[squirrel chittering]

John Bates: People just absolutely love walking amongst these old trees.

There’s another good woodpecker tree, yeah.

It moves your heart, it moves your spirit.

Angela Fitzgerald: Follow John Bates into the woods, and he’ll make sure you won’t lose the forest for the trees.

Child: Whoa!

Angela Fitzgerald: He will uncover hidden details.

John Bates: And you can age it by the distance between each one of the new stems.

This was a good year.

Angela Fitzgerald: And illustrate the big picture.

John Bates: So we’re in what’s called a hemlock hardwood forest.

Angela Fitzgerald: John knows well that whole forests in Wisconsin have been lost, tree by tree.

John Bates: We cut down, in northern Wisconsin, tens of millions of eastern hemlocks.

This was the number-one tree in the Northwoods pre-settlement, and now it represents 1% to 2% maybe of the whole Northwoods.

Angela Fitzgerald: The Van Vliet Hemlock State Natural Area is one spot where these great trees still loom above, making this a rare example of remaining old-growth forest.

[bird calling]

Finding the state’s few remaining pockets of old-growth forest set John on a mission.

John Bates: I just wanted to find all these places.

It was an adventure for me.

It’s joyful.

It was exciting to find places that I didn’t know about and to be thrilled by them.

Angela Fitzgerald: Thrills he shares on his tours.

John Bates: The song is “Sweet Tea.” [whistling]

Angela Fitzgerald: And in his guidebook.

John Bates: These trees are our living ancestors.

They’ve been here for a very long time.

These old trees tie history together.

That time actually happened.

Angela Fitzgerald: But don’t mistake these ancient trees for antiques.

John Bates: They’re not something fossilized that we’re looking at in a drawer.

They’re living, but they’re still 400 or 500 or more years old.

Child: What are they even dropping?

[John laughing]

Angela Fitzgerald: The hemlocks are living, breathing.

John Bates: So what are you getting?

What are you finding?

Angela Fitzgerald: Trying to regenerate.

John Bates: So what are these?

Child: They’re hemlock cones, I think.

John Bates: Young hemlock cones right here.

Angela Fitzgerald: Old growth spawns new growth.

A cycle of life that also means accepting death.

John Bates: When somebody dies and we mourn, we grieve, and rightfully so.

But when a tree dies out here, is allowed to die, it has an ecological function that’s really significant.

And it should be celebrated.

All the salamanders now living underneath there, all those white-footed mice and voles that are feeding every, the barred owl that was keeping you up.

Yeah, yeah, what do they eat?

Angela Fitzgerald: Toppled trees nurture new ones.

John Bates: We’ll see some old trees completely covered in moss and are called nurse logs because they’re nursing along all these seedlings on top.

You can see the perfect lineup of Eastern hemlocks, and now we got a bunch of yellow birch on this end.

Angela Fitzgerald: That lineup of new life on a log includes more than growing trees.

John Bates: That a hand lens?

Hiker: Yes.

John Bates: A tiny little mushroom.

Angela Fitzgerald: Forest life comes in many sizes.

John Bates: It’s worth looking at.

Angela Fitzgerald: And many shapes.

John Bates: Slime mold.

It’s really weird looking.

This is called doll’s eyes, ’cause, yeah, it looks like doll’s eyes, right?

This is white baneberry.

Try to eat it, it’ll be the bane of your existence.

[group laughing]

Angela Fitzgerald: A walk in the woods with John Bates includes lessons about the forest, but more importantly, lessons from the forest.

John Bates: So the values of old growth are many.

You can feel peace here.

And what’s the value of that peace?

Angela Fitzgerald: Peace is one thing you can take from a walk in the woods.

And that’s something that John shares gladly.

John Bates: Let me pass that on.

Opening up that space to them, to fall deeper in love with the natural world.

[gentle acoustic guitar music]