The new tree book!!!!

Just thought I'd share.....

The New york times Book Review published a new review on 4/22, the review includes a photo of Genevieve Summers climbing a redwood, but doesn't mention her name in the caption. This is one of the photos shot for a Smithsonian article a few years back I think.
-moss

Hey Nick,

You must have made a great first impression with Preston.
I just got off the phone with him. He said it was delightful talking with you and he'll be sending some splicing work your way.

Glad you met him, now if we can only get him to the rendezvous this year. Im still working on it.

Cool!

I would have loved the chance to chat with him more, but the library was closin' up. Maybe the conversation can continue in Colorado!

I hope he sells trillions of his new book.

love
nick

Richard was in Colorado yesterday and today as part of his book tour. Thanks to Tengu, he and I were able to connect and I offered to take him up into one of our local trees - his choice of either a ponderosa or cottonwood. He really wanted to climb a pondie for the first time, so we went up Gramps, the tree I use for training at the TC Colorado home grove.

We had a great time. When you're used to climbing alone, it's a nice change to climb with anyone, let alone someone as literate and with the great stories to tell as Richard. Sorry there are no pictures, I'm not very good at that sort of record keepig.

Like any good climber, he had some equipment with him on his book tour - his Vi Special and split tails - I filled in the rest. While he DREC'd up, I lazily used my tag line set up to the top - I guess I could have been a better host and switched lines, but he seemed to be enjoying the activity.

He gave me an audio book version of the book, narrated by him, Steve and Marie, which he signed for me. Only bad thing is that the audiobook doesn't contain Moss' illustrations.

Jersey is now one more stop for me on that tree climbing tour I plan to take one of these days. But I don't think he's going to make it to the Rendezvous - he's got kids going back to school right at that time.

Those of you who have read the book and/or know Steve Sillett might find this story amusing:

I'm from Washington state, and I grew up in love with trees and mountains and rivers and lakes and all things bucolic. I've long loved the Redwoods, and my wife and I were married in Humboldt Redwoods State Park. I saw Richard on The Daily Show, and I was so taken by the subject of his book I bought the book online as I watched the show.

The book arrived a few days later, and I tore into it immediately. It begins with the story of three college students driving in a dilapidated, light blue Honda Civic to see the Redwoods for the first time in October 1987. Two are Reed College students—Marwood Harris and Steve Sillett. I began laughing hysterically; I couldn't believe what I was reading.

You see, I went to Reed College, and Marwood (Marty) Harris and I were very close friends. I rode in that unregistered '70s Honda Civic that hadn't had an oil-change in over 20,000 miles many times, and it was every bit the deathtrap that Richard describes. Marty wouldn't let me drive it either.

I then realized the significance of an event from the summer of '87. The Lakers and Celtics were in the NBA finals, again, and I needed a television so I could watch the game. No self-respecting Reedie had a TV of one's own, so I called up Marty, who was housesitting for a professor for the summer (actually, I walked over to a pay-phone to call him, since I didn't have a phone either). Marty said, "Sure, come on over. I have beer and some clam chowder in the freezer. A friend is over visiting, someone I don't think you know. We can all hang and watch the game; then we can walk down to campus and I can show you our new hobby."

I walked the two miles to the house where Marty was staying, and we drank beer and ate clam chowder while watching the game. We got really stoned too, and Marty got the munchies so badly that he ate his chowder cold. He does things like that. He introduced me to his friend, whom I found extremely bright and intense—like just about all Reed students—but also a bit grouchy and unfocused when he wasn't doing exactly what he wanted to do or when the conversation turned away from a subject he wanted to discuss. I picked up a guitar and started playing and Marty listened. His friend wasn't amused, and he grew impatient. "Dude, come on; it's time to go climb." Marty explained that their new hobby was climbing the biggest Douglas-firs on the Reed campus, particularly one large second-growth tree that grew near the art building. I grew up climbing trees in the Northwest, but nobody I knew ever climbed Doug-firs: the branches are too high up and too far apart, and they're covered with pitch. Alders and maples, sure, but Douglas-firs? I thought they were nuts.

I knew they were nuts when I saw them starting to climb. "You guys are going to die this day," I laughed. "We've done this before," they said. "Then you've been rehearsing your own deaths," I replied. "Today you go on stage. Break a leg." "Relax," said Marty. "Just watch."

They started climbing up the tree. I couldn't believe what they were doing. His friend was a better climber than Marty, and he climbed more quickly. At about fifty feet Marty stopped climbing and sat on a branch, seemingly deep in thought. Then he started laughing, heartily but a little nervously. "Uh ... I'm stuck. Dude, I'm too stoned to climb. I'm just going to stay here and chill and try to get it together." "What's up, pussycat?" I teased. "Do I need to call the fire department?" "F*ck you," he giggled. "Have it your way, Marty," I laughed back. I began to collect fircones.

The first one bounced off his chest and the second one hit him in the head. "F*cker!" he yelled. His friend started laughing, and dropped a couple of cones on him from about fifty feet above him. "You guys suck," he yelled, but he was still laughing. I stopped tormenting him, and eventually Marty composed himself enough to climb down. His friend soon joined us after having climbed to the top.

Marty and I graduated, and his friend graduated a couple of years later. Marty moved to Japan; I moved to Tacoma. I never saw his friend again, and I pretty much forgot all about him until I began reading Richard's book.

His friend was Steve Sillett.

So there it is, my brush with arboreal fame. I emailed Marty to talk to him about the book, but he hasn't emailed me back, the bastard. While I'm waiting for a reply I'm going to learn how to climb big trees, and maybe some day I'll climb that big Douglas-fir on the east end of the Reed College campus near the art building. I'll remember not to get stoned first, and I'm going to be really pissed if someone comes along and starts throwing fircones at me.

Thank you for your patience.

The End.

Great story. I hope you get a chance to climb.
-moss

You should come the to Rendezvous in August/September!!!! You can take the beginners course there, then spend the weekend climbing trees with us!

love
nick

Originally posted by NickfromWI
You should come the to Rendezvous in August/September!!!! You can take the beginners course there, then spend the weekend climbing trees with us!

love
nick

I just sent off the registration form—thanks for the tip. Anyone from L.A. looking to carpool?

I love this story! It's consistent with everything I learned interviewing Marwood Harris ... Marwood actually told me a much briefer version of the story, if I remember correctly i.e., that he got scared sh**less one day during a freeclimb with Steve, and got paralyzed. When I was in Portland last week I gave a talk at Powell's Bookstore, and retired Reed botany professor Bert Brehm showed up--the professor who warned Steve that Marwood or somebody could die climbing redwoods with him, and then got all interested in Steve's lichens collected in the top of a redwood. Anyway... cool story.

Originally posted by gnarl
I love this story! It's consistent with everything I learned interviewing Marwood Harris ... Marwood actually told me a much briefer version of the story, if I remember correctly i.e., that he got scared sh**less one day during a freeclimb with Steve, and got paralyzed. When I was in Portland last week I gave a talk at Powell's Bookstore, and retired Reed botany professor Bert Brehm showed up--the professor who warned Steve that Marwood or somebody could die climbing redwoods with him, and then got all interested in Steve's lichens collected in the top of a redwood. Anyway... cool story.

Did Marty tell you why he freaked out in that tree? Heh. Obviously, he has a reckless streak. He once reached under a running lawnmower to remove some wet grass, and so also removed the last digit of one of his fingers. He also sounds a bit like Kermit the Frog. Good ol' Marwood.

[PaulHarvey]And now you know ... the rest of the story.[/PaulHarvey]

Yeah, I got the idea. Re some of the above postings: It was really pleasant meeting you Nick in LA. Nice photo -- well, you're better looking than I am ... Ponderosa Harv Teitelbaum took me up his "Gramps" ponderosa in Denver last week. There was snow on the ground but the air was warm. Climbing a tree with Harv was a whole lot nicer than schlepping around doing media interviews. Thanks Harv!
Cheers, Gnarl (Richard Preston)

Hey, one other thought -- Moss got a real compliment from Janet Maslin, the notoriously tough and picky New York Times book reviewer. She obviously liked his drawings in The Wild Trees. She said that Andrew Joslin’s (Moss’s) “plain line drawings of redwood structure are astonishing.”
That doesn’t happen every day with Janet Maslin.
--cheers, Richard

Originally posted by gnarl
Yeah, I got the idea. Re some of the above postings: It was really pleasant meeting you Nick in LA.

I can be a real dolt sometimes. Sometimes I don't read posts quite as closely as I could/should. I was reading this "gnarl" guy's posts, and I couldn't quite figure out who he was. Then I wondered why he has ALSO interviewed Michael Taylor...then he said he met ME....and now I was totally confused.

Then today I was finishing up The Wild Trees and I got to page 276 where Preston mentions "a lump of bloated gnarl as big as a sofa." Richard, this is NO COMMENTARY ABOUT YOU....but that was the moment when it hit me.... Gnarl = Richard Preston.

It was a pleasure to meet you, too. Perhaps we'll meet again in the future. Maybe at the Rendezvous?!?!?!?!?

Oh, I have a question for you about something in the book....I'll send you a U2U.

love
nick, who is on page 278 of the book.

Did anyone catch Richard on The Colbert Report last night? Enviro-porn! Dude, check out the lobaria on that one ...