Global Warming Fun 5: It’s a Dry Heat
Page 14
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The visiting Crew spent a restful night in cozy log cabins. In the morning Whip, Hans, Sid and Frank set off for the Sequoia National portion of the Park via the Central Valley. On the way they would again scout the Valley roads for Scar Crew. Meanwhile Snake, Doll, Sam, Ed, Mary, and George set off for the same destination by traveling within the Park on Generals Highway. The travelers didn't even have to leave the Park, but navigating the twisting mountainous road connecting King's and Sequoia portions of the Park was a formidable challenge. The couple of dozen miles they traveled seemed more like hundreds and took much of the morning to traverse.
At last they parked their vehicles and took a side-path to their left that led down a steep trail through sequoia trees to one tree that dwarfed all the others: the famous General Sherman Tree.
"General Sherman is the largest single-trunk tree in the world in terms of wood volume;" said George, "more than fifty-thousand cubic feet. It's two hundred seventy-five feet tall with a trunk twenty-five feet in diameter at the base. It is two thousand years old, we estimate. Size and age don't perfectly correlate; some sequoia are older than three thousand years although they are significantly smaller."
"It's a beauty," said Ed.
"It's an all-around incredible tree but I'll give you some sobering perspective," said George. "There used to be coast redwoods even bigger than General Sherman in wood volume and over four-hundred feet tall but the loggers cut them down a century or so ago. What idiots! Fortunately besides growing in remote mountainside groves sequoia wood is too brittle to be much use as lumber and that's what saved them. There are still redwoods a hundred feet taller than this sequoia but their trunks aren't as thick. There are also other sequoias with thicker trunks at the base than General Sherman, including of course General Grant.
"Aside from sequoia and coast redwoods there are other species of trees nearly as impressive. There used to be Douglas fir in the North West and Australian Mountain Ash in Australia even taller than the tallest redwoods, though they are much slimmer trees with harder woods. There are squat trees in the tropics with thicker trunks than sequoias and little old trees here in California and elsewhere that are thousands of years older. There are even olive trees in Europe as old as most sequoia.
"Then there are aspen trees that each spread out as one tree by underground roots to cover many acres with thousands of trunks. One such quaking aspen tree in Utah is eighty thousand years old and out-masses the largest sequoias many times over but still isn't as massive as some fungus individuals that also spread underground unseen. The largest single organism on Earth is probably an underground fungus that blooms with acres of mushrooms. Not as awe inspiring as a sequoia maybe, but still pretty nifty.
"And of course since most of General Sherman is dead-heartwood it could be argued that most of this tree isn't alive at all. But all-around the sequoia is a damned magnificent species and we aim to keep it that way."
"I can one-up even your giant mushroom," said Ed. "Both jants and Stone-Coats share their thoughts to such an extent that it could be argued that they are each huge single organisms that easily mass many millions of tons. But in any case your trees and this Park are spectacular wonders of nature and your Crew here is doing a wonderful job so far in taking care of them. But our Tribe back home watched over Stone-Coats for over ten thousand years and you guys might have to do the same here for your trees for that long before climate change abates, so I hope that you're prepared to be in it for the long haul."
"In terms of geological features and processes ten thousand years is the blink of an eye," noted George. "We have institutionalized a culture here to carry on our work through successive generations. We'll do the best we can. That's all that anyone can do."
"Ten thousand years is only a short time for Stone-Coats," said Wheels. "We should be able to help humans sustain their forest nurturing efforts for such a short period."
George helped Ed and Mary navigate the scaffolding that surrounded General Sherman so that they could actually touch the big tree. Supported by Ed, Mary pressed her frail body against the General's soft bark for several minutes, seeming to draw strength from it - or at least comfort.
Meanwhile Snake and Sam climbed back to the parking lot and followed by Mack and M-8 set off to find Stone-Coats that needed downloads, while Ed, Mary in Wheels, George and Doll hiked about the Giant Forest Grove for another two hours. They visited hundreds of gigantic trees and watched dozens of Rangers diligently working to keep them alive. Hundreds of trees were being watered, but most were not. Sadly many of the trees that were not being watered were suffering or already dead. Once a tree trunk dried out it could no longer circulate sap and it was doomed. The travelers drove past thousands of such trees there this had happened. Finally they arrived at the local Ranger outpost, ate lunch, and put Mary down for her afternoon nap in a comfy little log cabin.
Soon they were joined by Snake, Sam, Mack and M-8, who happily announced that downloads had been made to all eight dormant Stone-Coats in the area. "Some of your out-houses had really gigantic Stone-Coats under them," said Snake. "You Rangers really put out a lot of yummy crap! I'll bet by tomorrow you'll have a hundred Stone-Coats here just to start with! By the way, how many of those do you plan to give to the Confederacy? Half?"
"Now hold on!" said George. "You've seen the condition of much of our forests! We need as much help as we can get and as soon as we can get it! We already gave you Confederacy folks several Stone-Coats!"
"And we fixed your dormant Stone-Coats," countered Snake. "We need to apply those Stone-Coats to over half of California, not just to your precious Park."
"But on the other hand they do have an emergency situation here," said Ed. "And the Stone-Coats can breed fast elsewhere under the right conditions. I bet that your facilities in Ridge Crest could easily support the generation of dozens of new Stone-Coat each year. Anyone with an outhouse can get a Stone-Coat started, and you probably have hundreds of thousands of those."
"I concur," said Wheels. "From what I see of its resources at least a hundred fledgling Stone-Coats a year can be generated here in this Park indefinitely as long as the forests are maintained to fix carbon."
"I'll have to get agreement from Anders, but how does thirty Stone-Coats a year to start with sound to you?" George asked. "We'll see how that works out and adjust the number up or down as necessary."
"That seems generous enough," said Ed. "They can reproduce themselves anyway. Someplace that needs ten Stone-Coats to do a job only needs to have one juvenile Stone-Coat delivered plus information and materials to support reproduction and maturation."
"OK, deal!" said Snake as he shook hands with George. "I'll square it with Hacker. Sam, can you and Molly coordinate the Confederacy end of this? The fledgling Stone-Coats will need to be nurtured and distributed sensibly."
Sam's jaw dropped. A Brother was giving him a vitally important Confederacy assignment! "Yes sir!"
"It will of course mean that when the rest of us resume our journey you will have to stay behind," Snake added. "You will coordinate between George, Molly, and the Stone-Coats to get the Stone-Coats down from the Park and help improve the lives of the people throughout the entire Confederacy."
The teenager's face went from happily smiling to hurt and angry in an instant. "You don't want me to come with you!" He looked from Snake to Doll and back to Snake again. "This is her idea isn't it?"
"No, it's mine," said Snake.
"But it's one that I approve of," said Doll. "And so will Mom."
"Scar will be attacking us at some point and it's bad enough that I'm putting your sister in harm's way," said Snake. "You've more than proven yourself to me over these last few days. You can be trusted to do this important job for the Confederacy. You'll travel throughout the Confederacy bringing Stone-Coats to where they are most needed." He reached into a deep vest pocket and pulled out a Stormtrooper patch and handed it to Sam. "I've given you a huge and important
job to do and I expect you to do it, Little Brother."
Sam's anger faded quickly as he studied the patch. "A Stormtrooper lieutenant patch! You're making me a lieutenant?"
"Field promotion, Little Brother," said Snake. "Molly is a merchant and has political and business connections. You and her both have good sense and can figure out distribution points for the Stone-Coats and you can get them there. I'll set you up with some Crew support but you'll be Crew boss." He shook the young man's hand and exchanged a quick hug with the teen, sealing the deal as Doll looked on proudly.
"If that works out Hacker and I will hopefully have some other assignments for you and your mother, kid. Hacker and I are planning on making a lot of reforms to the Confederacy and you and Molly are just the sort of people we'll need to pull it off. If we establish peace, we'll need to establish a lot of other things. Maybe even a democracy."
"Hey, maybe you could even put California back together again," said Ed.
Snake laughed. "Let's not go too crazy just yet. I want to see what the State part of California is like before we decide if it makes any sense to rejoin it. I haven't been in the North for over ten years and then only for a short time. Fortunately by guiding you and Mary north I'll be able to observe much more. Jerry has it all set up for us to get VIP treatment from the State."
"Swell!" Ed remarked. After all, Jerry's arrangements for him and Mary were right on target so far, except maybe for the kidnapping/hijacking part and the gun fighting and practically everything else. What else could possibly go wrong?
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