Where my brain goes after reading Songbird's Uprooted post:



The roots have dried and can be broken off by hand now. The dirt and mud still rise several feet high above the normal plane of the ground. The hole left behind is slowly filling with remains from the dead former foundation of the tree and the gradual erosion of the mound of dirt that those strong roots brought up with them.

It is hard, sweaty, back breaking work to loosen that dirt and pound it back into the hole left behind. I can not work at it for more than an hour at a time. Is it even possible to hide the mark in the landscape left by the uprooting?

Why try to fill it? Maybe it can be left to make a small pond, another different ecosystem.

Working at this task one day, I notice that the choice of how to treat this scar has already been made. Baby trees are growing at the very bottom of the hole, sprouting from the few still living strands of roots that were left behind.