Ontario’s oldest tree discovered by accident
The year is 688 A.D. In China, where it is the year of the rat, Wang Zhihuan, who became one of his country’s most famous poets, is born. Also born that year is Ganjin, who became a Buddhist monk and one of the key proponents of Buddhism in Japan.
In Europe, Justinian II is leading the eastern Roman Empire (also known as the Byzantine Empire) in a Balkan campaign. A Lombardian king by the name of Perctarit is assassinated in what will become northern Italy.
In southern Britain, King Ethelred of Mercia solidifies the hold his tribe has over a large portion of what will become Great Britain.
In Ontario, corn will soon see a century of use as an agricultural product, mostly at the hands of the Huron along the east and south shores of Georgian Bay between Barrie, Midland and Collingwood.
To the west of Georgian Bay, on the Bruce Peninsula, a seed from a white cedar starts growing — one of millions across the province.
Skip ahead to the 21st century. That white cedar is still going. It’s the oldest tree in Ontario. In fact, the thin screen of trees that cover the Bruce has among it some of the oldest trees in the country. Who knew? Well, not many know even today — and no one knew these twisted, gnarly cedars were part of an old growth forest until the late 1980s. Under the guidance of University of Guelph’s Douglas Larson, a student, Caedmon Nash, was sent off to examine the effects hiking and climbing on the Niagara Escarpment were having on the trees growing there. Those activities are very popular on the Bruce — it’s where the Bruce Trail, one of the country’s most famous hiking destinations, starts.
One of the ways to determine the effects was to find out how old the trees were, but that wasn’t easy. A common way to determine a tree’s age is to count the rings each year of growth leaves. The rings on the cedars Nash and Larson were looking at were so small and tightly packed, they were almost invisible.
Larson, whose passion is making guitars, planed and sanded the pencil-thin core that had been extracted from one of the cedars enough so he could finally find the rings to count. What he found astonished him so much he reportedly couldn’t sleep for days.
Larson and his team travelled North America to determine if the Niagara Escarpment was unique in its community of ancient cedars. They found it wasn’t. In fact, white cedars, they found, were remarkably capable survivalists.
These tough trees, often wizened tiny things for their age — in Michael Henry and Peter Quinby’s book Ontario’s Old-Growth Forests one is described as being “the size of a small Christmas tree” — have been hiding in plain sight for centuries. (If you can describe clinging to the cliff faces of steep, dangerous perches, plain sight.)
These tiny ancient forests are scattered across the province — maybe not in the same density as on the Bruce or along the escarpment, but they exist on the outskirts of cities such as Toronto and Hamilton and along Georgian Bay — if you know where to look. — Tom Villemaire is a writer based in Toronto and the Bruce Peninsula. Tom@Historylab.ca Knopf
Art Garfunkel once envisioned a simple life as a mathematics teacher. He earned a master’s degree and was well on his way to becoming a PhD. That plan was derailed when he and Paul Simon became famous as the folk-rock duo Simon & Garfunkel.
What Is It All but Luminous: Notes from an Underground Man is a charming book of prose and poetry printed in a digitalized version of his handwriting. In it, he reveals his thoughts and feelings about his turbulent life.
Garfunkel’s accomplishments are many: With Paul Simon, he won six Grammy Awards and the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award and was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. As a solo singer, he scored three Top 20 hits. He also won acclaim for his film roles in Catch-22 and Carnal Knowledge.
In 1970, S&G broke up after dominating the pop charts for five years.
His poems in Luminous are witty, candid and wildly imaginative. He comes through as a highly intelligent man trying to make sense of his extraordinary life. Waka Tsunoda, The Associated Press romance and grisly murders crawl into the back seat of the car for a make-out session.
Makani Young has yet to fall in love with her new life in Nebraska with her grandmother. Though she’s made a few friends, she still misses the food, the waves and the weather of Hawaii. The good news is that nobody in her new school knows who she is or what she did last year. The bad news is that a serial killer is busy targeting the students of Osborne High.
As the body count and panic rise, Makani, her two best friends (Alex and Darby) and new love interest (Ollie Larsson) try to piece together a connection between the victims. They also work on staying alive.
The Nebraska cornfields provide a glorious backdrop for blood-soaked scenes and prove equally as valuable in framing the love story.
Multi-faceted characters and fresh dialogue add texture, while the teetering status of Makani and Ollie’s relationship combined with the hunt for the killer creates suspense from all angles.
Perkins has a knack for the unnerving. Frightened teens stumble upon hair-raising oddities: rearranged furniture, a set of keys in the vegetable crisper, an egg timer positioned atop a welcome mat. She also overlays her work with a flair of carnival sideshow, weaving in sinister humour amid the horror.
When readers hear the squelching sound of a victim’s head coming off, they may wonder if laughter is permissible at a time like this. The answer is yes, but remember to check under the bleachers first for any knifewielding assailants. Christina Ledbetter, The Associated Press
IT HAPPENED IN ONTARIO