There once was a forest that was filled with many plants, animals and trees. But there was one kind of tree that was much more important than all the other species. The White Oaks. These trees lived to be very old and wiser than anyone but them could imagine. They lived and prospered with all the other plants into their old age. When the White Oaks died other Oaks grew in the place of the fallen. On the ground bright yellow Sunflowers grew in the places the oaks didn’t grow. Bushes lit up the ground with berries of all and any color, all of the berries edible and delicious waiting sometimes even begging to be plucked. Birds lived and sang in the trees, building their nests out of lightly colored twigs. In the middle of the forest was a pond decorated with lilies and filled with the most elegant fish and frogs, frogs that croaked in harmony during the evening. Everything lived in harmony.

In this forest there was one White Oak that was larger and wiser than all the others. Over double the height of the rest of the forest it looked down on everything for miles around and watched. Whenever there was a problem the plants and animals went to him. All of any of the problems were sent to him no matter how trivial. When the Beavers were annoyed by the Frogs singing he told the Beavers how to make their nest soundproof. When a younger oak was blocked out of the sunset by an older oak he told the younger oak to grow a branch to the north so that he may see from it the amazing sunset. With the the largest oak standing tall nothing could go wrong.

Like all the other oaks in the forest he was not mortal. He grew old and fell. Some of the animals wept uncontrollably and others stood silently in remorse. “He fell east,” they would say “into the sunset, just how he would have wanted it.” That is how he wanted it to happen.

After the trees passing all the other plants and animals were faced with a problem. Who would solve their problems? The White Oaks began talking to each other to decide who would succeed the tree. The wisest of all the remaining trees gathered together to decide. After days upon days of debate a decision was made. Two candidates were nominated by the trees. Both were equally old, equally wise and equally large. All the animals were to be told that they should choose a representative to represent them in who they think should make decisions in the forest. When the trees announced this one squirrel heard and thought of a malicious plan. He heard the message and scantered onto the branch of one of the trees and yelled;

“Wait!”

“What young squirrel,” the trees said back awkwardly “why are you yelling?”

“I do not like this plan,’ he stated “why would the stupid fish be on the same level as me and my people.” The trees thought about this for a moment.

“You are right young squirrel,” they stated “the squirrels are smarter than the fish. And the dogs are smarter than the deer and the bear smarter than the squirrel.” This startled the squirrel as his plan was not working out for him.
“Surely the squirrels are the wisest right under -” The trees were already deep in their thought and ignoring the squirrel.

“Come back in one week,” one of the oaks boomed “You will come and we will have a list showing which animals and plants are wiser than the others. The wisest animals will be in charge of deciding which tree will make the decisions in the forest”

After a week the squirrel returned as he was told. He was given the rules that were carefully engraved in a stone...


Rules for the Election of the New Leading Tree

Because of the lack of decision that the council of white oaks has experienced we will allow the animals of the forest to decide who the new wisest tree will be. Also because of the differences in intelligence between all of the animals the smarter animals will have more voting power. The following is a list of how much decision power each animal is worthy
of based on their intellect.


fish .5
dogs 1.8
bear 2.0
squirrel 1.4
beaver 1.6
badger 1.1
deer 1.6
turtles 2.0
snakes .7
insects .1
songbirds .5
hawks 1.5
salamanders .5









“You will memorize this,” a trees voice boomed “and then you will go and recite this to all the species listed. Tell them also in a month a representative from each species will meet here and votes will be casted.” The squirrel being one of the smarter of his kind memorized the tablet and set of a journey to inform the other species of the election.

On his travels the squirrel noticed some things in the forest just weren’t right. The animals were bickering more. On Top of the bickering, animals were starving. Many could not collect food well without help from the Wisest Oak. The new beaver dams had not been built well and were falling apart. The songbirds forgot their songs and without help from the tree they stopped singing. After almost a week the news was distributed to all the animals by the squirrel and animals began to travel to the forest clearing where the White Oaks met. The last to show up (the turtle representative) sat down 30 days exactly after the White Oaks told the squirrel to gather the animals. All the trees for miles around listened intently while the songbirds watched from their limbs.

Finally a Snake spoke up. “How am I any less intelligent than the dumb squirrels for I eat them weekly. I outsmart them constantly yet on your intelligence chart I am dumber than them. How is this?” As he spoke a storm began to brew.

Then a Bear “I surely must be smarter than the fish for I eat 5 of them a week. But on your chart I am only 4 times as smart as they are. I should be 5 times as smart as them. I should have a 2.5 intelligence. Unnoticed by the arguing animals the storm built stronger and stronger blacking out the sky.

A fish then gurgled “He may be smarter than us... but we number in the thousands in the lakes, ponds and river. Our combined intelligence is much more than his species ever could comprehend.” The storm grew blacker as did the mood of the representatives. Eventually yelling broke loose. The council of White Oaks couldn’t keep control.

Suddenly lightning struck not just one but both of the competitors for the Wisest Oak. This quickly silenced the crowd. The Oaks burnt while screaming. The fire spread from tree to tree quickly as lightning began to strike other targets. By morning all the Tall White Oaks in the council and around the forest were gone. Not even a sapling or seeds remained from any of the magnificent trees.