In September of 2017 I took a road trip up to Washington. I drove the mountains on the way up and the coast on the way back. It was a blast and turned into about a 5500 mile odyssey. My daily ritual was to get up in the dark and find a place to take photos at dawn. Then I would drive about 100-150 miles. It would take all day and usually included doubling back and detours. I was alone. Nobody would put up with it. So it works for me! I'd get to a cheap motel that had wi-fi and work a few hours, grab an early dinner or late lunch and head out to chase the sunset hours at a photo opp location. 25 days of that. It was heaven.
One afternoon I spent tromping around a dense Washington forest near Mount Rainier. The ground was like walking on your bed! Layer upon layer of decaying material. The forest was made up of very tall Hemlock, Douglas Fir and Cedar. You don't really notice, but ever 10th tree standing in a forest like this is standing dead. It's part of their natural lifespan. Sooner or later they fall down. In fact, people die every year, somewhere, when a tree falls on them... but I digress. While on this walk off the path on what was, basically, a hillside, I began to take notice of the inordinate amount of life growing upon these fallen behemoths.
Turns out, if you are a forestry major, I'm talking basic forest ecology here. Anywhere there is a forest there is the "Nurse Log" phenomena going on. Its just more pronounced in places like the Pacific Northwest that gets above average rainfall. fog, heat and snows all in a year.
Soon after this day I was on the internet and reading about the PNW forest biodynamics and come to find out there has been and is tremendous amount of research going on with these Nurse Logs. I had literally fallen down a rabbit hole of forest nerdacity and was loving every minute of it. Turns out, I have several great photos of my nurse log encounter to keep the memory alive forever!
There is much discussion why a tree seed seems to flourish on nurse logs versus the remarkable ground that is going on. Up close on these logs you find dozens of tiny trees. As small as 1 inch high. Some of these will make it. Most will not. One of the most interesting conclusions one scientist made is that the ground contains pathogens that have evolved to kill seedlings as some means of keeping the competition for resources at a sustainable level. So it could be, nurse logs are where the seedlings can survive best due to sunlight, water and nutrient needs.
One thing all the scientists do agree on is that the more nurse trees a forest has, the more overall health the forest has as a whole. It's a purely natural feature that is wholly necessary for the being of the forest. If this subject interests you, just put, nurse logs, into your favorite search box. But don't say, I didn't warn you, when you go down the rabbit hole!
©Copyright Chris Tucker All Rights Reserved
