A Forest's Story

Once, very long ago, there sat a pristine, lush forest.  The forest teemed with life, from birds to deer to wildflowers.  Crystal clear, clean water fell gently from a waterfall high above the terrain.  As the water wound lazily through the land, it brought life to plants and greenery and made the soil extremely fertile.  Everything was at peace, perfectly the way it should be.

Then came the humans.  Loggers, seeking their fortune in the tall and firm timber of the region, settled in the forest and began to cut down the trees.  Soon the scents of diesel fuel and sawdust filled the air, and the ancient trees were chopped at and hacked at until their hulking trunks fell to the ground.  With the sharp thump of each axe the forest came evermore closer to absolute destruction.

Eventually, the forest, for centuries abundant with trees of all types, was nearly devoid of them.  The birds, whose life depended on the trees for shelter, migrated far away, leaving the now-empty plain only to the flowers and deer.

Now that the trees had been cut down, the loggers had no business.  They abandoned their camps and left, and farmers came to take their place.  They tilled the land into long fields and planted crops.  The deer, still living in the area, began to eat some of the crops for sustenance.  The farmers learned of this, and before long each of the animals had abandoned the area.

The farmers continued to plant and sow their crops with every season, and, before long, the land had lost its fertility.  They left the region as well, and the play was dry and overgrown with weeds.

Many years later, the world was at war.  The field was once again inhabited by man, this time using the area as a military base.  The sounds of combat reverberated throughout the plain, filling the air with gunpowder.

Eventually the war ended.  The military, now having no need for a base, abandoned the field, scattering unwanted equipment in their wake.

Eventually, the climate of the region rose tremendously.  Humans had been expelling their pollutants into the air, and now those chemicals had degraded the atmosphere.  What little vegetation remained was soon scorched and dried by the sun, and the fields became dry and cracked.  The area that was once a lush forest had now been reduced to a dry wasteland of brittle brush and scorched earth.  Humankind had now forgotten about the area.

Centuries, or perhaps millennia, later, long after mankind had been obliterated and wiped from the earth through their own wastefulness and self-obsession, the field still sat empty.  Yet one day, a tiny seed was blown by the hot, dry wind.  The seed landed on the plain, which was once a monumental forest, and took root.

Even more centuries later, a great forest stood on the site, so massive it surpassed that which had been there so long ago.  Balance was restored, and all was good at last.