A Forest Sounds Like a Ship at Sea:

Trembling Tree (Quaking Aspen)

Day 20: Remote Residency at Uillinn: West Cork Arts Centre, Skibbereen, Ireland, 7/18/22 to 8/13/22,  Maria Driscoll McMahon checking in from New York State

I was not able to find aspen trees during my visit to Cornell due to a heavy downpour, but I found some today on the Catharine Valley Trail and they are STUNNING. When I first saw them, I thought I was looking at birch trees, but the sound of delicately "clacking" leaves in the breeze revealed their true identity! Sure enough,  my app identified the tree as a "Trembling Aspen." In Ireland it is called "Quaking Aspen."  The visuals and audio of these trees are an absolute delight, but the sights and sounds are just an introduction to their many wonders. 

From The Hidden Life of Trees by Peter Wohlleben

The "Trembling Aspen" tree(s) on the Catharine Valley Trail

The tree's talents don't stop there.  The secret to the tree's survival in a world where deer and other creatures of the woodland want it for lunch, is revealed in the aspen's ambitious root system.  A single root system can send up hundreds of new shoots which become seeming new "trees" with fairly large trunks.  What looks like a grove of trees might actually be a single tree which is actually the case with the Pando Aspen tree in Utah.  Not only is this "grove" a single organism, it is said to be the oldest and largest living organism on the earth! 

"Pando in the Fall" by Intermountain Region US Forest Service is marked with Public Domain Mark 1.0.

In Latin, the word Pando means ‘I spread out’. This is an apt name for the world’s most famous Quaking Aspen tree that is over a million years old and which, through its shoots, covers an area of around 106 acres at an elevation of 8,848 feet in the Fishlake National Forest’s River Ranger District in Utah, United States....Burton V Barnes, a botanical researcher, came across the Pando tree in 1968 and was the first researcher to discover that it wasn’t a grove of different trees but, in fact, a single tree with all the stems displaying the same morphological characteristics

Sadly, the Pando Aspen tree which has endured for millenia is now said to be "in decline" due to overgrazing by mule deer due to human activity upsetting the balance of nature. Climate change is also a threat to the aspen as well as every other organism on the planet. There is talk of reintroducing wolves to the area so the natural predators of mule deer can help restore balance. 

The Quaking Aspen has captured the imaginations of the people of Ireland for thousands of years. According to the Ancient Irish, the Quaking Aspen has the best "hearing" of all the trees with the capacity to listen to the messages of the Gods. For some, this was a good thing, but to others, the tree could be the bearer of bad news.  Some Christians believed the tree trembles because it cannot forget being used as wood for Christ's crucifix.  Other Christians liken the "many as one" symbolism of the Aspen tree to the connection of the Christian community. 

Thus, people - past and present, pagan and Christian - regard the tree with attitudes ranging from superstition to deep reverence. The Ancient Irish believed the sacred tree was, not only privy to the thoughts of God, but to one's ancestors.  It was therefore known as "the whispering tree,"

Let's hope the aspen tree - and forests everywhere - continue to endure and whisper divine secrets for millennia into the future!

The Aspen Tree in Celtic mythology (ireland-calling.com)

The Hidden Life of Trees: What They Feel, How They Communicate: Discoveries from a Secret World by Peter Wohlleben (goodreads.com)

The Pando Tree of Utah – The World’s Largest and Oldest Living Organism

The Wisdom of Trees by Jane Gifford (goodreads.com)