Earth burned in many ways in 2020...

Dear Fellow Earthlings,

When the horrific wildfires began raging in the Cascade range mountains some 50 miles east of my home here in

Oregon this past September, I knew that changes were coming my way.

Back in 1995 I had been active in a group called Friends of Opal Creek. We had worked hard to secure a promise that

this scenic watershed located in the Cascade Range of Oregon just southeast of Salem, Oregon would remain untouched

and unlogged -- not only for such precious wildlife as the Northern Spotted Owl, the Cascade Torrent Salamander, and many varieties of fungi, bryophytes, epiphytes, bats and other forest creatures -- but also for the humans who would eventually be occupying more and more of Oregon's precious land.

Inspired by the legacy left by former Oregon governor Tom McCall (See installments 341 and 342, December 3, 2016 and December 4, 2016, respectively.), I along with other members of the circle of nature lovers known as Friends of Opal Creek worked hard to have Opal Creek designated as a natural area, whose old growth trees would never be logged. Through the efforts of like minded people, Opal Creek and the forest around it were spared....

But just as invaders often return to once again attempt to conquer, circumstances have again become grim. People are pouring into Oregon in droves -- and a virus has been fighting back against human incursion by expanding its spread to one of worldwide proportions.

Sadder still: Rather than just pushing for change so that all humans have the opportunity for a better life, many of us are stirring up embers of old social conflagrations that should be allowed to simmer and gradually disappear. Just as a forest's new life is based on the building of new ecosystems on the remains of an old one, so must a new humanity rise from the ashes of the old.

While remembering the past, we must nevertheless let bygones be bygones.

We can employ our new technologies to preserve and in some cases to rebuild the past. Wealth derived from high technology and profitable business strategies can be shared not only among all peoples but among all living creatures. Financial reparations should be parceled out -- even with the knowledge that some of the wrongs of the past can at best thereby be merely mollified -- not healed completely. Final healing can come only with sustained efforts by all people to move on -- together and in harmony with each other and with a sustained policy of live and let live.

Earth should not serve as a battleground -- but neither should she be seen as a playground! Allowing these two activities to continue will serve as "grounds" for future regret.

In the smoldering remains of Opal Creek, seeds of future forests CAN rise. But only if we humans do not interfere...

What is left? The resolve to rebuild -- to pick up the pieces. This resolve cannot be quashed -- even as I lament the loss of trees tall enough to be called structures, of human dwellings burning, of our fellow life forms being pushed ever more deeply into vortices heading toward extinction!

Earth's environment can only take so much. When the Cascade fires raged they not only burned living things, but also released paint residue, plastic and metal particles -- and other chemicals -- into the soil, air, and water of the region. Wild areas such as Opal Creek are hard put to recover from such damage.

Here on Reltonia, a sight greeted me yesterday afternoon: Two Northern Spotted owls flew by in search of old growth trees to live in... And on this side of the Willamette Valley, where I had never seen any before (AND, where we have very, very few old growth forests...).

And at the same time, thousands of disenfranchised Native Americans are gathering to trek north out of the land of the Mayas in hopes of escaping the ravaged lands of their ancestors. Everywhere on Earth life forms are beleaguered. Those who can't move face the challenges by attempting to adjust. Those who CAN move are now on the move, desperately seeking a way to escape the degradation and or destruction of their immediate surroundings.

Can Reltonia accommodate any Northern Spotted Owls? I hope so, but my little piece of Heaven's trees are not yet of the size needed by that beleaguered species... -- And can the United States accommodate additional Mayan people? I hope so, but even the whole of the United States is incapable of supporting the entire Mayan race -- or the literally hundreds of other "races"/"ethnicities" of people racing to fill the United States to the brim with humans.

I will try, try, try until I can try no more to save Earth, our Home, our Mother, our Responsibility. I ask all Earthlings to join me in my efforts. Only by trying can we offer any help to the fungi, the owls, the people, the life forms of Earth.

Steve Walker

Earthsaver and Jingles Creator