Cottonwood Sunrise

Late September sunrise 1997 off CO 7 near Erie, CO
© 1997 Elke Edwards; Fujichrome Sensia 100
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"...a cottonwood reaches its mature height in the first half of it's typical 80-year life and then spends the rest spreading its crown, as if it understands what other plains life needs from it is not verticality but protective breadth; as it opens outward it prunes its own branches and the beings beneath receive a beneficent blend of sun and shade, yet the tree itself survives on no protection other than a damp swale; not growing well in close proximity to other trees, it seems to want nothing between it and the sun and wind; and, by taking from these, it intercedes for other life: a shield against the blade of wind, a rampart against the arrows of sun."

--William Least-Heat Moon,
PrairyErth, The Cottonwood Chapter