Tales...Story 8: Love me from a distance: The Pacific Madrone Tree

Narration: IF THE PACIFIC MADRONE WERE HUMAN, YOU MIGHT USE TERMS LIKE “HIGHLY SENSTIVE”, “CLANNISH,” “PRONE TO SICKNESS” AND MAYBE EVEN “FREQUENTLY MISUNDERSTOOD.” LIKE HUMANS, THE MADRONE LIKES TO LIVE CLOSE TO THE BEACH AND IDEALLY WITH A SUNNY, SOUTHERN EXPOSURE …PLACES LIKE MAGNOLIA BLUFF IN SEATTLE. VALERIE CHOLVIN LIVES TWO BLOCKS FROM THE BLUFF AND ADORES THE MADRONE TREES. AN OIL PAINTING SHOWING PUGET SOUND, MOUNT RAINIER AND A MADRONE TREE HANGS IN HER LIVING ROOM.

Valerie Cholvin: The branches are rather irregular, kind of crooked in an artistic way and the barkas i said before is very orangey red, and when the sun sets it hits that bark and it is just absolutely beautiful.

Narration: CHOLVIN’S OIL PAINTING IS PROBABLY AS CLOSE AS SHE SHOULD GET TO A MADRONE. THEY CAN’T COMPETE WITH HUMANS, EVEN THOUGH, LIKE PEOPLE, THEY OFTEN PICK THE MOST BEAUTIFUL SPOTS ALONG TH...
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Promo: In the next installment of Tales from Urban Forests, “highly sensitive”, “clannish”, “prone to sickness”. That’s the Pacific Madrone tree, and while people in the northwest cherish the tree, it prefers to be left alone.

Intro: The saying, “Nature knows best,” applies to quite a few plant species that are difficult or impossible to cultivate. In the Pacific Northwest, one highly admired tree doesn’t even like human company. SOUNDPRINT’s Gordon Black has more.
Outro: While the Madrone tree isn’t receptive to human involvement, other forests in Seattle are being saved from extinction by city groups. In the next Tales from Urban Forests, we see how one city is embarking on an ambitious journey to save one of their own urban forests. This program is part of the ongoing series, Tales from Urban Forests. The series is produced by the SOUNDPRINT Media Center, and supported in part by American Forests and the U.S. Forest Service. For more information on the series, please visit trees.soundprint.org.