"The tree's decaying body releases the resources it has collected throughout its life, passing them back into the forest. I do not know if it is a beginning or an end, or neither. The old tree is surely an island of life in all seasons, and it will likely to continue to attract and nourish life for yet another half century in complex ways that I cannot even begin to imagine." - Bernd Heinrich (The Trees in My Forest, 1997)
