The Yellow Cedar Tree

Hello, I am a yellow-cedar, and I live in Canada's oldest forest in the Caren Range on the Sunshine Coast. I still remember the day a Megalonyx fertilized my seed 1835 years ago. I fought hard to sprout up from the ground. I wasn't sure I would make it, but my fighting spirit prevailed. Now I'm the tallest and the oldest tree in the forest.

I have lived 669775 days. I have watched the same amount of sunrises and sunsets. I have watched the birth of new stars and even their deaths in my lifetime. I have felt the sun on my leaves and produced oxygen for my whole life. I have fought to live through wildfires, ice storms, and even a few droughts. Through it all, I am still standing tall. I love my home and the wildlife that roam the forest grounds. I have wisdom, for I’m the oldest being alive to touch the earth's soil.

I have witnessed the extinction of the giant beaver Mastodon, Megalonyx, Platygonus, and the Dire wolf. I have seen troglodytes evolve into humans, which I wish they didn't for they have no respect for my kind. I have sheltered millions of birds and their young. I have watched them grow and protected them for over a thousand years. I have been the home for countless generations of raccoons, bears, and even cougars cubs. Deer, moose, and grizzlies have marked my trunk to show their territories. Wolves hunt among my offspring to feed their young. Our home has been heaven on earth, but everything is about to change.

Today a ship from on the horizon has landed on my forest shore. With them, humans enter my beloved home. They rowed their small rafts made from my ancestors onto the beach and spread out like a plague. They brought guns and hunted my friend the doe. They shot and killed her, leaving her young fawn to die. I can still hear fawn's Mama screams echoing around me while my friends become terrified. The other animals are on the run with nowhere to hide, but the worst was yet to come.

I'm living in a bad dream as I watch a man cut down my brother with an ax having no compassion for him. They stripped him of his branches for firewood to start a campfire. Humans cooked my beloved friend on an open flame, which is deadly to us all. I am afraid for man can not hear my warning. “Why are you doing this?” I plead in the wind. “Please put the fire out before you kill us all,” begging them to listen while they set up their camp.

They might have heard me because they put out the flames before they went to bed at nightfall. When morning came, eight more boats rowed to shore with saws to murder all my kin. I tremble inside, knowing we are all stuck. Our roots run deep into the ground, and we can not run. We have been the land guardians for all most two thousand years, which is now coming to an end. They do not care about that, though, for they began to cut through our skin, bringing my family down. I do not understand what we did to make humans kill our kind.

I watch in terror as my daughter slammed to the ground, her lovely branches smash to pieces as she hit. The humans cut her up into logs and brought her to their ship. Next, my son was to go; my nightmare will not end. He moaned and groaned and cracked in two, and they left him there to rot. “Please,” I prayed as I felt their pain vibrate through me. My leaves began to slump, and I shook, for I can not shed a tear for them. One by one, my family fell until the sun started to set. Then man set up camp again while I slowly wept.

The sun sank into the horizon as I wondered when it would be my turn. I became despondent, knowing soon it would be my last night on earth. No longer will I feel the sun on my leaves or feel the rain again. “How can it end like this,” I asked myself as I watched the humans sleep. I watched the stars in the sky for a final time. I shouted to the heavens, “Please God, Help us," but I’m just a tree without a voice that human ears can hear. I did not sleep all night, knowing it would be my last. I knew I would miss this world, but there’s nothing I could do. I watched the sunrise, thinking I would never see daybreak, hoping my death would be quick.

I made peace with myself, but my death did not come. The men left in the morning light, leaving destruction in their wake. I have mixed feelings in my heart as I watch them row back to their ship. I'm thankful that I’m still alive, but I’m heartbroken full of sorrow. I look around the barren land and cry for no animals want to play nearby. The birds are all gone because they flew away. There are few of my kind left, but we are still standing tall. We are lonely and scared inside. They say time heals all wounds, even things touched by human hands, and in the spring, our seedlings began to grow.

With the humans gone, the wildlife came back and once again began to roam. I now have a mother raccoon who makes my truck her home. She gave birth to her young, among my core, and I protect them while she hunts. The fawn is now all grown up and uses my bark as a scratching post. The mother grizzly bear sends her young cubs up to hide. They take refuge in my branches whenever she hears danger from the trees. Wolves came back to hunt and feed their babies. They made their den in my roots, and I now guard them with my life. All is well among my forest family now, at least until the human comes back to kill all my kin. My forest will live growing strong, hoping they will stay away. We don’t know if they will come back, but we pray that they never set foot in our home again.