One Day This Tree Will Fall

0:00Okay, our friends, so we've been talking about trees, and we, of course, love to follow a trend, and so here's another tree story just for you guys. Today's story is called One Day. This tree will fall, and this story was written by Leslie Bernard Bruce. It's illustrated by Stephanie Feiser Coleman, and it's a ride to today by mommy, and your name is Ha? Your name is Ha? Your name is Ha? Yeah. So what happens when someone says, what's your name? My name is Ha? Oh, okay. Wow. Well, mommy and Ha, you ready? Ha? Ha? Ha? Ha? Ha? Ha?

1:06Alright, here we go. Ooh, when we open the book, this tree has seen better days. Boy, it looks pretty gnarly. It says, look at it. Wounded, worn, twisted, torn. One day this tree will fall, and this story will end on it. First, you should know that long, long ago, a tiny seed set sail folded inside it was a tiny tree, this tree, and some other seeds flew too, and some landed on bear rock. I drowned in a stream and some gobbled up. This story, this tree's story might have ended that day, but it didn't. This tree grew, and grew despite wind, despite ice, despite drought, drought, drought. Do you know what drought is?

2:15You can guess from the picture. Yeah, yeah. In the picture, it looks really dry around the tree. So even if you have strong winds, or if it freezes over, or if it doesn't get enough water, some trees can continue to grow, then a spark. What kind of spark? Something crackled to life in the dark, something wild, something ravenous, something made entirely aflame, and this tree's story might have ended that day. Because wildfires, my friends, are serious things. And in the picture, this was a bad wildfire. Even the animals had to run for it. It looks like. But it didn't. This tree drank deeply. It sealed itself. It healed itself well, as well as it could. And meanwhile, the creatures of the forest nibbled, clipped, and clawed, and humans, humans hauled giants away. All the other trees around

3:23this one, but not this one. This tree survived. This tree touched the sky, but now it was so much more than a plant. It was a place. It was a world at home, of miniature forests and meadows and rivers and seas, and silken death traps. What is a silken death trap? Can you think of something that's silky? That's also a trap? Spider web. Spider web, that's right. And venomous things of bright, begging mouths and fluttering wings. This tree flourished, and this tree aged. And if you get caught in a spider's web and you're a butterfly, that's no bueno. You might end up being eaten.

4:24Some of its wounds never closed. Some opened. Some grew. But no crack or crevice ever went to waste because this tree continued to be a roost, or a nest, or a den. See the little holes that the woodpecker has tapped into this tree have become a nest for the babies, or the owls, or the squirrels. It's last trace of green growth faded, and this tree's story might have ended that day, but it didn't. And it won't ever. Yes, yes, one day this tree will fall with a crack that rocks the forest. And we'll know because someone will be there to hear it, right? Because as we all know, if a tree falls in the forest, but no one is there to hear it,

5:28does it really make a sound? Yes. It does. But even when this tree is just a log, it will still be a place where moth gathers and mushrooms bloom, and where rain erodes and mold consumes, and where tiny, secret city brins with workers and soldiers and queens where salamanders guard their eggs and cougars, crouch, unseen. That's a good and be a good hiding place, isn't it? Where winter casts a sleeping spell, then releases it in spring. And then springtime, all that stuff that was sleeping during the winter will come alive again. Where snakes slither and slime spreads, where earwigs and earthworms whittle and shred, and whittle and shred, a perfect place

6:37for the next seed to settle and sprout and grow. And that is the cycle of life, right? It just keeps going, my friends. And isn't it interesting to know that there are so many parts of this cycle that give homes and shelters and grow and feed a bunch of other life forms. It's pretty impressive, isn't it? What a wonderful cycle this little tree creates. And that, to our dear friends, is the end. Is there anything else you want to say? I hope you'd enjoy this for another story tomorrow.