ellen meloy (1946-2004) is named the winner of the 2007...

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Wake-Robin Volume 39, Number 3, Spring 2007

The Tree PeopleAdapted from the Fall

Slabsides Day Talk, October 7, 2006

By Evan T. PritchardFaculty, Marist College

Algonquian-speaking peoples, whose native lands once stretched from North Carolina to the Rocky Mountains and north to Hudson Bay, have no generic word for tree. Each species is different from the oth-ers, so they have been given separate names, accord-ing to their characteristics. This is something I learned from my Micmac language teacher (I am of Micmac descent, but Micmac is not my first language). John Burroughs, in Signs and Seasons, re-marks on how conifers and deciduous trees seem to be hardly the same kind of life form:

How different the expressions of the pine, in fact of all the conifers, from that of the de-ciduous trees! Not different merely by reason of color and foliage, but by reason of form. The deciduous trees have greater diversity of shapes; they tend to branch endlessly; they di-vide and subdivide until the original trunk is lost in a maze of limbs. Not so the pine and its

Spring, 2007Volume 39Number 3

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congeners. Here the main thing is the central shaft; there is one dominant shoot which leads all the rest and which points the tree upward: the original type is never departed from. . . . The pine has no power to develop new buds, new shoots like the deciduous trees. . . . Vic-tor Hugo, in his old age, compared himself to a tree that had been many times cut down, but which always sprouted again. But the pines do not sprout again.

Algonquins in Eastern woodland areas always had sacred groves of various kinds of trees for differ-ent uses—for raw material, for food, for healing, and for spiritual purposes. These they cultivated, a practice poorly reflected in terms like “sylvaculture” or “tree farming.” You might say the trees were wild-crafted, using the term for herbs. To say herbs are wild-crafted means they are nurtured and picked in phases—not necessarily planted or harvested all at once, neither of which usually works. When the natives harvested firewood, they mainly collected the deadfall, which the Micmacs call goomoodj, and left certain others behind. For making a dugout canoe, the tree, usually a tulip tree, was carefully chosen. Building a fort or palisaded wall presented a more serious issue. The

Ellen Meloy (1946-2004) Is Named the Winner of the 2007John Burroughs Medal Award

The John Burroughs Association annual literary award ceremony at the American Museum of Natural History, recognizing authors in the field of nature writing, will take place at noon on Monday, April 2, 2007. Mark Meloy will be present to accept the Medal Award on behalf of his wife, the late Ellen Meloy. Please see page 9 to make your reservation for the JBA Awards Luncheon and update your JBA mem-bership. For the complete list of winners see page 2.

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John Burroughs Association

The John Burroughs Association was formed in 1921 shortly after the naturalist-writer died. Among the Association’s aims are fostering a love of nature as exemplified by Burroughs’s life and work and preserving the places associated with his life. The Association publicly recognizes well written and illustrated nature essay publications with literary awards that are given after the annual meeting on the first Monday of April.

The Association owns and maintains Slab-sides and the adjoining John Burroughs Sanctu-ary near West Park, New York. Open house at Slabsides is held the third Saturday in May and the first Saturday in October. A permanent exhibit about John Burroughs is in the American Museum of Natural History.

The membership year begins in April. Con-tact Secretary, John Burroughs Association, Inc., 15 West 77 Street, New York, NY 10024-5192, or e-mail: [email protected]. Telephone 212-769-5169. Web site:

http://research.amnh.org/burroughs/Wake-Robin is published in March, July, and

November. Vittorio Maestro, Richard Milner, and Steve Thurston, editors. Send submissions and editorial inquiries to Secretary, John Burroughs Association, Inc., 15 West 77th Street, New York, NY 10024-5192 or e-mail [email protected] drawing © 1996 Jim Arnosky. Wake-Robin © 2007 John Burroughs Association, Inc.

Directors: Robert Abrams, Jackie Beckett, Lisa Breslof, Joan Burroughs, Marcia Dworak, Jay Holmes, Paul Huth, Regina Kelly, David R. Lane, David Liddell (first vice president and acting presi-dent), Jack Padalino, Evelyn Rifenburg, Selden Spencer, H. R. Stoneback, Tim Walsh, Ann Zwinger

Announcing the Winners of the John Burroughs AssociationLiterary Awards, Spring 2007

John Burroughs Medal Award:

EatingStone:ImaginationandtheLossoftheWild, by Ellen Meloy (Pantheon Books, 2005)

John Burroughs Nature Essay Award

“Learning to Surf,” by David Gessner (Orion, March/April 2006)

John Burroughs Young Readers Awards:

ADropofWater, by Gordon Morrison (Houghton Mifflin Co., 2006)

JohnMuir:America’sFirstEnvironmentalist, by Kathryn Lasky and Stan Fellows (Candlewick Press, 2006)

LittleLostBat, by Sandra Markle and Alan Marks (Charlesbridge, 2006)

QuestfortheTreeKangaroo:AnExpeditiontotheCloudForestofNewGuinea, by Sy Montgomery and Nic Bishop (Houghton Mifflin Co., 2006)

SeaHorse:TheShyestFishintheSea, by Chris Butterworth and John Lawrence (Candlewick Press, 2006)

CorrectionThe certificate bestowed on Ellen Meloy, reported in the Winter 2007 issue of Wake-Robin, should have read “This Certificate is presented by Acclamation of the Literary Medal Award Panel” (not the Literary Essay Award Panel). Remember to visit www.ellen-meloy.com for information on the Ellen Meloy Fund for Desert Writers.

Web site UpdateVisit the face-lifted, updated, and expanded JBA Web site (http://research.amnh.org/burroughs/). Among its features, a Wake-Robin archive will be available in the near future.

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It’s Slab Time!Slabsides Restoration Set to Start

By David Liddel and Joan Burroughs

The John Burroughs Association has hired Woodside & Young of Poughkeepsie to do the restora-tion work at Slabsides. They will be following a de-tailed Project Manual that was prepared for us by our architects Crawford & Sterns. The focus of the work is the deteriorating exterior slabs. These slabs are the first cut from a felled log and are notable for the bark adhering to these pieces of siding. On some slabs the existing bark will be replaced, on others only reat-tached, and some slabs will have to be replaced alto-gether. The specific method of attaching the bark and the wood preservative to be used has been researched and approved by the New York State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation, one of our pri-mary funders of the project. By the time this issue of Wake-Robin is re-ceived by the JBA membership, the work is expected to be underway. We are hopeful that good weather is on the way. The work is being documented and we will share the progress with you on-line. Look for it at http://research.amnh.org/burroughs/ The John Burroughs Association has been awarded two matching grants. The New York State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation and the National Park Service have awarded the JBA a total of $34,075. To receive the funds we must match the grants dollar for dollar. We are indebted to many of you for your generous support. We have received sev-eral contributions since the last issue of Wake-Robinand are slowly approaching our goal. Your continued support is still needed to preserve this important His-toric Landmark that was so central to the life of John Burroughs. Contributions may be sent to the John Bur-roughs Association at the American Museum of Natu-ral History using the return address on Wake-Robin. All of us who treasure this humble retreat in the woods thank you. DavidLiddelisActingPresidentandJoanBurroughsisamemberoftheJBABoardofDirectors

Elizabeth Burroughs Kelley’s 1995 Slabsides Day Talk

Introduction by Joan Burroughs

Elizabeth Burroughs Kelley (1903-1999)—my Aunt Betty—grew up knowing her grandfather John Burroughs, whom she nick-named Baba when she was first learning to talk. Her family’s home was on his fruit farm in West Park, New York, which I still maintain. She was just graduating from high school when he died in �92�. After majoring in English at Bryn Mawr College, she went on to teach at several girls’ schools before returning home. She devoted the rest of her life to fostering the memory and legacy of her famous grandfather. She was the go-to source of all information on John Burroughs. She had an amaz-ing working knowledge of his journals, writing, and life and was always ready to share it with scholars and nature enthusiast alike. She was 92 and still living in her house at Riverby when the Slabsides Centennial was celebrated. Though she wasn’t able to attend at that time, she wrote down memories for me to deliver at the Slabsides railing where she had romped and spoken so often.

Slabsides Centennial

By Elizabeth Burroughs Kelley

Welcome to Slabsides, one hundred years old this year. When my grandfather built Slabsides the thought that he was building a landmark for a celebra-tion a hundred years hence was certainly not in his mind, but I like to think that the celebration would have pleased him because Slabsides gave him much happiness and no other place meant so much to him. He called it “blessed Slabsides.” When he built Slabsides he was fifty-eight years old and had been living at West Park for twenty-one years. During that time he had become a popular writer and made many friends. At first he had been a bank examiner and then, losing that job, he bought nine acres by the river at West Park and set out grapes to obtain income from them. In �895 when he acquired this land, about two miles from Riverby, he had at first no intention of building on it. He was interested in clearing the swamp and using it to grow celery. The vineyards were now well established and he needed a

Slabsides restoration donors will receive a Slabsides button of the cabin in winter.

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new project. It was finding a good spring at the edge of the swamp that made him think that he should have a house here. He began building the house in the late fall of �895, doing most of the work himself with some help from his hired man. It was a project that gave him much happiness. “How I enjoy it,” he says in his journal; “I am happy all day long.” A great deal has been written about Slabsides. One article says that most of his essays were written here but this is not true. He did not build Slabsides as a place to write—he had his Riverby Study for that. Here he could entertain his friends, and how much pleasure that gave him! How many meals he prepared and cooked in the Slabsides fireplace! In his day there was no other writer so much loved as he was, and no other literary shrine visited by so many people. I wish there was a record of how many times he was photo-graphed here with visitors. I’m not sure just when I came to Slabsides for the first time. I know I was here in 1907 when my grandfather had a dinner party at Slabsides for his family, and we came in a wagon. I was then four years old. Over the years I have been here many, many times. My grandfather in his journal wrote up one visit when I was a little girl and walked here from Riverby with him. When I was at Kingston High School I came with a high school group one Saturday and was pho-tographed with him and a high school teacher. As you know, I have prepared two books about Slabsides, one in �974 and the other in �987. For thirty-two years, for Slabsides open house days I gave a talk here about Slabsides twice a year. I found much to say, as Slab-sides has had an interesting history. May this be the be-ginning of another one hundred years for Slabsides!

John Burroughs Hall — Science Building to Be Re-dedicated April 5 Event to Take Place at Ulster County

Community College in Stone Ridge

A new wall plaque for the building will be in-stalled in a 30-minute ceremony, scheduled to begin at �:00 P.M., with remarks from Assemblyman Kev-in Cahill; SUNY Ulster President Donald Katt; Joan Burroughs, a direct descendant of John Burroughs; and Gloria Lipton, retired Kingston school teacher and member of the John Burroughs Association. A small reception will follow. The event is spearheaded by Gloria Lipton. Invitations will be sent by the col-lege to the John Burroughs Association members. For information contact Ron Marquette, 845-687-5263.

Great Ways to Help!

In-Kind Materials—Library furniture for books and children’s corner; laminator

Volunteer Opportunities—Restoring and developing sanctuary trails; assisting with Spring Slabsides Day activities; helping with sales and walks at Slabsides and hospitality at Pond House.

Financial Support/Sponsorships—Support our Res-toration Campaign (see article on page 3); support Greenway Grant to restore and develop trails; sponsor guest lecture series; sponsor an event like Slabsides Day with guest speaker and activities; support new ki-osk displays

If you would like to volunteer at the JBA office or work from home, please contact Lisa Breslof at 2�2-769-5�69 or email at [email protected].

Slabsides Docent

Our Slabsides Docent, Evelyn (Ev) is a member of the JBA board and docent at Slabsides. She cleans the cabin with LOVE. She serves on Open House days and is the tour guide for groups and schoolchildren. She is also in-volved in the John Burroughs Essay Contest with the vaious middle schools (see the Spring 2006 issue of Wake-Robin). Ev is a long-time member of the John Burroughs Natural History Society and at present is its treasurer and publicity chairperson. She subscribes to John Burroughs’ recipe for happiness: “Keep the currents moving, don’t let your life stagnate.”

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teaching was to use at most one-tenth of the plants of whatever kind was being harvested, and even when building log forts or villages, this rule was observed. Before the Revolutionary War, Daniel Nimham (1724-1778), a great Wappinger chief, planted and cul-tivated hickory trees at Wickopee in Dutchess County. There were so many hickories that European settlers thought that Wickopee meant “many hickories,” but it means “homes by the water.” Nimham cultivated the trees not only so he could harvest their nuts, but also honey. As pointed out in JohnBurroughs,Naturalist, by Elizabeth Burroughs Kelley, hickories are the best bee trees. Governors Island was called Pagganck, or “Nut Island,” specifically referring to hickory nuts. The Canarsee went there to hold their grand councils, but also to gather honey. The red maple is considered to be the “chief of the trees”—that is, it “wears the buck horns,” so to speak. This is most likely owing to its reddish leaves. Red is the sacred color of the “Red Road” (the good road of life). It is a color of strength and of life, associ-ated with the east and the rising sun and the creation of life. It is the color we use to pray to the Creator, with our ribbons. (It is an ancient Algonquin practice to tie ribbons to the branches of a tree. Similar in some re-spects to the Tibetan prayer flags we sometimes see nowadays, the ribbons are held up by the tree, and the wind takes the prayers to heaven. Red ribbon is generally a prayer to the Creator.) The sugar maple was planted or wild-crafted in a grove so that an area would be set aside in the late winter for tapping. Peo-ple drank the sap water and boiled it down to make maple sugar as well. A wide path or road was made to reach this spot, so that buckets of sap or the resulting sug-ars could be removed. This was called the “Shugaree Road.” The maple sap sym-bolizes the sweetness of friendship, and the Shugaree Road is associated with a time of celebration and happiness. The maple leaf is a symbol of cre-ation for Micmacs and other Algonquins, and is used as a teaching mnemonic because (by their reck-oning) it has seven points, represent-ing seven stages of creation. The sugar maple leaf has also become the central

symbol for the Canadian flag. Cedar trees were planted in groves in places of unusual beauty, such as a high ridge with a good view. These groves were created as meditation spots to be enjoyed not by the planter (who was often quite old) but by “the seven generations to come,” that is, the future descendants. According to Penobscot Oaness Pritzger, of Wolf Mountain Radio (on the Internet at www.radio-4all.net), cedar and sweetgrass keep us in balance and restore our energy. Cedar wood is burned in the form of chips of cedar bark and shavings. After making a cedar flute or cedar staff, you can put the shavings in a turtle shell, wooden bowl, or seashell and burn them, and enjoy the smell of the smoke. Juniper is a tree that is closely related to the cedar, and is associated with the spiritual journey. This may be because some berries of certain species of ju-niper were toxic and the shamanistic mystics of old knew how to use them as intoxicants. This skill is now lost. Today, the juniper is still considered sacred and will also be planted in groves. In a yet earlier times, oak trees were planted in groves (often by planting acorns), so as to benefit from the acorns that would come later, which in turn would lead to more oaks. My nation, the Micmac, is called the Squirrel Tribe. This may be because our ancestors

had to act more quickly than the squirrels to get the brown acorns, which taste better than the green! The bark of the oak was sometimes used as a tonic for curing a stomachache. People would place a handful of the outer bark of the oak in boiling water, filter the liquid through a soft deer hide into a bowl or bucket, and then drink it. White pine, spruce, and cedar are

called “The Three Sisters” by the northern Algonquins, not to be confused with the three sisters of corn, beans, and squash. Pine is medicine for the lungs, spruce is medicine for the stomach, and cedar is for an energy-enhancing cleansing. It is common practice

today among Algonquins in Canada to boil the cedar branches in a pot, pour the boiling brown

“tea” into a bathtub, add water, and sit in it for an hour or so, as an overall tonic. In SignsandSeasons,

Burroughs lamented the disappearance of the white pine, a uniquely American

JuniperusvirginianaEastern redcedar

IllustrationbySteveThurston

Trees—continuedfrompage1

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tree not found in Europe, and described how most had been removed by loggers, who called it pumpkin pine because of its softness. To Algonquins, white pine was a symbol of peace. These and other species were planted with cer-emony, sometimes as an expression of peacemaking and reconciliation, sometimes as symbols of hope for the future. The great white pine was sacred to all northeast woodlands people. The Iroquois say the white roots of peace are the roots of the great white pine that stretch out in four directions. A treatment for a cold is to place spruce and fir needles in boiling water and breathe in the vapor to open up the sinuses. My great aunt Helen used to drink the water as tea. She said the spruce needles were rich in vitamin C. She lived past 90, so there you go. The Dutch elm was planted, or wild-crafted, for the bracket fungus that grows on its side, or later, on the fallen logs. This bracket fungus is still very popular today as a purifier. It is burned during medita-tion like incense and smells wonderful. The fungus is known by scientists to have antibiotic properties, and the Micmacs call it tchee-koss m’paysun, “the great tree medicine.” It is used to cure headaches and has other attributes. White willow is cultivated for its medicinal properties, as it thins the blood. Aspirin was originally developed by isolating a substance in willow bark. There is also red willow, very sacred to Algonquins, which comes in two distinct varieties, and used in knicknick, a mixture of tobacco, sweet grass, sage, and kinnikinnick (Arctostaphylosuva-ursi). The sassafra-ss tree was a great healer as well, and the trees were cultivated in groves, some of which still exist in areas where Algonquins once had villages. The roots and shoots are used for sore throats, and the leaf was used for treating skin conditions. When the great smallpox epidemics hit the Lenape, they used the wanaque (sas-safrass leaf) and believed that it helped to save their nation from disappearing. It then became a symbol of their people, still used today. The birch is considered a gift from the Great Spirit, and in the old days, it grew in great numbers without much help. Today, the skin of the birch is very fragile, and the trees are becoming relatively rare. Algonquins can no longer make good birchbark canoes because they have to be pieced together with little pieces and the bark doesn’t last as long because

it is thin. Birch is like plastic and can be molded into many shapes and can hold water. Birch was the origi-nal Tupperware. I have spoken mainly of the material uses of trees, but they have a spiritual side as well. Both the Africans and Algonquins have a practice they call Tree Messaging. You have a relationship with the spirit of a certain tree, and you talk to that tree, and ask it to send a message to a distant tree, and a person connected to that tree will get your message. Some Algonquins believe that trees absorb an-ger. I had an experience with this where I was around an angry person and their anger seemed to cling to me like glue, or like sap. I went away and prayed, with little result, but then the Great Spirit told me to go walk among the trees, and I did so, and as I walked down a narrow path surrounded by trees, I could feel my hot, angry energy being drawn from me. In min-

PhotobyVittorioMaestro

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utes it was like it had never happened, and I was happy again. I was surprised how fast it occurred. Tree hug-ging is a practice shunned by some Rush Limbaugh types, along with Voodoo, Satanism, and even nature worship, but in fact it has, excuse the expression, deep roots in native culture. Trees are excellent energetic healers. They seem to be able to do a certain kind of healing on us when we’re sick, and apparently we can help them too. I was walking through the woods with a native healer and came upon a tree, and the tree spirit spoke and asked me to tell the healer to give it a hug. When the healer did so, we found that someone had chopped a hole in the other side, and the sap was running out, and it was slowly dying. Sometimes we are like trees that have been likewise wounded. And we can be “trees” for each other. I mentioned earlier that Algonquins tie ribbons to the branches of a tree as a form of prayer. That is because trees are intermediaries with the spirit world. When we make offerings, of tobacco, cornmeal, or other plants, we often place these offerings at the base of a tree. We are making the offering to the Creator, but at the same time we make offering of prayers to the tree people. The trees are messengers. If we have to cut down a tree, it is important in Algonquin culture to place tobacco at the base of the tree and ask permis-sion or forgiveness, as the case may be. In my tradition, a red ribbon is for the Cre-ator, white is for wisdom, yellow is for the grand-mothers and the path of the heart, black is for the animals, blue for Father Sky, and green for Mother Earth. Father sky is becoming poisoned with carbon dioxide. Mother Earth’s trees are dying from the top down and from the ground up. If the Earth continues to warm up at pres-ent rates, hurricanes will kill all the birds of the air, the reptiles and amphibians, and all the mammals, a category that includes us. That angry wind will knock down all the trees, and the heated waters will kill the fish and the plankton they eat. Also in my tradition, yellow ribbon is for the heart, and that is where we need to plant the most important tree of all, the tree of compassion and love. We need to plan for the fu-ture consequences of our actions, rethink-ing the way we live so that our children

will not suffer. Where do you tie the ribbon? Around the branch, not the trunk of the tree, but one still has to suspect that the song “Tie a Yellow Ribbon…” must have its roots in some native tradition. What kind of tree, you ask? It doesn’t matter what type of tree, what is important is “location, location, location.” You should find a particular place near your door or win-dow where you can look at that ribbon once in a while. It can stay there for years if you like, or you can re-place it. All the trees were cultivated—wild-crafted—for the benefit of the seven generations to come. Now, owing to global warming, we here in New York State also need to plant groves of trees for the future gen-erations. Not just elm for the tree fungus, juniper for meditation, pine for peace, oak for wisdom, birch for making things, or maple for friendship and sugar; we need to plant all kinds of trees in great numbers. Trees absorb a great deal of toxins and also absorb carbon dioxide, and we need to remove a lot of carbon di-oxide in the atmosphere or there will certainly not be seven generations of humans to follow. Your heart depends on the oxygen from trees in the atmosphere, because your heartbeat and breath are connected. The old blood returning to the heart is depleted of oxygen and filled with poisons like carbon dioxide. It is pumped from there to the lungs, where

the tired blood gives off its carbon dioxide and is re-invigorated with fresh oxygen. Without this fresh oxygen your heart will stop and you will die. Each species and age of tree is different in this regard, but according to the Colorado Tree Co-alition (www.coloradotrees.org) a single, ma-ture tree, though past its peak oxygen-produc-ing years, can still produce enough oxygen for two people. An average person takes in 365 pounds of oxygen a year (according to Anna Fraser of www.the-tree.org.uk), so that comes to 730 pounds of oxygen per tree. A bank of trees in an urban setting (again depending on species) can eliminate 60 percent of the soot, 48 pounds of partic-

ulates per day, 9 pounds of nitrogen dioxide, 6 pounds of sulfur dioxide, 2 pounds of car-

bon monoxide, and �00 pounds of carbon. Near a roadway a single tree can absorb 60 milligrams (mg)

of cadmium, �40 mg of chromium, 820 mg of nickel, and 5,200 mg of lead from

PiceaglaucaWhite spruce

IllustrationbySteveThurston

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the air in a single season (Colorado Tree Coalition). Algonquins have realized since ancient times that the air is richer and fresher (more oxygenated) in wooded areas, and that the trees soak up tox-ins. They also have been well aware that trees absorb heat and make the air cooler. Today we can reduce our air con-ditioning bills by 30 percent (or lower temperatures by 20 degrees) by surround-ing our houses with trees (Colorado Tree Coalition, also South Carolina State Department of Forestry). A story by Blaine Harden in the WashingtonPost (“Tree-Planting Drive Seeks To Bring a New Urban Cool,” September 4, 2006) described how Sacramento, California, has launched a tree-plant-ing campaign to fight global warming and cut energy costs. About 375,000 shade trees have been given to residents by the city in the past sixteen years, and the municipality plans to give away 4 million more. Each resident can get ten trees quickly and without ques-tion from the publicly owned Sacramento Municipal Utility District. After a homeowner receives the re-quested trees, the city’s experts come by to show how and where to plant them, and how to take care of them. The utility saves twice what it spends on the trees in energy savings—enough electricity to power �4,000 homes. Overall, trees are disappearing, mostly on pri-vate land and new development, according to Amer-ican Forests, a Washington environmental group (www.americanforests.org). According to that organi-zation, tree growth has shrunk by 25 percent in test cities, over the past thirty years, costing consumers billions of dollars in wasted energy. Most American cities have shrinking tree canopies in spite of proof in federally funded research showing that trees lower air-conditioning costs and trap greenhouse gasses. Washington, Baltimore, Minneapolis, Chica-go, Denver, and Los Angeles are starting programs of their own. For instance, experts say that just by plant-ing trees, Los Angeles could lower temperatures by 5 degrees, cut air-conditioning bills by �8 percent, and reduce smog by �2 percent. City planners are now planning to follow Sacramento’s example and have announced their intention to plant a million trees. For every dollar spent, they expect to earn $2.80 profit

for the city. The problem, experts say, is mainly in the minds of homeowners, who may have mental blocks towards planting trees, and say they don’t want the responsibility of trimming and wa-tering them. Washington, D.C., has experienced a 64 percent decline in tree cover from �973 to �997. While the Bush administration has been advocating tree plantings as

a solution to global warming, it has cut spending on it by 25 percent during the last four years. In Native American terms, this is called “not walking your talk,” or “speaking with forked tongue.” The first six months of 2006 were the warmest on record in the United States. Global warming is a fact, caused largely by carbon emissions from inter-nal combustion engines and other sources. Even if we as a nation assemble a portfolio of alternative energy strategies and build enough windmills for one-sixth of our power, enough solar panels to generate one-sixth of our power, enough ocean turbines to generate one-sixth of our power, and create enough bio-diesel fuels from ethanol, methane, hydrogen, and so forth to power our cars for another sixth, we still have one-third of the pie left. We can conserve usage by an ad-ditional one-sixth. The remaining sixth could be saved by planting urban trees. Global warming affects many types of trees, but the red maple is the leader of the tree people, and is associated with health and happiness. The Algon-quin prophets of old said that when these great trees wither, it will be a sign that a time of decision is at hand, a time to change the road we’re on. The trees are sending us a message: “We are trying to help. We pro-vide you with oxygen to breathe. You can’t produce this oxygen; we can. Don’t cut us down, because by killing us you are only killing yourselves. We are all medicine for each other, we are all related. We all have a place on the hoop. Let us mend the hoop for the sake of seven generations.”

Copyright © 2007 by Evan T. Pritchard. Evan T.Pritchard is theauthorofNative New Yorkers: The Legacy of the Algonquin People of New York (Coun-cilOakBooks,2002,2007),No Word for Time: The Way of the Algonquin People (CouncilOakBooks,2ded.2001),andNative American Stories of the Sacred (SkylightPathsPublishing).

PhotobyVittorioMaestro

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Dues, Annual Luncheon, and Proxy

Tax-deductible dues for the membership year April �, 2007, through March 3�, 2008, are due. Please mark your choices and return this document.

Dues

______ Student $�5 ______ Patron $50 ______ Bequest ______ Senior$15 ______ Benefactor $100 ______ Gift Membership of______ Annual $25 ______ Life $500 $_____for (name and______ Family $35 ______ Additional Gifts address): Annual Luncheon

Reserve ____ place (s) at the annual luncheon April 2, Noon:

Member $85 Non-member $�00

Make checks payable to the John Burroughs Association and mail to: John Burroughs Association, Inc., Ameri-can Museum of Natural History, 15 West 77 Street, New York, NY 10024-5192.

Proxy

KNOW ALL PEOPLE BY THESE PRESENTS, that I ___________________________, residing at _______________________________________________________________________, being a member of the John Burroughs Association, Inc., do hereby constitute and appoint Regina Kelly and Lisa Breslof as my proxy to attend the Annual Meeting of the members of said corporation to be held at the American Museum of Natural History, Central Park West at 79th Street, New York, New York at 10:30 a.m. on Monday, April 2, 2007, or any continuation or adjournment thereof, with full power to vote and act for me and in my name, place and stead, in the same manner, to the same extent and with the same effect that I might were I personally present there at, giving to said Regina Kelly and Lisa Breslof full power of substitution and revocation, and I hereby revoke any other proxy heretofore given by me.

Date _____________________________2007

Signature ________________________________________________Member

Print ____________________________________________________Member

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PhotobyLisaBreslof

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The John Burroughs Association informs mem-bers through Wake-Robin and the Web site http://research.amnh.org/burroughs. Occasionally, we reach out via e-mail with news alerts and remind-ers. Please send your e-mail address to the Secre-tary ([email protected]) so that we can better serve you. Members are encouraged to submit articles or news items for publication. Deadline for submis-sions to the Summer 2007 issue of Wake-Robin is June 11. Direct inquiries to the editors.

INSIDE


The Tree People Adapted from the Fall Slabsides Day Talk, October 7, 2006ByEvanT.Pritchard,Faculty,MaristCollege. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .�

John Burroughs AssociationLiterary Awards, Spring 2007 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .2

It’s Slab Time!ByDavidLiddelandJoanBuroughs.. . . . . . . . . . . .3

Slabsides Centennial ByElizabethBurroughsKelley. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ..3

Wake-Robin John Burroughs Association, Inc. American Museum of Natural History �5 West 77 Street New York, NY 10024 Forwarding and return postage guaranteed Address correction requested

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CalendarMonday, April 2, 2007—Annual Meeting, �0:30 A.M., and Literary Awards Ceremony and Luncheon, �2:00 Noon, The American Museum of Natural History.Thursday, April 5, 2007— Re-dedication cer-emony for Burroughs Hall at Ulster Community College, �:00 P.M. For details see announcement on page 4.Saturday, May 19, 2007— Slabsides Day with guest speaker and Open House, followed by the first annual count of the birds in the sanctuary.Travel Directions: Slabsides is located about a mile west of Route 9W at West Park. At the West Park Post Office and Marcels Restaurant, turn west onto Floyd Ackert Road, and cross the railroad tracks. Continue uphill to a hard left onto Burroughs Drive to parked cars along the roadside.

ellen meloy (1946-2004) is named the winner of the 2007...

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