Trees

Recently, I’ve gotten to know trees a lot better. Growing up, I always revered them and considered myself a bit of a tree-hugger. After a week of chainsaw training, I was put on a project to fell, buck and peel 30 cedars that for a lean-to. Felling a tree, when it goes smoothly, can be a powerful experience as with a few cuts you hear a creak and then a thud as the tree falls to the ground. It feels like everything shakes as the surrounding trees readjust to their increased space. Then comes the delicate part. Trees are like bodies, they have arms or ribs and an inside and outside. Limbing and peeling a tree is like undressing or butchering a tree until you have the vulnerable white inside revealed. With freshly cut trees there is a layer of water between the bark and wood that makes it so that you can just pull off the bark in long pieces with your hand-it felt like how I imagine surgery feels like. The few axe marks left from the initial opening of the bark leave white scars on the wood and creases in the bark leave iodine yellow scars. As the week wore on, the ground became muddier and the woods slowly filled with sunlight from the missing crowns. It was weird feeling, I began to realize that there are similarities between trees and us but my job was still to take them down and drag them out.