Cathedral Grove from the Cascadia Suit

I went to a band concert last night and one of the visiting community bands performed Cathedral Grove from the Cascadia Suit by Robert Buckley. Turns out Robert Buckley is from the Vancouver area and wrote the piece about the Cathedral Grove old growth forest on Vancouver Island from an eagle's perspective flying overhead. I found the metaphor striking and had to look into it.

Here's a link to the song on Bob Buckley's actual web site and here's the music. From the ground the old growth forest is very impressive. From Google street view it kinda just looks like a bunch of trees but as you descend, like an eagle would, to rest in the upper limbs of those majestic giants, it would be significantly impressive. Hence the awe inspiring persona of the musical piece.

Unfortunately it appears that clear cut logging has once again plagued the forest worse than the pine beetle. Is nothing sacred any more? Do we not understand selective tree harvesting? Must we continue to rape the landscape with clear cuts that do not get properly replenished when tree planting only has a 30% success rate?



Majestic yet sad and ominous. The Buffalo are gone. Will the eagle be next? Clear cutting the trees chokes our own existence for a quick buck. Obviously we need paper. Sad the pulp and paper industry shut down all the hemp farms which were far more sustainable. Hemp grown for paper doesn't get you high. It just creates a sustainable alternative to the pulp and paper industries clear cuts. Sad.

I did see an eagle the other day. I love kayaking on the Harrison River in November or visiting Brackendale between December 15 to January 15 to see the eagles migrate to feed on the rotting chum carcases after they have spawned.

Well the other day I was driving to Langley and as soon as I came off the freeway turning onto 200th street I had to slow down because there was a huge black bird on the road. At first I thought it looked like a vulture picking up some garbage but we don't have vultures around here. As I squinted to try and focus it was clear it had a rabbit in it's talons. Then as it turned and flew off with the rabbit I could clearly see it was a bald eagle right in front of me. I was somewhat impressed.