Celebrating Slim
AFR: I want to extend my most sincere appreciation to you all for your article about my father, “Slim” Johnson (“Celebrating Slim Johnson,” AFR May, pg. 25), following his induction into the Nova Scotia Forestry Hall of Fame. Your article last year following my father’s induction into the New Brunswick Forestry Hall of Fame (“Celebrating Slim Johnson,” AFR May 2018, pg. 9) is similarly much appreciated. My sister Lynn and I are very grateful. These honours of our father were, we believe, deserved – as trees were our father’s life’s work, and the sustainability of the forest was his highest priority. We ask folks who knew our father, and who want to remember him in a personal way, to plant a tree in his memory sometime in your own way and in a place you deem appropriate. This is what would have meant a lot to him. Again, on behalf of all the extended family of “Slim” Johnson, RPF, thank you most sincerely for acknowledging him in your magazine.

Doug Johnson
New Maryland, N.B.

Stunted spruce
AFR: This four-foot spruce is at least 50 years old. I have lived here 61 years, and it has always been there. It’s stunted because a spruce cone fell into the debris in the crotch of the maple cluster, so it has no access to soil! I thought you might like the picture and story behind it.

Dave Mullin
Riverview, N.B.

(Thanks for sharing the pic, Dave. That’s quite a specimen – maybe not a contender for the Great Trees of New Brunswick project described on pg. 26 in this issue of AFR, but impressive because of its persistence. Perhaps there should be a special category for resilience. It’s a reminder of the powerful reproductive drive that allows species to disperse, which plays such an important role in forest regeneration and succession. DL)