Information and Links
Join the fray by commenting, tracking what others have to say, or linking to it from your blog.
Life In A Gnarly Branch
Old growth branches are amazing places to the few people who see them from above. They are covered not just with moss and lichen, but also ferns, blueberry bushes, salal, other trees, earthworms, and beautifully composted rich organic soil. Odd things like frogs and salamanders have been found in them.
Ten years ago scientists had very little idea about the diversity of life in the canopy of the temperate rainforest. Since then canopy research has discovered many new insect and arthropod species, and interrelationships that were hitherto unknown. There is a whole ecosystem up there that few people have ever seen and that is just beginning to be appreciated.
As well as small creatures, larger ones depend on old growth forest branches. One of them is a kind of bird, a sea bird, that nests in them. The Marbled Murrelet. This bird can nest nowhere else but on large branches, at the tops of large old growth trees. These guys are not agile in their flight. They can’t twist and turn through the forest canopy. So the branches have to be big, high off the ground, and mossy so the eggs don’t roll off. The birds don’t light on them like normal forest dwelling birds. They come up from below into a stall and drop onto the branch. They also can’t leap into the air. To leave the nest they hop off the branch and go into a dive to get airspeed sufficient to pull out of it. The young birds must learn to fly quickly!
As the old growth forests are cut on Vancouver Island there is less and less habitat for birds like these and other canopy dwelling species.