The Woodland Giant | 10.25.2024
Grafton Lakes State Park
This is one of my favorite trees on the Rensselaer Plateau. I’ve nicknamed it the Woodland Giant. A towering, double-trunked red maple, it evokes the feeling of standing at the feet of a giant, especially at night under the Plateau's Bortle Class 4 sky. In places like Grafton Lakes State Park, this “Rural/Suburban Transition” sky has moderate darkness with some light pollution along the horizon. The Milky Way remains visible, though softened, and fainter stars and deep-sky objects still shine through, making it a subtly illuminated setting for stargazing.
But the night sky we see now is not the sky of our parents' youth, or even our own. Each year, stars disappear, claimed by unshielded lights and expanding cities. As more residential developments rise in the surrounding counties, the sky could soon be reclassified as Bortle Class 5—a “Suburban Sky” where light pollution dims the Milky Way and mutes fainter stars and deep-sky objects, gradually altering our connection to the night, making it harder for us to witness auroras, comets, the galactic core, and meteor showers.
Standing before the Woodland Giant, I’m reminded of the walking trees of mythology, like the Ents of Middle Earth—ancient guardians of the forest, protectors of the night sky and the wild lands. These mythical trees, wise and rooted yet capable of movement, evoke our deep, age-old ties to the natural world, urging us to protect the skies and forests they once watched over.
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