06/25/2026
Message from Bryan Tran; volunteer on VMF's Board of Directors, and county Park Ranger:
To me, planting a tree is an action that encompasses many things at once. It’s a beautiful act of optimism, a tangible symbol of the belief that the ground where I bury my shovel will one day be more healthy, prosperous, and vibrant than it is today.
It’s the result of a decision to do something positive, even when the world’s problems seem utterly insurmountable and the best response I can muster in kind is a 4-inch incense cedar. And in this rapidly changing society of ours, it’s also a quiet declaration of what we value as profound and beautiful in our world.
It should come as no surprise to say that technology has radically changed our lives in the past two decades. The criticisms of smart phones and social media are now well established - that they are intentionally designed to be addictive, that they exacerbate issues of anxiety and depression particularly in younger people, that for all the pretenses about bringing people together they often leave us feeling more isolated and disconnected. With the arrival of artificial intelligence, we now have to contend with artificially generated content that is at times indiscernible from reality.
When I look across this technological landscape I feel that something profound is missing - that there has been a collective loss in clarity in what ought to be cherished. Perhaps you’ve seen this sight before: someone captured by their phone, mindlessly consuming some artificially generated content, ensnared by a meticulously designed algorithm optimized to retain their attention at all cost. At our disposal is an endless supply of digital instant gratification, often shallow, artificial, and fleeting.
But when I stand on the crest of a Volcan Mountain hillside in the crisp morning air, montane forests anchored in the valleys below, red-shouldered hawks soaring above, I feel something of deeper importance on display before me. I look at the purity of a newly planted sapling nestled in the shade of a fallen elder, gently glowing in the morning sunlight. I think of the mountain lion mother and her cubs sighted on our trail cameras. I hear the birdsong of a half-dozen species I’ve yet to discover. I notice the quiet presence of the bugs, roots, and fungi in the mycorrhizal network beneath my boots, and I’m reminded of the words of John Muir that “The clearest way into the Universe is through a forest wilderness”.
Volcan Mountain is a natural resource of immense importance. It stands at the nexus of four watersheds and its slopes birth the headwaters of the San Dieguito River. It’s a bastion of biodiversity in a county that is already the most biologically diverse in the contiguous United States. It’s also an exciting time for the foundation. As part of a multi-year forest habitat resilience project, efforts are currently underway to plant more than 6,000 conifer seedlings to restore historic conifer forests on the slopes of Volcan Mountain.
Please join me and our generous dollar-for-dollar $30,000 Matching Fund donors: Cliff and Carolyn Colwell, Dave and Kathie Rubenson, and Michael and Meili Pinto, in supporting VMF with a gift.
We welcome donations at volcanmt.org/donate
Or by mail:
VMF
PO Box 1625
Julian, CA 92036
Bryan Tran has been a volunteer on the VMF Board of Directors for the past three years. He is a Park Ranger with the County of San Diego Department of Parks and Recreation... and is a new father!
