Fauna, Flora, Musings
Rotting Logs
Excerpt from The Overstory by Richard Powers:
The judge asks her to elaborate. Dennis was right It is like talking to students. She describes how a rotting log is home to orders of magnitude more living tissue than the living tree. “I sometimes wonder whether a tree’s real task on Earth isn’t to bulk itself up in preparation to lying dead on the forest floor for a long time.”
The judge asks what living things might need a dead tree.
“Name your family. Your order. Birds, mammals, other plants. Tens of thousands of invertebrates. Three-quarters of the region’s amphibians need them. Almost all the reptiles. Animals that keep down the pests that kill other trees. A dead tree is an infinite hotel.”
She tells him about the ambrosia beetle. The alcohol of rotting wood summons it. It moves into the log and excavates. Through its tunnel systems, it plants bits of fungus that it brought in with it, on a special formation on its head. The fungus eats the wood: the beetle eats the fungus.
“Beetles are farming the log?”
“They farm. Without subsidies. Unless you count the log.”
“And those species that depend on rotting logs and snags: are any of them endangered?”
She tells him: everything depends on everything else. There’s a kind of vole that needs old forest. It eats mushrooms that grow on rotting logs and excretes spores somewhere else. No rotting logs, no mushrooms: no mushrooms, no vole: no vole, no spreading fungus: no spreading fungus, no new trees.
Photo by Brennah Cavanaugh: Rotting Logs at Crossing Hedgerows Sanctuary
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Written by : Jean Cavanaugh
Jean Cavanaugh is the founder and steward of Crossing Hedgerows Sanctuary, established in 2019 as a living, learning community devoted to reconnecting people with the wisdom of nature, the sacred order of creation, and the presence of Christ within all life. Her work brings together spiritual formation, ecological stewardship, ancestral wisdom, and hands-on community practice.
Through years of practical work on the land, study of the Mysteries, and the healing of her own severe health challenges through natural methods, Jean has come to recognize God’s hand at work throughout creation. Her teachings, rooted in the Mystery School tradition and Christian gnosis, explore how the patterns of heaven, earth, and the human body reveal the way back to divine presence, peace, and inner strength.
Jean leads with honesty, integrity, and a deeply welcoming spirit, inviting others to let go of inherited assumptions and rediscover truth through lived experience and embodied understanding. She works with all ages—from preschoolers to elders—offering programs and celebrations that emphasize direct engagement with nature, music, story, homesteading skills, and in-person community.
She and her family live at the 21-acre Crossing Hedgerows Sanctuary, where daily life reflects a commitment to simplicity, beauty, and harmony with the land. The sanctuary includes gardens, woodland trails, a seasonal creek, gathering circles, and spaces designed to nourish both people and wildlife. Jean is especially passionate about creating environments that are grounding, beautiful, and spiritually restorative.
Through her writing and teaching, Jean encourages others to know themselves, know creation, and recognize Christ as the living truth present within and around us—always inviting a return to love, beauty, and the sacred order of life.
