Pine-tree Views (from the Snowbowl) & Philosophies of Natural Order
« From the Snowbowl: View from the Snowbowl (in summer) - A combination of too many pine trees (one of those ironic results of humans more efficiently putting out natural wildfires) and the excessive drought over the last few years in the Flagstaff area has meant a huge increase in the pine-bark beetle. The beetle renders trees utterly stripped from thirst. The amazing affect leaves one tree dead while another, standing right next to it, remains healthy.
From the point of view of a volunteer bushfire fighter, I stood looking at the beautiful trees - I find the dead ones just as awe-inspiring as the live ones, pondering the question of when we need to put out the fires and when we should let "nature" take it's course. Of course I say nature (in quotations) because unfortunately there's always going to be those sad few people whose carelessness (or malice) starts a wildfire.
Fire though, is a natural phenomenon - just like drought, hurricanes, earthquakes etc, and through it all nature somehow manages to restore the balance. I know it sounds almost fickle to say such a thing when residents in the Gulf-States have lost so much, but nature is bigger than all of us. Long after evolution has brought our human story on this earth to a close, there will still be hurricanes, earthquakes, tsunamis, droughts, extinctions and rebirths....
~ thus endeth philosophy knight-web 101 :o) ~ *Please note: in my view "nature" does not include the slow/mis-managed response of the government agencies in the current crisis in New Orleans....