Not Your Average Bed-Time Tale

I often speak of the importance of our woods in my life.  

They are truly my inspiration - and call to something deep within me. 

 As I walk down the forest trails, sheltered by the high canopy of branches overhead,

 a sense of calm washes over me.  

My brain shifts into neutral and my senses take over. 

 The woods offers a buffet of sensorial experiences: 

sounds and smells and sights to sample, contemplate, and digest. 

 I am offered a large portion of these delights and my soul is nourished.

I’ve taught my grandchildren that the woods are a place where magic happens.

 As we walk across the soft, crackly forest floor we look for fairies and elves and trolls

 in all of the obvious hiding places - sleeping inside a hollow tree, 

having tea on a moss covered stump or seeking shelter amid an assembly of toadstools. 

 We try to avoid detection by dragons as we tip-toe down the well-worn stone paths.

What they have yet to learn, though,

 is that fairies often take the form of tall, strong oaks.  

Their companions, industrious squirrels and chipmunks, run to and fro - 

as task-oriented elves are prone to do.  

Unicorns hide their glistening horns amongst the stately antlers of a stag;

 and mice and insects are tiny fire-breathing dragons.

Yes, the woods are full of magic (everyday, ordinary magic)

 and they have a tale to tell, more fantastic than that of mythical creatures. 

 Come - pour yourself a cup of tea- 

and sit for a spell while I tell you an enchanting (and true) story…

What we have come to understand is that there is an amazing interconnectedness

 of life in the forest… more connected than we ever imagined.

If you visit a grove of deciduous trees 

(such as the oaks and beeches that are so prevalent in our woods) 

year after year, you will notice that only in some years do the trees drop an abundance of seeds (acorns or beechnuts in our case). 

 Other years you will find a scarcity in those trees’ nuts.  

The decision to reproduce is made in the spring when the trees flower. 

 The incredible part of this story is that the trees all decide, together, 

if it is a good year to produce seed… 

which implies some form of communication between trees. 

 It is known that trees have the ability to communicate with pheromones 

(like waving their fairy wands). 

 It is theorized that the trees also use the fungi of the forest floor

 as a type of neural network, linking them together as one enormous nervous system

 (or one giant brain, if you will).   

This system of withholding (for a few years) and (occasional) dumping of seed nuts

 helps to keep the population of forest browsers such as the white-footed deer mice

 (trolls, all of them),  and white-tailed deer (unicorns, of course) 

that are found in our woods, at bay.  

Withholding seed nuts results in a drop in mouse population,

 so that when the year arrives that the trees do decide to drop seed nuts, 

there are fewer browsers alive to eat those nuts. 

 Thus there is a greater chance that the nuts will grow into seedlings.

The squirrels and chipmunks, in their elf-like manner of busy-ness, 

bury those nuts throughout the forest floor also helping to propagate new trees.

Seed dumping, in turn, causes a boom in the mouse population once again.  

White-tailed deer also enjoy this feast of seed nuts.  

With more feed available for the deer, their numbers increase as well.

Let’s take the connectedness even a bit farther…

White-footed deer mice eat the pupae of the gypsy moth

 (tent caterpillars, the fire-breathing dragons of our woods.)  

An increase in the mouse population helps to keep the gypsy moths under control

(as this mouse finds the gypsy moth babes particularly yummy), 

preventing the destruction of the woods as a whole. 

Conversely, an increase in the mouse population goes hand in hand

 with an increase in the deer tick (dragons of another sort) population - 

as the deer tick finds the blood of this mouse particularly yummy. 

 Unfortunately, the white-footed deer mouse carries Lyme disease, 

which the tick then transports to the deer as they provide food (blood)

 and a necessary breeding ground for the tick.

Even the lowly, disease carrying, tick serves a vital purpose in the grand scheme of things. 

 It provides a food source for reptiles, amphibians, birds and even opossums,  

and helps to control wild animal populations.

As humans, we are only beginning to understand 

just how interconnected life on this planet is.  

Even the tiniest creature (or pest, perhaps) performs a valuable function

 in the grand workings of nature. 

 When we make random decisions to intervene in Mother Nature’s most perfect plan,

 we upset that balance. 

Bio-diversity is the key to life on this planet.  

As John Muir so eloquently said:

“When we try to pick out anything by itself, we find it hitched to everything else in the universe.”

Life cannot exist with only fairies.  

We need elves and trolls and fire-breathing dragons to balance them out!

Note:  It’s been two years with very few ticks here on the farm… and very few acorns or beechnuts in the woods.  I am betting we will see an increase in tent caterpillars next summer.

This blog was a joint venture from Jack and myself.  

I am lucky to be part of a relationship in which both parties bring to it something different.  Jack is a voracious reader and a constant source of fascinating information. 

 He is the brains behind the operation.   

I am the imagination and the teller of tales. 

 We complement each other perfectly.

If you are interested in the fascinating world of trees, you might consider reading this book: