Aspen Grove
Aspen Grove on McClure Pass, Western Colorado
The Aspen Grove
At around 10,000 feet the temperature drops, and aspen trees begin to appear. The tall thin aspens with their smooth bark stretch like skin to the sky. The continuous rustle and shiver of their leaves is like an ocean of small voices arriving through the centuries. If only one could make out their cry, their song, and understand their brilliance.
Walking among them, touching them, listening to their creek and sway, one can feel their connectedness. Above ground, aspen grow as individual trees, but below ground they’re enlivened by one interconnected set of roots. They are the most expansive growth of trees to share a common root system. This means they are one living organism and one living community-at the same time.
Quaking Aspen, a particular species that grows where avalanches, mudslides and fires have occurred, is nature’s example of relational resilience. The grove roots and regenerates most strongly after disasters. In Yellowstone National Park, a quaking aspen grove grew out of the 1988 wildfires.
In Fishlake National Forest in Utah, there is an Aspen grove named Panda, Latin for “I spread”. Considered one of the largest aspen groves in the world, it contains 47,000 individual trees and is estimated to be about 80,000 years old. Shared roots live longer, a lesson for us all.
The aspen trees are a powerful metaphor for how inextricably knit the life of the individual is with the life of community.