Day 203
Back to Oak Openings Preserve. Trail map in hand!
The very first thing you do is;
Just Keep Walkin'
Just Keep Walkin'
Just Keep Walkin'
If a tree falls in the forest, and there’s nobody around to hear, does it make a sound?
Well... That depends.
If by sound we mean compressions and rarefactions in the air which result from the physical disturbances caused by the falling tree and which propagate through the air with audio frequencies, then we might not hesitate to answer yes.
However, sound is a human experience, the result of physical signals delivered by human sense organs which are synthesized in the mind as a form of perception. For what we perceive as the sound of a tree falling, may not be what, say, a squirrel perceives.
This brings up another question; Can something exist without it being perceived?
Mr. Einstein once asked whether the moon exists if nobody is looking at it. However hard he tried, he would never be able to prove that it does exist if no one looked at it.
An infallible conjecture, yes, but did this tree make a sound when it fell?
I don't know, I wasn't there.
Oak Openings Preserve is on The Nature Conservancy's list of The Last Great Places in The United States. Right there along with the Florida Everglades. We're in good company.
Home to more endangered native plant species than any other place in Ohio.
Prickly Pear Cactus and Sand Cherries grow just a few feet from Orchids. It's a contrast in nature that's almost unbelievable.
An Earth Star Mushroom grows in the Oak Openings Sand Dunes. Described as too tough to be edible in America, but they're eaten all the time in Asia.
Found this raspberry plant in the sand giving it all it's got!