So, as some of you may know, I am currently taking Environmental Science as my science class this year in High School. Our teacher recently introduced us to the ever important skill of science: observation. Now for those of you who have taken a science class, you may have noticed that as you progress through HS, you are constantly challenged to observe more as you progresss in life. This year for me was no exception. Our teacher placed a log, right in front of us, and told us to observe and then write a story about how this log came to be, but that we couldn't turn over the log, or lift it (hint hint). Naturally, I wrote a story that was confined and closed up, keeping myself in the HS mode, in case I had to read it for my peers in class. However, as I was writing, it struck me about how much a tree goes through in its life. So I decided to be a little different, and do a little extra work. After the easy story was finished, I decided to write a totally different story, where the tree is actually a figure, with thoughts and feelings, using the story of the Old and Young Pine Tree in the Christmas Advent book for inspiration. The story is reproduced below:

One day, a small seed drifted to the ground from a very large tree, and over the year, settled into the ground, surrounding itself with its friends; thick, brown, moist soil, the clear, pure water dropped from the sky, and the beaming sunshine, always smiling down on the small little plant. Slowly, the seed grew to a small plant. Over the years, the seeds friends protected him and helped him overcome the neighborhood bullies; the annoying, insistent roots of the grass overhead threatening to choke the little plant, and the bugs that attempted to gnaw at the fresh, new leaves. The plant grew, and became larger than the grass. It started to grow even faster, every year, adding on another ring to the inside of its trunk. It began to sprout leaves, to grow enormous branches, and to sprout and drop its own seeds upon the ground.

As time went on, the tree stopped growing at an enormous 100 feet, and diverted all its time to growing seeds, leaves, and more branches. Adorned with a crown of branches, it was a magnificent sight to behold: an organized mass of leaves, seeds, and bark the color of light chocolate. Dropping seeds every spring, it watched as some its seeds took root and became small saplings, waiting their turn in the plant cycle. But the tree was beginning to become old. This winter would be its 50^th, and the tree was already becoming tired. Slowly another 10 years passed. The tree slowly lost its young luster: it began to produce fewer leaves and seeds, and began to wither, losing the beautiful brown that had covered its bark many summers ago. Although it still had plenty of life, the nutrients in the ground around the tree had begun to fade, making the tree weaker. By its 60^th summer, it was still impressive, but had lost most of its young luster due to a long, hard winter and the incessant needs of the squirrels and deer. As the summer approached, that particular area of the forest began to have numerous thunderstorms, slowly but steadily moving toward the large, old tree. One night, as the old tree was resting during a particular bad thunderstorm, the tree was struck at the very top, and a large piece of the trunk was struck, falling swiftly to the ground. The piece was approximately five feet in length, and began to settle into the forest floor. The old tree hoped it would not be wasted, wishing that loggers or someone would come by and use it for furniture or something. However, one day as the old tree was thinking about the broken off piece, a man, about 60 years old, approached, wearing glasses and thick hiking boots. He wore a maroon polo shirt, with the words “State High” printed on it, and a small name printed on the left chest of the shirt, reading: ”Klindienst”. The old tree recognized the name as the name of the school that was located just over the next hill, and assumed the name on the left chest was the name of the man, as he appeared to be a teacher. With great excitement, the tree realized the man was picking up the piece of trunk that had been broken off with a look of discovery and anticipation upon his face. The man exclaimed, ”This is the perfect log for my Environmental Science Class! They’ll love this!” and he turned and began walking back the way he had come. The tree watched, happy that the piece of itself had been taken by the man. This kind man had taken this log, a thoroughly worthless object, with no bark on it, and few branches left from the fall, and had provided a way for it to become useful. The tree was happy the branch had come to fulfill something, and gave up the branch for the kind man.

The man in the story is my science teacher, and the log described is the log we observed. However, my story was very lacking when the next day, our teacher turned the log over on its side. Come to find out, there were 8-10 gaping holes in the side of the tree, all different shapes and sizes, the largest the size of a small football. There was a huge crack extending between all the holes, and the inside of the log was hollow. Come to find out, the tree was a red pine, or pinus resinous. Red pines grow in dry ground. It had been part of a tree in Dr. Klindienst's backyard. However, when some people decided to tilt the nearby road so water runoff would run off the road, it moved the water to flow into the red pine's area. Due to the wetness of the ground then, the pine started to feel stress, and didn't produce important sap, an important factor to it's survival. The sap of red pines helps protect the red pine from bugs, because as the bugs chew through the bark, they reach the sap and become trapped in the sap (ITS A TRAP!!!!!) However, when the water made the ground around the red pine wet, the tree didn't produce as much sap, allowing bugs to invade the tree, putting more stress on the tree.

Slowly, the tree started to deteriorate, and being the good environmentalist my teacher is, he let the tree stand to see what would happen. Once the tree died, the bugs built a colony in the tree, causing small holes to appear in the trees side. Then some woodpeckers came by, and saw this beautiful, open ant colony. Their first thought was: OH BAAABBBYYY!!!!!! They immediately started attacking the colony and eating the bugs, in the meantime widening the holes to make the feast more convenient>:)>:) Let the record stand they were either Downey, Hairy or Pileated Woodpeckers (that's right! I know the common woodpeckers of PA! YEAH FOOH!!!!!) Once the ants were consumed and in the belly of the beast, the woodpeckers moved in, using the ant colony as a home.

Now the interesting thing about the woodpeckers of PA is that they generally mate for life, and when one of the woodpeckers is widening the hole, the other sits high in the trees and watches for danger, screaming at the top of their lungs to warn of predators (our sixty year old teacher made a very good impression that made everybody in the class jump cause of the volume, piercing quality and suddenness of the call. Plus he looked pretty funny when he did it(:(:) Now once one of the mates dies, the other leaves. A few years after the woodpeckers moved in, they left, leaving open real estate for other furry critters (that's such a funny word). So what other cool animal moved in? A FLYING SQUIRREL!!!! For the record, Flying Squirrels are so funny, cause imagine flying from your den at night, then scampering around close to the ground with huge

folds of skin trailing behind you. To put it into perspective, imagine having just gone shopping, with like a billion bags and purses draped over your arms, and at the same time trying to catch a bus thats just taking off. That's how it is for the flying squirrel. It's not a very easy life.

To end it, the tree eventually fell down and my teacher was forced to cut it up. However he saved it for our class, and it is still being used to this day for his Environmental Science class. So next time you have to observe anything, try and make up the most farfetched story about the craziest animals and craziest happenings. Thanks for reading.