by kelli carmean, lexington, kentucky, originally written for the thunder bay field naturalists club.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
in the chilly\nmorning of saturday, september 29, some 25 hearty souls stood before the wooden\ninformational kiosk near the trailhead at greenwood lake conservation reserve. unseen\nbelow our numerous bundled layers, many of us had donned red suspenders, in\nmemory of the man with whom we were about to walk: my dad, dr. willard h.\ncarmean. my dad died december 30, 2017, a handful of days before his 96th<\/sup>\nbirthday. our family had moved him down to st. paul, minnesota, to be closer to\nfamily, and into assisted living, six years before his peaceful passing. <\/p>\n\n\n\n through the\nbright autumn sun, the birch shone yellow and the maples red, and above their\nbrightness soared the majestic, always-green, old growth white and red pine\nthat my father so loved. he first came upon these majestic trees \u2013 now some 350\nyears of age \u2013 soon after he arrived in thunder bay to join the lakehead\nuniversity\u2019s school of forestry, in 1979. <\/p>\n\n\n\n in 1992, greenwood\nlake conservation reserve was officially created. in the years since then,\ntrails were cut, and the wooden kiosk built. it is my understanding that some\nkind of unfortunate hiking mishap caused the tbfn to distance themselves from\nthe reserve. my dad spoke frequently of how sad it was that the trails were\nbecoming overgrown, which meant the public could no longer learn from and\nappreciate this rare forest. but by\nthen, we were urging and cajoling our dad to move, and finally that transpired.\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n during the\nsummer of 2018, a group of volunteers led by dr. lada malek, had taken up axe\nand saw to clear trails at the reserve. that morning before the wooden kiosk,\nseveral speakers told of the uniqueness of this forest, and the history of the\nconsiderable and ongoing efforts to reserve it. nearly everyone spoke of my\ndad\u2019s contributions. i spoke of my memories of him, and my surprise at seeing\nthe veritable family photo album displayed on the walls of the kiosk. <\/p>\n\n\n\n as we \u201cwalked with\nwill,\u201d i did as gerry racey had requested of our group at the trailhead: ponder\nwhat will carmean saw when he walked through this mighty forest for the first\ntime. i will admit this was a hard task, as every time i gazed up at a mighty\npine crown, my heart ached. i also knew with a strange precision exactly what\nmy forester father would have been thinking on his inaugural visit of\ndiscovery. he would have been thinking about how a hot, long-ago fire (he loved\nthe fire history story; i\u2019d heard it many times) had produced this rare, shallow-soiled\nboreal forest. he would have been contemplating how fortunate it had been that\nmany decades of logging operations had managed to miss it. he would already\nhave been considering how he could protect this place. my dad was never against\nlogging; his belief was that logging should be as productive as possible so\nthat important areas like greenwood lake could be spared the saw. he wanted as\nmany people as possible to see and admire the ancient trees of greenwood lake. <\/p>\n\n\n\n while we\ninterred most of his ashes at fort snelling national cemetery in st. paul, we held\nback two small vials to bring to greenwood lake for the walk with will. a short\ndistance along the yellow trail and to the right, in the space between the\ndecaying stump of a mighty pine and a moderately aged one, i lifted the humus\nfrom the forest floor. there upon it my niece, ms. margot thraen, one of will\u2019s\nthree grandchildren, and i scattered the last bit of ashes of a man who loved\nthis forest more than any other place on earth. i am deeply grateful that a\nportion of him will always be there, nurturing new pines. he would be pleased\nas well. <\/p>\n\n\n\n on behalf of my\nfamily and my late, great dad, i would like to thank all the \u201cwalkers\u201d that\nday, organizer lada malek, those who spoke, anyone who has ever been to\ngreenwood lake, anyone who has ever loved greenwood lake, and to all the future\nvisitors and lovers of greenwood lake. may this unique forest continue teaching\nand inspiring a long succession of future generations. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" by kelli carmean, lexington, kentucky, originally written for the thunder bay field naturalists club. in the chilly morning of saturday, september 29, some 25 hearty souls stood before the wooden … <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lkhdherbarium.lakeheadu.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/338"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lkhdherbarium.lakeheadu.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lkhdherbarium.lakeheadu.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lkhdherbarium.lakeheadu.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lkhdherbarium.lakeheadu.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=338"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lkhdherbarium.lakeheadu.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/338\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":339,"href":"https:\/\/lkhdherbarium.lakeheadu.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/338\/revisions\/339"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lkhdherbarium.lakeheadu.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=338"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}