By quoting your post Vance, I am not picking on you but rather pointing out some other views that we run into.
Trees that are collected from the wild are not watered by humans or any type of irrigation, therefore are not dependant on you or I, or creeks, streams, rivers, etc… to keep them alive. The areas that the best trees come from are areas that only see some rain in the summer to keep them alive. Most trees that we collect come from private land with permission (something the govt. can’t take away). There are the cases when we will go onto govt. land and getting permits, etc. is fairly easy. I think that if the Govt. does step in it won’t be in my life time….at least to abolish the removal of materials from the forest. There is benefit for the Govt. to allow some resources to be harvested. This is a regional thing though, and in the West we are pretty lucky.
As for bonsai in the next 20 years….. I typed up a huge reply the other day but hesitated to post it. So I will add this to the discussion~~
I think that in 20 years bonsai as we know it will be off the charts. Right now there are more high quality trees being collected and made available than ever before and some of the younger generation have developed the skill sets to maximize that potential, both in collecting of the trees and in what to do after collecting. We are far better off today in these regards than we were 50, 20, 10 and even 5 years ago.
We are watching the European bonsai scene explode right now and if we are paying attention we are learning from that and we are elevating our passion and our game to strive to be as good if not better than what they are doing. We have the native collected pines and junipers to compete if not beat them, it is true, I see it everyday and am one of many working on that caliber of material. So are others, I assure you and things are happening that are not seen in American bonsai. Give it a few years…..
My opinion is that there are a few key people in American bonsai that will drastically change the face of American bonsai in the 5-10 year time span. The quality of work and material will be elevated to another level and excitement for bonsai will be greater than ever before. I look forward to this and am excited to be a part of it, and know that right now the sky is the limit and we are just at a kicking off point.
Sure there are people who don't post trees on the internet, which is actually probably a smart thing…. And there are people who will always stay with sticks in pots and want to air layer a turd so they have 2 turds
….that will always be the cas,. (nothing wrong with this at all, not everyone will be a pro ball player even if you play ball on the local men or ladies league) But for every 100 of them there will be a few that do take it to the next level and be the best they can be and acquire great material, study with the best and learn all they can. It is all a matter of how bad you want it. Plain and simple!
In the past 2 months I have learned an amazing amount of techniques, a new thought process and am inspired to be the best I can at everything bonsai….there are no shortcuts, wire is an art form and detail, detail, detail. Importance of soil size, correct wire size, tricks and knowing that you need an Engineering mind set when it comes to aggressive styling and bending. Bonsai in NW Oregon is growing faster than ever and will be put on the map in a huge way in a few years, it will just take a little time…..But keep an eye out over the next few years….Very exciting things are underway like never before!!
20 years looks like an awesome time for bonsai, but I am most excited for now thru the 3, 5, 7 and 10 year mark. If we want 20 years to be killer then we need to make that happen today and it takes ALL of us to accept the challenge and elevate our games. The single biggest thing to elevate passion, your eye and your collection is to be around killer trees. It could be at a public garden, a friend’s collection, a person you met in the club (who you volunteer to help for free) that has a great collection, a nursery with great material, etc….. If you are not around good trees on a regular basis then you will struggle to get to the next level.
Just my thoughts on it
....looking forward to leaving MD...probably going just north of the Mason Dixon!
