Pretty Sky Things

In Washington’s mighty Hoh Rainforest, there is a phenomenon called “nurse logs”. These are fallen trees that function like a nursery for saplings on their decaying trunks. The small, young trees take advantage of this higher ground and rich organic material to reach the sun and get ahead of the other saplings. Eventually, only the fastest-growing will survive and reach the amazing heights of the surrounding forest.

I believe these are trees that originally grew on top of a nursery log, which has long since decayed to nothingness and left the roots of its young ones exposed. See how their roots are intertwined? A great visual as to the way that a forest of trees all support one another, both structurally and via a network of nutrients, fungi, and hormonal signals.

Imagine if just one of these trees was removed. Eventually, its roots would die and crumble, and the roots of the others connected to it would lose a large portion of their support. This is why a patch of trees is stronger than singular ones– removing just a few to keep only your favorite may actually have detrimental effects on its foundational stability. This may create the risk of a tree falling when there may not have been one before, and so careful thought should be put into any decision to selectively thin out a patch of trees.