“He stood in stillness in an ancient grove of redwood trees waiting for a wandering poem to land on him.”
~ Dr. SunWolf
When I was young, I don’t remember pondering what it would be like to grow old? Now that I am older, it is easy to reminisce about my youth and conjuring memories of when my adult children were young. Our society’s financial engine is focused on youth-based ads, and promotions to somehow turn back time and at least look young.
The natural world has a different view.
Youth is a dangerous time for seedlings and cubs; they can’t wait until they are old. The fatality rate for eggs, fawns, almost all young animals I’m guessing is phenomenally high. I remember that 85% of juvenile spotted owls are not expected to make it to their first birthday. Salmon lay 3,000 eggs with less than one percent making it to adulthood.
It is not easy being young in nature.
I always hope that 80% of our newly planted native trees and shrubs survive, but it usually takes multiple plantings for us to reach our goal.
Older trees store more carbon. Old trees provide more forest diversity, food, nests, dens, perches than young trees. Old-growth forests are biologically diverse, and home to many rare species of plants and animals, including the northern spotted owl, marbled murrelet and fisher, making them ecologically significant.
Then there is the Methuselah tree, the bristlecone pine, the oldest living thing on the planet. A study published in 2001 compared pollen and seeds from bristlecone pines of various ages up to 4700 years, and found no significant increase in mutation rates with age as their vascular tissue functioned just as well in ancient trees as in juveniles.
The stem cells miraculously remain youthful and vigorous for millennia
Old trees are weather-beaten and gnarled, but at the cellular level they appear to be as youthful as they were when they were seedling tykes. Their tissues don’t seem to be withered by such vast expanses of time.
Wildlife show us the ways older animals take care of their young and vice-versa.
Wolfpacks on the move place the oldest animals in front so they can set their own comfortable pace. And their elk prey traveling in herds are guided by older females.
A study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences found that elder Grandmother orca whales are a key factor in keeping their grandkids alive, especially when food is scarce. They discovered a calf’s risk of death rose dramatically for two years following the death of its grandmother. Because orca societies are matriarchal, these older females carry crucial knowledge about food resources that can mean life or death for their kind.
“A killer whale grandmother’s greater knowledge and their leadership, especially when times are hard, are helping calves,” says senior author Dan Franks an evolutionary ecologist.
It is the interrelationships of old and young people that make for close families and vibrant communities. Sharing wisdom and life stories with children while recognizing and embracing a child’s sense of wonder and joy keeps us young at heart. We need all ages to come together to create a vision of unity and peace. ~