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Speaker 1: Hey, thanks for being a part of the conversation. This

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is Forest Stories. I am the Poet in the Forest,

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a children's series that I pinned out in the nineteen nineties. Now,

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none of it would be possible if it wasn't for

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this forest right here in South Charlotte, North Carolina. I

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talk about it so much that I thought maybe it's

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time that you get to know what has inspired me

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for thirty years. Thanks for being a part of the conversation.

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Welcome back to the forest. It's been a few days

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since the tropical storm, Debbie. I haven't been back to

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this darker side of the forest, meaning less walked upon,

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less visited. As I'm moving through the trees right now,

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the grape vines are just out of control, crazy, But

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you can see the path of the water where it

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built up and what has been damaged. But what I

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want to take note of is the actual creek itself,

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the slow moving creek that makes its way to the lake.

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To my left is a fallen limb. Got a couple

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of them here, but nothing that seems to be too damaging.

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As my wife would say, you have to leave them

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on the ground because something has to feed the soil.

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And it also has to block future storms from destroying

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the land. The tall grass that's always been so available

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to walk through is still here. It doesn't look bent

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over or pushed aside by the winds or the rain

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of tropical Storm Debbie. As I make my way to

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the creek, I see that we've lost a large tree

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snapped in half. Once again. You leave it here for

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the animals, for the insects, for future storms. I'm at

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the creek right now. You can see where the water

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itself added up, But I don't see as much erosion

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as I've seen with other storms that have come through

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this area. But you have to watch things like this

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because you don't want it to flow over the banks.

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You want to be able to recognize what the behavior

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of the creek is and how it's going to maintain

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its presence in a safe area. Now, of course I

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fear comprehend snakes out here. I'm doing something really stupid.

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I've got shoes with no socks on. Well, here's an

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area that we haven't talked about in forest stories. The

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creek that I tried to create with its river rock

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to help relieve some of the stress of the erosion

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coming down the other side of the hill. Remember it's

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a ninety five foot drop from the front to the back,

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to this lake, to this creek. I would say at

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this point in time, the way that nature has taken

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care of this forest, the water hasn't done that much damage,

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just the broken trees and the limbs that lay on

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the ground. Hey, thanks for being a part of the conversation.