Adirondack Chronicles 2026: A Walk in the Woods

Adirondack Chronicles 2026: A Walk in the Woods

A few glorious weeks in the Adirondacks have reminded me once more of the essential work of the wilderness in sustaining life and health for our planet. The white pines towering above this landscape can be, in some places, older than the republic itself by a hundred years or more. The great trees of the northern forest provide cover and nourishment for all of the living things below, the smallest salamanders and chipmunks, the fertile deer and their fawns, the bears that roam through the mountains and forests, the large communities of birds of all species that call the trees home. And, oh yes, the trees nurture and nourish the physical and emotional lives of the humans who come to live among them — most for just a few weeks, some for all of their lives.

I was admiring the lush quiet beauty of the Adirondack forest preserve when I heard the news that the president of the United States, who has a tendency to say some weirdly dumb (with a “b”) things, accused Canada of failing to maintain its forests correctly because there has been a plague of wildfires this year in the northern boreal forest that stretches across the top of North America. The boreal forest is even denser than the Adirondack forest preserve, even older and even more remote. Indigenous people live in communities there, but most of the northern forest is inaccessible.

As I read about the president’s criticism of Canada for “letting” the wildfires happen (they were caused by lightening strikes in those deep forests, and such wildfires also burn in many places around the globe including in the United States), I could not help but contemplate the utter intellectual and emotional impoverishment of a person who seems to know so little about the natural world.

Has this man ever taken a walk in the woods?

Has he ever spent even just an hour of solitude in a forest, inhaling the aroma of balsam, walking softly across the duff underfoot, listening for the clatter of blue jays or rat-a-tat of woodpeckers or screeches of hawks high in the trees?

Has this man ever sat by the streams running down the forested slopes, the melt after the heavy winter snows?

Has he ever heard the haunting call of a loon at dusk, or watched a merganser lead her long train of young ones across a lake rimmed by the great tall evergreens of the north?

Has he ever watched a cedar waxwing greedily gobbling the serviceberries that keep the birds well fed into winter?

Does he know that the terrible destructive force of the wildfires is also life-giving for the forest, that after the burn new trees will grow again, and the forest will thrive once more?

Of course we know that his comments about the wildfires in Canada have nothing to do with the reality of the fires and forests. Political points are a short-term human game, devoid of care or respect for the long generational time horizons of the natural world.

But, still. Perhaps someone who apparently knows so little about his own forests here in the United States should refrain from criticizing another country’s forests. Perhaps he should take a walk in the woods and allow himself to discover the peace, joy and humility of understanding that we are all part of an ecosystem that sustains the life of the earth, including human life. Perhaps if he learned a bit about the wonders of the forest, he would also learn a bit about respecting human life in all of its amazing God-given diversity and beauty.