A walk through the forest on a sunny day. A dappled effect. Spots of sunlight break through the canopy above. These portholes to the sky are essentially pathways of energy that trees carefully follow in order to support their systems. Alex Shigo described trees as oscillating pumps that need a constant energy supply to maintain high order. In other words, if sunlight is a highway, trees want to ride it all night long.

In my forest, the understory is dominated by striped maple, Acer pennsylvanicum. The bark on these small trees is stunning. What’s even better though, is the young architecture, how the tree’s structure weaves through and around it’s own little crown, a motionless state of constant swerving motion. Imagine slowing down a dance from minutes to years. And without the leaves in the winter time the veil is lifted from the twig and the bud structure. The tiny little points of apical intentions engaged in a choreography with the sun. And it is a whole production, the dance of the forest. The little buds of the striped maples are tiny dancers. Count the headlights on the highway.

When I think about natural energy, harnessing it and transferring it, and how that process applies to tree architecture, both light and electricity come to mind. Like Broadway. Trees move along avenues of light and harmonize within fields of electromagnetic energy. Each cell dividing is like a starburst that trembles the whole universe. At this point, the only first hand experiment I can offer from my own research is a walk through the forest on a dappled sunny day, and a look at the striped maple twigs dancing under those portals to the sky.