National Geo Redwoods

[Frans]

Gary: Some of the guys and gals researching the ecosystems in the trees even frown on them being climbed by anyone but scientists studying the trees fearing some one could cause damage...

Huh, funny how most of the accounts I have read describe these 'scientists' as climbing the trees and also often having friends/reporters/fellow enthusiasts along.
Bunch of hypocrites if you ask me.

 

[CurSedVoyce]

YUP!

 

[Tommy_B]

Gerry, any treeman/arborist/logger knows who you are and what you're about....IMO its far better to have the respect and admiration of the guys in the industry

Second to that!!

 

[wiley_p]

Gerry, NG does not have the power to "leave you in the dust".
You have cataloged the logging and arboriculture industry over the last 40 years with your excellent photos, writing, and recently, videos of real world skills. No bunch of yahoos can change the significant contribution you have made to people across the planet.
We are grateful and blessed to have your experience and energy influence us and help us to be better men.

 

[Burnham]

Gerry, NG does not have the power to "leave you in the dust".
You have cataloged the logging and arboriculture industry over the last 40 years with your excellent photos, writing, and recently, videos of real world skills. No bunch of yahoos can change the significant contribution you have made to people across the planet.
We are grateful and blessed to have your experience and energy influence us and help us to be better men.

Hear, hear!!

Well said, Dave.

You can take it to the bank, Jer.


I laughed all the way through The Wild Trees, knowing Beranek was there climbing the redwoods when those wannabes were mere children. Richard Preston has a bad case of hero worship, and a poor understanding of responsible journalism.

 

[woodworkingboy]

Only crazed Viet Nam vets would want to climb big trees when Jerry started.

He's probably too unique for the just of the article, anyway.

 

[gf beranek]

Thanks, Jay, for your personal account/victim of bad reporting. I don't consider it a derail at all. I do know being a logger, aka, tree cutter type is a black eye for me with the academy. And my old school ways in the early years would be great fodder for some reporter to slant a negative view. You're probably right and I should maintain a low profile.

I appreciate all the affirmation from you guys and really thank you for not telling me to just quite my bitchin.

Thanks.

 

[SkwerI]

Hey Jerry! Quit yer bitchin'.

 

[gf beranek]

I knew it would come sooner or later. Thanks, Bri! I feel a lot better now.

 

[MasterBlaster]

Hahahahaha.

 

[chucky]

(Even though it's a perfectly valid and legitimate bitch.)

 

[Old Monkey]

Thanks, Jay, for your personal account/victim of bad reporting. I don't consider it a derail at all. I do know being a logger, aka, tree cutter type is a black eye for me with the academy. And my old school ways in the early years would be great fodder for some reporter to slant a negative view. You're probably right and I should maintain a low profile.

I appreciate all the affirmation from you guys and really thank you for not telling me to just quite my bitchin.

Thanks.

Jerry, its the span of your experience that makes it such a compelling story, going from logging to arboriculture to recreational tree climbing, innovating and documenting things every step of the way. We get National Geographic and we like it but the articles are a mile wide and an inch deep, their focus is too broad to really do justice to character like yourself. I think now would be great time for an autobiography. Most of us haven't lived lives that would make for interesting reading but I have a feeling you have.

 

[stehansen]

+1

 

[Burnham]

What Darin said, for certain.

 

[gf beranek]

High Climber chronicles my logging experiece. The Tree Story CD rom chronicles the rec-climbing and line clearance days. About the only thing left to complete an auto-bio would be my childhood and tour in the Nam.

And that's another thing in itself. You might not be surprised to hear.. I was a picture taking fool the service too. And made a scrapbook pretty much chronicling the people and time I spent in Viet Nam. Though after my mother passed away I don't know where all those pics went. I think my Aunt has them.

 

[Frans]

So has anyone actually perused this edition of National Geographic yet?

 

[gf beranek]

There's a few guys at the Buzz that have the new redwood issue. That's how I found out about it. And I blew a little steam off there too when I heard them talk about who's pioneering the new old growth frontier.

I better have a cup of STFU.

 

[SkwerI]

Here you go, Jerry.

 

[MasterBlaster]

I would love to see that, brother.

You might not be surprised to hear.. I was a picture taking fool in the service too. And made a scrapbook pretty much chronicling the people and time I spent in Viet Nam.

 

[treesandsurf]

I remember wondering why there was no mention of Gerry in the Wild Trees book. And then I saw Preston in St. Louis and then talked with friends when I was going to school at UH that were grad students at HSU; didn't have the nicest things to say (off the record).

Gerry you're a legend and your legacy will endure much longer than the hype and flash of academia. As has been stated already, the pros know who the credit belongs to.

jp

 

[woodworkingboy]

I first "met" Jerry through his technical book, of immense importance to me in learning, as the other opportunities to do so are very limited where I reside. I felt compelled to write him and let him know how much his work had helped me move up the learning curve, to which I received a very gracious response.

Something sticks in my mind what Butch said, quite awhile ago now, that Jerry would be the only person he would defer to when contemplating about climbing methods. I can't see how much higher praise could be given. That was before Jerry was in the treehouse, when it was just cool to think of having him participate.

It blows me away to think that his logging work could possibly be looked down upon in some circles, or as a reason to discriminate against his activities to inform about the forest, that would be the epitome of ignorance.

 

[gf beranek]

Logger types, Jay, are too rough on the edges to mingle with the scholarly climber types. "Birds of a feather"

I recall Chris Atkins, nice enough fellow, the one who found the tallest tree using lasers and such. I met him in the woods two times and showed him trees I climbed, and pictures taken from the tops of those trees looking over the grove. You can clearly see in the pics which are the tallest trees in the grove and it saved Chris a lot of time in cataloging the tallest trees in Montgomery woods.

Well, what the story comes down to is Chris would not break a twig or a fern out of the way to set up his equipment to take measurements. He would walk through the brush very slow and bend the branches back so as not to risk breaking them. I on the other hand barged through the brush knocking it down and leveling ferns like a bull to open room to get through. It's only brush. And last years fire burned it all down anyway. So what's the big deal? Well to those guys the big deal is I don't have any respect for the plants in the forest and am a destructive feature of the ecosystem. Now the bears, the deer knock down, browse and nibble, and the fire can burn up the forest, and that is a natural thing, but a human hiking off trail and breaking twigs and ferns is destructive.

That's how they think. Human's should only view the natural world from the marked trails and not venture off into it. Only the scholarly types are allowed.

Oops, I'm off on a rant again. I better have another cup.

 

[Frans]

Only the scholarly types are allowed.

Or their friends

 

[MasterBlaster]

Logger types, Jay, are too rough on the edges to mingle with the scholarly climber types. "Birds of a feather"

I recall Chris Atkins, nice enough fellow, the one who found the tallest tree using lasers and such. I met him in the woods two times and showed him trees I climbed, and pictures taken from the tops of those trees looking over the grove. You can clearly see in the pics which are the tallest trees in the grove and it saved Chris a lot of time in cataloging the tallest trees in Montgomery woods.

Well, what the story comes down to is Chris would not break a twig or a fern out of the way to set up his equipment to take measurements. He would walk through the brush very slow and bend the branches back so as not to risk breaking them. I on the other hand barged through the brush knocking it down and leveling ferns like a bull to open room to get through. It's only brush. And last years fire burned it all down anyway. So what's the big deal? Well to those guys the big deal is I don't have any respect for the plants in the forest and am a destructive feature of the ecosystem. Now the bears, the deer knock down, browse and nibble, and the fire can burn up the forest, and that is a natural thing, but a human hiking off trail and breaking twigs and ferns is destructive.

That's how they think. Human's should only view the natural world from the marked trails and not venture off into it. Only the scholarly types are allowed.

Oops, I'm off on a rant again. I better have another cup.

Idiots.

 

[Tommy_B]

Idiots.

Ditto to that.