Skip to main content

What About A Resilient Forest?

A tree is a solid and constant being, free of human weaknesses like discontent and striving. So wrote John Muir, the environmental philosopher and early advocate for land preservation, about the symbolic nature of the tree. Yet, in another way, a tree might have discontent about ecological disruption in the forest, for the tree is not an isolated being but part of an interconnected network on which life everywhere depends. 


That’s where the art piece FIRE/LAND starts, by asking lyrically how a tree actually feels. Not only poetically inspiring, this idea speaks to me of species survival through adaptation and migration. Does a tree move and adapt? Do humans change in ways that make a difference to a tree? A tree moves through its seeds. Species that can adapt and move successfully can reduce their risk of mortality and become survivors. 

A long time ago, my dad taught me to grow vegetables and take care of a garden. That influenced my path in life ever since. The plant seed is the first unit of life. The seed knows its contents but it cannot speak. Its genes reveal its provenance–where it came from and its parentage. But how does the seed respond in its sprouting, its yearning for height, its buffeting of wind, disease, and heat? We watch and wait.


Recently I found myself on a tour of the Institute of Forest Genetics in Placerville, determinedly scuffing along a dry duff-covered trail, kicking battered pinecones. Take note: seeds snagged in clothes, boots, whiskers, fur, glued to stump wells, forgotten by squirrels. Like the wind and animals, we are seed dispersers for the trees.


How can genetics inform decisions on what to plant in forest restoration projects in the face of climate change? The Provenance Test. Plant your seeds in a common garden and watch what happens. Study a set of parameters. Is it elevation, density, watering, diversity, the soil chemistry here, once used for pears, then pines, now oaks, that influences tree growth? With their genetic origins tuned to frosty higher latitudes, some baby trees are maladapted for this warming world. 


I walk along the rows of intentionally planted trees and silently ask: Are you frost tolerant? Are you plagued by adaptational lags, lusting for cooler nights but enduring pitiless early September heat waves? Are you a valley oak of parentage able to adapt to changing bud bursts, sending your leaves out at the earliest convenience but then find them frostbit and your seeds wasted? Will you do the same again next year? Are you a fast-growing type that insect creatures love, the one in which wasps lay their eggs and ants suck your nectar because you are sweeter, and swifter, your taproot extending six feet below the ground before you show your first leaves. 


Maybe I hear a few whispers in response. 


As an artist, I’m using the symbolic and poetic to explore meaning and draw attention to a complex unstable situation. And, some of us are songwriters trying to conjure up a tree's melody, or listeners making careful observations. There is much to be “discontented” about when it comes to the current state of the forest and the strategies and the will we need to mitigate the effects of our destructive actions, so that the tree might, once again, be content.


-Ameera Godwin


—

FIRE/LAND

An Experience Inspiring Community Resilience

Saturday, June 10th, 2023, 4PM - 10PM

Wakamatsu Farm, 941 Cold Springs Road, Placerville, CA 95667


A project of Myrtle Tree Arts and co-hosted by the American River Conservancy, this unique "art rock opera for the forest" and public forum will happen at the landmark Wakamatsu Farm. During the speaker forum in the late afternoon, local experts and representatives will share community issues related to wildfire, land stewardship, emergency preparedness, cultural preservation, and forest ecology. The evening features Main Street Collective's Pink Floyd Dark Side of the Moon 50th Anniversary concert followed by FIRE/LAND: Knowing the Territory, a musical and dramatic performance starring musicians, singers, Native American storyteller, and video projections in a creative exploration of wildfire, ecological change, and resilience in El Dorado County. This intellectual and creative experience strives to spark inspiration and your call to action in support of community resilience! 
See more details on the Myrtle Tree Arts Fire/Land page.


FIRE/LAND: The Exhibition

SWITCHBOARD GALLERY

Arts and Culture El Dorado 

525 Main St. Placerville, CA

June 8 - August 6, 2023

Experience this installation of Ameera Godwin's digital prints and video from FIRE/LAND.

 

Artist Talk, July 13th, 6pm 

 

 

FIRE/LAND is made possible with support from:

The Latrobe Fund, Sacramento Region Community Foundation,
Pure Life/Sacred Roots, in partnership with the
American River Conservancy and Arts and Culture El Dorado

Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Life After Smoke and Char

A recent classroom-based workshop on Prescribed Burning was my first immersion into learning about fire behavior and concepts rooted in science, law, and practice on the ground. Beneficial Disturbance. Heat Management. F.R.I. for Fire Return Interval. Learning about burning and its connections to culture and biodiversity was a first step toward overcoming my own negative perceptions about fire.  The course was led by experts Chris Paulus and Cordi Craig of Placer County, and coordinated by Kestrel Grevatt and the American River Conservancy, and emphasized the benefits of careful, legal burning. We were introduced to fuels and forest types, fire and wind behavior, state statutes and personal liabilities, Indigenous cultural burning and native plant adaptation. The experience was surprisingly rich.   “The forest has memory,” announced Chris, a well-spoken and commanding retired CAL FIRE Battalion Captain. “The forest has to be allowed to remember itself.” I’m going to borrow that, I th
1 comment
Read more

Creating Music for FIRE/LAND

Paul Godwin & Miguel Noya (Dogon) Music for FIRE/LAND: Knowing the Territory has been a huge part of the creation process for this "Art Rock Opera for the Forest." We began with a gorgeous and somewhat somber composition that came about in 2018 when Miguel Noya, the Venezuelan electronic composer attended our artist residency at Talking Tree Ranch in Placerville. The composition is routed in a repeating piano pattern nested rhythmically in the key of C# minor. There is an interwoven melody taken up by piano, then violin and finally a synthesizer enters with a counter theme -  swirling, gorgeously rising with an inherent longing and perhaps, sadness. The piece was not released until now, when it found a home in the opening FIRE/LAND  Overture – recast as “Whichever Way the Wind Blows.” The piano ostinato will return again as a foundation for “A Moral Dilemma” and then “We All Play a Part” as our Finale.  How does one create music for an “art rock opera for the forest”?  A
Post a Comment
Read more

Ramparts: Centrum Artist Residency, Part 2

Arriving at Fort Worden sent me on a hunt about fortification history and architecture. Following trails through the woods to the top of Artillery Hill, Paul and I encounter the ramparts, solidly built gun emplacements known here as “batteries.” “Bulwark” is another term that feels related to the work from my first week at Centrum: large pencil drawings of entangled old growth cedar and spruce branches and roots. The “bul-” part of bulwark is related to bole, “tree trunk,” while -wark is related to English work, wrought, and wright.  The last of the guns at the fort were removed in 1945, and the defunct battery enclosures, tunnels, stairwells, rusting doors and pipes, lichen-stained concrete, a stately sign with the name, Cornelius Tolles, a captain who died from his wounds in a Civil War battle—comprise these eerie tombs. We start to hymn and sing into the dark reverberating chambers. “What a performance venue!”, our eyes circling in their sockets as we imagine the possibilities.  May
Post a Comment
Read more