Some people can't see the forest for the trees,
有些人一叶障目（只见树木不见森林），
but before Stephen Sillett, no one could see or even imagine the forest in the trees.
但是在史蒂芬·斯利特之前，没有人能看到或甚至想象到树上的森林。
Stephen was an explorer of new worlds from the start.
史蒂芬从小就是个探险家。
He spent his boyhood in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania reading Tolkien and playing Dungeons and Dragons with his brother Scott.
他在宾州的哈里斯堡度过童年，那时他常常跟他的兄弟斯科特读托尔金的作品，玩儿《龙与地下城》游戏。
But when the Sillett family visited their grandparent's cabin near Gettysburg,
当斯利特一家拜访祖父母在盖茨堡的小屋时，
their grandmother Helen Poe Sillett, would take the boys into the nearby mountains and forests to bird-watch.
他们的祖母海伦·波伊·斯利特，会带着男孩子们去附近的山林中看鸟。
They called Grandma Sillett Poe, and she taught the boys to identify songbirds, plants and even lichens,
他们叫她斯利特·波伊祖母，波伊祖母教了这些孩子们如何辨认鸣鸟、植物甚至是地衣，
creatures that often look like splotches of carpet glued to the shady sides of rocks and tree trunks.
以及那些长在石头背面和树干上像地毯上的斑点的生物。
Looking upwards, both boys found their callings.
向上看去，两个孩子觉得有什么东西在召唤他们。
Scott became a research scientist specializing in migratory birds.
斯科特成为了一名研究候鸟的科学家。
Stephen was more interested in the trees.
而史蒂芬对这些树更感兴趣。
The tangle of branches and leaves attracted his curiosity. What could be hidden up there?
混杂的枝叶唤起了他无限的好奇心。树顶藏着什么呢？
By the time Stephen was in college, that curiosity pulled him skyward to the tallest trees on Earth:
史蒂芬还在上大学的时候，这种好奇心让他无限向往那些高耸入云的冠绝世界的大树：
the ancient coast redwoods of Northern California.
长在北加州海边的古老红杉树。
Rising from trunks up to 20 feet in diameter, redwoods can grow up to 380 feet, or 38 stories, over a 2,000 year lifetime.
红杉能在超过2000年的生命周期中，长到直径20英尺，高度达380英尺或38层楼那么高。
But no one had thought to investigate the crowns of these natural skyscrapers.
但是从没有人想到要去研究这些如天然摩天大楼一般的树顶世界。
Were there more than just branches up there?
那里会只有树枝么？
Stephen decided to find out firsthand.
史蒂芬决定迈出第一步去探寻。
In 1987, Stephen, his brother Scott and his friend Marwood
1987年, 史蒂芬和他兄弟斯科特以及朋友麦伍德一起，
drove from Reed College in Oregon to Prairie Creek Redwoods State Park in Northern California.
从俄勒冈的里德学院开车驶向北加州的草原溪红杉国家公园。
Deep inside the park, Stephen picked the tallest redwood he could find.
在公园深处，史蒂芬选了一棵他能找到的最高的红杉。
Its lowest branches were almost 100 feet up, far beyond his reach.
最矮的树枝也有100英尺高，远远超越了他能够到的范围。
But he saw a younger, shorter redwood growing next to the target tree.
但是他看到了一棵更年轻更矮的红杉，就在这棵树边上。
With a running start, he leapt and grabbed the lowest branch, pulled himself up and scurried upwards.
一个助跑，他一跃而起抓住了最矮的树枝，把自己拉了上去，然后开始向上攀爬。
He was free climbing without ropes or a harness, one misstep meant death.
他没借助任何绳子或背带，进行着自由攀爬，一个失足就可能导致死亡。

But up he went, and when he reached the peak,
但是他一路向上，当他到达树顶的时候，
he swayed and leapt across the gap of space onto a branch of the target tree and into a world never seen before.
他摇晃着跳到过了与目标树之间的缝隙，跳到了目标树的一个树枝上，然后进入了一个他前所未见的世界。
His buddy Marwood followed him up, and the two young men free climbed high into the redwood's crown.
他的朋友麦伍徳跟着他爬了上来，这两个年轻人通过自由攀爬到达了这棵树的树冠。
Stephen came across lichens like Grandma Poe had shown him as a boy.
史蒂芬看到了童年时波伊祖母教他认识过的地衣。
He noticed that the higher he went, the thicker the branches were, not the case with most trees.
他开始注意到，他爬的越高，树枝越稀松，这并非常见的情况。
He found moist mats of soil many inches thick, made from fallen needles, bark,
他发现潮湿的表面有几英寸厚的土壤是由掉落的叶子、树皮、
other plant debris and dust from the sky piled on the tops of the large branches.
其他植物残骸或来自天上的尘埃组成，堆在了一些巨大树干的表面。
He even found reiterations: new redwood tree trunks growing out from the main trunk.
他甚至发现了一些重复生长的现象：新红杉的树干长在原来的主干上。
The redwood had cloned itself.
红杉进行了自我复制。
When Stephen reached the pinnacle, he rested on a platform of crisscrossing branches and needles.
当史蒂芬到达顶点的时候，他在一个由树枝也针叶纵横交织组成的平台上休息。
Growing in the soil mat was a huckleberry bush with ripe berries!
在树冠的土壤上竟然长着越橘类的灌木，甚至还结了果！
He ate some and waited for his friend.
他摘了一些果子吃，然后等着他的朋友爬上来。
Stephen had discovered a new world hundreds of feet above the ground.
史蒂芬在离地几百英尺的高空发现里一个新天地。
His climb led to more excursions, with safety equipment, thank goodness,
这次攀爬让他更热衷于树木攀爬，谢天谢地，之后他都准备了安全措施，
up other ancient redwoods as he mapped and measured the architecture of branches and additional trunks in the canopy of an entire grove.
在这些古老的红杉之上，史蒂芬绘制并测量了树枝的结构以及树顶的“小果园”。
Stephen became an expert in the ecology of the tallest trees on Earth and the rich diversity of life in their crowns,
史蒂芬就此成为了这些地球上最高的树的树顶生态系统，以及树冠生物多样性的专家，
aerial ecosystems no one had imagined.
而这些空中生态系统是之前没人想象到的。
There are ferns, fungi and epiphytic trees normally found at ground level
其中包括地面常见的蕨类、真菌类以及附生类植物，
like Douglas firs, hemlocks and tan oaks whose roots had taken hold in the rich wet soil mats.
例如道格拉斯松树、铁杉和谭橡树，这些植物的根都深深生长在潮湿又营养丰富的土壤中。
Invertebrates such as ants, bumblebees, mites, beetles, earthworms and aquatic crustacean copepods
无脊椎动物，如蚂蚁、黄蜂、螨虫、甲虫、蚯蚓和一些水生甲壳桡足类生物，
make their homes alongside flowering plants like rhododendrons, currant and elderberry bushes.
在上面的开花植物中安家，包括杜鹃花、红醋栗以及接骨木灌木丛。
Ospreys, spotted owls, and jays search the canopy for food.
鱼鹰、斑点猫头鹰和松鸡在树冠中寻找食物。
Even the marbled murrelet, a Pacific seabird, flies many miles from the ocean to nest there.
甚至云石海雀，一种太平洋海鸟，也会从他们海边的巢穴飞越数公里来此。
Squirrels and voles peek out of penthouse burrows.
松鼠和野鼠也会经常从树顶的洞穴出来放风。
And the top predator? The mighty wandering salamander!
那顶级猎食动物呢？上面有巨大的蝾螈在四处闲逛寻找机会。
Sillett's research has changed how we think about tall trees, and bolstered the case for their conservation,
斯利特的研究彻底改变了我们对于高大树木的看法，同时肯定了他们之前对话中的观点，
not just as impressive individual organisms but as homes to countless other species.
树顶世界并非只有个别令人惊奇的生命有机体，而是数以亿计物种的家。
So when you look up into the branches and leaves of a tree, ask, 'What else is up there?'
所以当你看到这些枝叶的时候, 肯定会问到“里面会是什么样？”
A new world might be just out of reach. So leap for it.
也许新天地只有一步之遥，何不一跃赴之！