Page 20 - BSAM 2016 Q2

What I’m going to suggest is that you start taking your backyard with you everywhere you go. Just roll it up and stick it in your shirt pocket—it won’t take up any room.
Top; Junipers on a mountain in Wyoming.
Bottom; A pine with amazing deadwood in the Black Hills of South Dakota.
Facing page top and middle;
Pines growing in rock crevices, Black Hills.
Facing page, bottom; Ancient juniper in Wyoming.
did, and the American bison nearly did. And during the shimpaku juniper craze of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, nearly every wild juniper was removed from the mountains of Japan by bonsai collectors. at’s right, by people like us. Today, collecting them is prohibited. But it’s too late, since the trees are al- ready gone. What a shame.
To avoid a similar legacy of disgrace here, we should develop a code of ethics for ourselves now, so that in the future tree collecting is still possible and legal. And so that in the future bonsai is seen as the true envi- ronmental art that it is, a mixing of humanity, nature and beauty; rather than as something more akin to poaching ivory.
Take your backyard with you
Your own backyard is the best place to start. What I’m going to suggest is that you start taking your backyard with you everywhere you go. Just roll it up and stick it in your shirt pocket—it won’t take up any room. But when you get to your collecting site, unroll it and spread it out. No matter what size yard you have behind your house you’ll nd that now it’s limitless in size and depth.
If some strangers came to you and asked if they could dig some trees for bonsai from your backyard, what would your answer likely be? In most cases the answer would be “no.” You’d say there are only a few trees there and you want all of them to stay where they are. ey are more important to you in the ground than in a pot.
at answer applies everywhere. Collecting trees is not appropriate in most locations, even though there may be good trees there. A beautiful potential bonsai tree growing in a wilderness area should be le grow- ing right where it is because wilderness values, and the law, dictate that the landscape be as untouched as possible by humans. But the very same tree growing in the middle of a timber sale area, or an area that was going to be prescribed burned or thinned, could be collected as long as the proper permit or permission was obtained rst.
So the rst thing to consider is not the tree, but where the tree is growing. Many areas will be o limits to collecting because the landowner or the land man- agement agency does not want to allow collecting. is is their right and it should always be respected. Taking a tree without permission is the . And that will eventually harm the whole bonsai community.
Where can you collect in the USA?
ere are many areas where collecting will never, or almost never, be allowed. ese include national parks, national monuments, wilderness areas, wildlife preserves, most state parks and recreation areas, spe- cial natural, historic or archeological sites, areas near hiking trails, campgrounds, main roads, lakeshores, and, of course, most private lands. In other words, any area where the highest use of the land is something other than tree collecting is likely to ban it or severely restrict it.
18 | BCI | April/May/June 2016