in America one of those places is the Grand Canyon. It’s one of those places I love.