The Quaking Aspen

1. The Quaking Aspen A Model for Collaboration? By - Colin Hill

2. What is Collaboration “The pooling of resources by two or more stakeholders to solve a set of problems which neither can solve unilaterally.” (Gray 1985) • Must recognize a problem • Must recognize the need to solve it together

3. Collaboration in the Bible • And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters. And God said, Let there be light: and there was light. Gen 1:2,3 • And the LORD God said, It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make a help meet for him. Genesis 2:18 • And the LORD said, Behold, the people is one, and they have all one language, and this they begin to do, and now nothing will be restrained from them, which they have imagined to do. Genesis 11:4 • Then all the children of Israel took up arms, and the people came together like one man, from Dan to Beer-sheba, and the land of Gilead, before the Lord at Mizpah. Judges 20:1 • Building of the temple.

4. Collaboration in the Bible • Two are better than one because they have a good reward for their labor. For if one fall, the one will lift up his fellow. Ecclesiastes 4:9, 10 • And when they could not come nigh unto him for the press, they uncovered the roof where he was: and when they had broken it up, they let down the bed wherein the sick of the palsy lay. Mark 2:4 • Now after these things, the Lord made selection of seventy others and sent them before him, two together, into every town and place where he himself was about to come. Luke 10:1 • "For as the body is one, and hath many members, and all the members of that one body, being many, are one body: so also is Christ. For by one Spirit are we all baptized into one body, whether we be Jews or Gentiles, whether we be bond or free; and have been all made to drink into one Spirit. For the body is not one member, but many."1Corinthians 12:12-14

5. What is the single largest organism by mass? • Great Blue Whale? • Over 100 ft. long • 825,000 pounds • A Giant Sequoia? • Over 300 ft. long • 4.5 Million Pounds • Fungus? • 15,000 Acres • Under 825,000 Pounds

6. The Winner? • The Quaking Aspen • Pando (Latin for “I spread”) in south-central Utah • 106 Acres • Over 47,000 tree trunks • 13 Million Pounds • One Genetic Code

7. What makes the Aspen a contender? • Vegetative Reproduction • A shared root system • Can travel over 100 feet under ground before emerging as a new tree trunk • Clone • A group of tree trunks (stems) sharing a single root system. • Stand • A mosaic of clones

8. Bio-collaboration • Wide area of access to resources • Water • Nutrients • Light • Protection from fire • Stand alone • Little protection • Together • After a fire, hormones are secreted to stimulate more vegetative reproduction • In adversity they flourish together

9. Survive and Thrive • The Quaking Aspen may be the oldest living organism • Single tree trunks live for up to 120 years • Some Clones are estimated to be thousands of years old • Fossil records date individual clones to pre-flood • Fossilized leaves are identical to modern, only few generations of variation. • Most widespread tree in North America • Second most widespread in the world • In Eastern N. A. where there is more favorable conditions, sexual reproduction is more common. But in the west, in less favorable conditions, the clone is more common.

10. Higher Diversity? • A study of random amplified polymorphic DNA (RAPD) from specimens from several populations found high genetic diversity between the clones within a single population, and low diversity between different populations (Yeh et al.1995).  • A study of aspen heterozygosity found that aspen have two to six times the genetic diversity of commonly reported sexually reproducing species of plants and animals (Cheliak and Dancik 1982).

11. What can we learn from the Quaking Aspen Results of collaboration: • More efficient use of resources. • Resulting organism is more resilient than the individuals, longer lived. • Can survive challenging situations that individuals could not. • Collaboration can lead to greater diversity within the whole.

12. The key Elements of the Collaborative Environment? • Vision and Commitment • Be willing to rely on a big picture concept and have the commitment to proceed • Communication and Connection • Be willing to share and design an environment for collaboration which acts as the root system for empowerment. • Trust and Respect • Be willing to drop long standing barriers that have made it difficult to establish a truly collaborative environment based on trust and respect • Faith • Be willing to walk across the bridge of faith hand in hand, maximizing our potential as a Christ-like Learning Environment.

13. Why do Quaking Aspens Quake • The slightest wind causes the leaves to vibrate or quake. • French Canadian Woodsmen believed the Aspen Quaked in fear. Why? • Legend has it that the cross of Christ was made from an Aspen • Once again, we can learn from the cross!

14. Credits • Colin Hill is the Director of Computer Services at Canadian University College in Lacombe, Alberta, Canada • This worship has been adapted from a talk by Bob Paulson, Assistant Professor of Exercise Science, Health, and Nutrition at Pacific Union College in Angwin, CA, USA