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NATURE
· Forests of Rain
FIRST PEOPLES
· An Important Heiltsuk Site
HISTORY
· Remote Places: Ocean Falls
This is a link to a map of the forests of British Columbia with optional close-ups of Northeastern British Columbia, Cariboo-Chilcotin and Central Coast.

FOCUS  Central Coast -- Wet Forest

Forests of Rain
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This is a photograph of a hiker standing on the massive trunk of a fallen old growth tree.
When old-growth giants fall, they open up sunlit gardens in the midst of the forest. Sydney Cannings.
Old Growth

The processes shaping these forests operate on a time scale almost beyond the comprehension of short-lived humans. Wildfires are rare in the rain forests, so the fast-growing trees can live for centuries and reach immense sizes. At higher elevations and along the north coast where fires are exceedingly rare, the forests are truly ancient; some Yellow-cedars may be more than two thousand years old.

Red Elderberry grows abundantly in Wet Forests where openings let in the sun. Robert Cannings.
This is a photograph of Red Elderberry with red berries.
Huge trunks lift a green canopy almost 100 metres above the damp soil. Hanging gardens of moss and lichen, gradually accumulated over the centuries, drape the sunlit branches. Old forests have a structural diversity absent in younger forests. Fifty-year-old forests tend to be dense stands of similar-sized trees and little else. As a forest matures, some of the large trees fall, creating sunlit openings in the canopy.
In old-growth forests Brown Creepers nest behind slabs of peeling bark. Douglas Leighton.
This is a photograph of a Brown Creeper on the trunk of a tree.

Small trees and shrubs shoot upwards to create multiple layers of plants beneath the remaining large trees.

Large dead trees, both as snags and logs, are another important characteristic of old-growth forests. Decaying wood is a major source of food energy in these forests and provides homes for many animals.

Life in the Soil

Constant winter rains leach away nutrients, leaving poor, acidic soils behind. This forces trees to get most of their nutrients directly from the thin layer of organic material at the top of the soil. To do this, they enlist the help of some fungi. The food-gathering part of the fungus is a wide-spreading mat of fine hairs called the mycelium. When these fine hairs encounter tree roots and if the species combination is right, the fungus and root form a remarkable partnership. These partnerships are called mycorrhizae — literally "fungus root." The fungal side of the deal provides the tree with nutrients that the mycelium can extract from the soil much more efficiently than the roots. The tree in return gives the fungus sugars produced by its leaves. Without this partnership, most trees can barely stay alive, let alone grow to towering heights.

Woodworkers
Carpenter Ants help break down dead and dying wood to replenish the nutrients in the soil. Dennis St. John.
This is a photograph of a Carpenter Ant on a partially eaten leaf.
In an environment where 98 per cent of the organic material is locked up in wood, organisms that can eat wood will prosper. Fungi are the most abundant examples of this lifestyle. Honey Mushrooms are common, scattered around the ground of coastal forests. They are the fruits of a large mass of shoestring-like structures that grow underground, searching for tree roots to feed from. They thrive on the roots of stumps and dead trees but will also invade and kill live trees. The underground part of a Honey Mushroom can grow to monster proportions – one huge specimen devoured the stumps in a 600-hectare clearcut!
When fungi and bacteria have softened the wood of a dead tree or log, insects move in. Carpenter Ants chew tunnels in the wood to house their colony.
Pacific Dampwood Termites are social insects with a caste system. Here, workers are pale; soldiers protecting the colony have large heads and fierce jaws. Robert Cannings.
This is a photograph of Pacific Dampwood Termites showing pale coloured workers and large headed soldiers.
Termites actually devour wood, but only with the help of bacteria and other microscopic organisms in their intestines. In late summer, evening skies are often filled with the fluttering wings of swarming, amber-coloured adults flying off to mate – abundant food for many birds and mammals.
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