The Forest Family

Sammy was walking through the forest with his dad, his Grandma and his Grandpa.  This was a very special forest that had been protected from logging for over a hundred years by one family.  You could tell that this forest had been much loved.  You could feel it. Some of the trees were so old and so big that it took Sammy and Dad and Grandma and Grandpa reaching their arms wide and holding hands just to circle the trunk.

After they circled a giant Red Oak, Grandma said, “I wonder how tall this tree is.”

“There’s no way of measuring it,” replied Sammy.  “It’s way too tall to get to the top!”

“Hmm,” murmured Grandma.

The Grant family had owned and cared for this forest until there was only one person left in the family.  That man had passed the land on to the Couchiching Conservancy to care for it from now on.  So, anyone who wanted to visit, could follow the paths and be a part of the forest.  And that is what Sammy, Dad, Grandma and Grandpa were doing.

They soon came to a giant tree that had fallen down.  Sammy tried to imagine how loud that crash would have been and what the crash would have felt like in his feet as the earth shook.  Grandpa thought it might be a maple tree judging from the bark.

“Maybe you could measure how tall that tree is by walking along it,” said Grandma.  So, Sammy and his dad figured out how long a stride was and then they climbed up on the log.  Carefully balancing, they stepped along the log counting their strides.  As they walked along the log, Sammy noticed that some parts of it were starting to rot.  The wood felt spongy and soft under his feet.  It was being eaten by insects.  On the side of the log were lots of mushrooms and fungi growing.  The dead tree was feeding them too.

When they got to the end of the log they figured out that it was about 35 metres long.  And that tree wasn’t as wide as the really big one they had found earlier.  Beside the end of the log, they found the stump that was still rooted to the ground.  In the rotted wood at the centre of the stump grew a tiny little White Pine sapling.  A seed had landed in the stump and the rotting wood gave it the perfect protected place to start its life.  Sammy thought it looked so cute growing there.

As they continued their hike they came across a dead tree trunk that was still standing.  The branches had all fallen off.  Grandpa called it a snag and told Sammy to look way up.  There were large holes that had been chipped out of the trunk.

“Do you know who made those holes?” asked Grandpa.

Before Sammy could answer, they heard a loud tapping sound and from behind the trunk hopped a big black and white bird with a bright red head.  It started to peck away at the hole making it bigger.  Wood chips fell to the ground.  The bird stopped every now and then to eat something.

“What’s it eating?” asked Sammy.

“That Pileated Woodpecker is looking for bugs that live in that dead tree.  And when he finds one, his super long tongue will flick it into his mouth.  That bird is a master woodcarver.  He’ll carve a hole big enough for his family to nest in, or maybe a squirrel or a pine marten.  That tree is still giving food to the birds and a home to other creatures.”

The family walked further into the woods and they stopped at a Yellow Birch tree.  Its roots looked like long legs and there was a space under the trunk as though the tree could just walk away.

“Do you know why that tree has roots like that?” asked Grandma.

Sammy shrugged.

“Well, once upon a time,” said Grandma, “this birch tree was growing in a dead stump, just like the one you saw back there.  Over time, the roots grew over the stump to reach the ground.  Eventually, the stump decayed and became part of the forest floor and now there is a space where the stump used to be.  The big old birch is telling you a story about when it was a young tree.”

Farther along the path, they came to a grove of Beech trees that were about 3 metres tall.  Their graceful branches dipped close to Seb’s head and their bright green leaves made him want to touch them.  They were thin and soft in his hand.

Attached to one branch, Sammy saw a little nest.  It was made from twigs and birch bark.  Dad lifted him up and inside, Sammy could see dead pine needles lining the nest.  “Where are the birds?” asked Sammy.

“I guess they grew up and flew away once they were big enough,” said Dad.  “But these pieces of the pine and the birch trees and little sticks from other trees kept the babies safe and warm while they were little.”

“These small trees are still just kids themselves,” said Grandpa.  “Let’s look for their mama.”

Sure enough, near the young trees was a big beech tree that reached up to the top of the forest canopy.

“This is the mama tree,” said Grandpa.  “She dropped her seeds hidden in beechnuts onto the ground and they grew into the trees you see here.  The forest floor is made up of all the dead leaves and insects and branches and trunks of the trees that become soil.”

“The earth sends up these trees and when the leaves die and fall, they become part of the earth again and then all that life becomes new trees,” added Grandma.

“I wonder if we can find a Grandpa tree,” said Sammy.  So, they all began searching the woods and it was Sammy’s dad who found a really, really, big beech tree.  They all joined hands to reach around the trunk. 

“Maybe this is the Grandpa tree,” said Dad.

Sammy touched the trunk of the tree.  “Hi Grandpa Tree,” he said softly.  Then he took one of his goldfish crackers from his pocket and wedged it into a crack in the bark.  “So, he knows that he’s loved,” he said.

After a few quiet moments, Sammy asked, “Will he fall down too someday?”

“Yeah, maybe insects will eat too much of him, or a disease will weaken him and then a big wind will come or maybe an ice storm and he will crash down to the ground,” said Dad.

“And then he’ll feed insects and mushrooms and be a part of a nest and keep baby trees safe?” asked Sammy.

“Yeah, he’ll still be part of life, but in a different way.”

“Hmm,” murmured Sammy.