If a tree falls in the woods.........

Have other's here heard of 'pillows and cradles'? This is a term used for the mound (pillow) and depression (cradle) that is formed when a tree is uprooted and rots away leaving a hill of earth that had been yanked up by the roots of a fallen tree. The area were the tree once was is a hollow where the soil has been displaced. When you walk through the woods you can see stories of weather events like hurricanes or straight line winds that have been through your area. The fact that you can see this written on the forest floor is fascinating to me. I'm also intrigued by the plant life that established in these areas. We have clay soil and the plants that live on the pillow or in the cradle can be very diverse since the drainage or presence of water is so different. One can find water tolerant sedges growing right next to plants that need better drainage. I have found pillows and cradles that have been very large and could only have been created by large trees that were uprooted. I'm sure that it is possible that some of these predate European settlers. I hope to supply a picture in the near future.

Yes.

Reading the landscape. A fine skill to develop, which reveals so much unstated.

I look forward to your images.

Yep, see it over here too in our wet'n'windy climate

Resin

That is so interesting...I would also love to see the pictures (and know how to tell).

DV, Our local wooded areas, which are pretty much regrowth from the great "cut off" of the Eastern White Pine forests is riddled with these "tip ups" and "valleys", also stumps which are "charred" in their hollows, remarkably preserving them from rot: kind of looks like the charring that you find in those 1/2 whiskey barrels that are used for container plating. I'm thinking that these stumps might be left over from the last major forest fire, prior to the clear cut of the early 1900's. Ken

Check out this story: http://www.cbc.ca/canada/british-columbia/story/2006/12/19/bc-park-trees.html?ref=rss
Our old-growth forest in the middle of the city was hit hard by a recent wind storm with giant Douglas Fir and Cedar fallen everywhere. I'm sure there will be an abundance of "pillows & cradles". I've always found the cradles a good place to find a small seasonal pond.

Sad to hear, Growin - we've had a few storms here too in the last 2 weeks with a fair amount of damage, but not quite that bad. The plus side is the patches of open habitat it creates for wildlife and tree regeneration in the longer term, but that's small consolation to someone with a tree in their living room.

Resin

Yesterday at dusk I tried to find a good example of a pillow and cradle. The attached photo is the best that I found in the waning light (days are so darn short this time of year!). You can see what remains of the tree that fell over to the left of the picture as well as the shale that was pulled up by the roots. This location in the woods is where the soil level is very thin. The beech tree leaves have obscured the depression but the mound of shale is clearly visible. I will continue to look for examples or better yet a series of pictures of varying degrees of decay of the uprooted tree. I will make a post of a different title.

Growin..... those seasonal pools (also called vernal pools) are very important for amphibians. If these little ponds have water in them long enough they have the right habitat to support salamanders and some species of frogs to breed in. Spring peepers love these spots.

C'mon, they can't be that bad where you are, so far south!! Same latitude as Florence in Italy! :-)

Resin (55°N, sunrise 8.30, sunset 15.30, at this time of year)

You could leave the Northern Lights on...

Excellent comment. Thanks for mentioning that. There has been a decline in amphibians that breed in vernal ponds around here due to several droughts in the past few years. Several people from my county relocated tads from vernal ponds that have been documented as going dry prematurely in the recent past. The tads were moved to specially created herp ponds. Once they morphed, as many as could be caught were transferred back to the areas from which they were taken. I have several herp ponds here. One pond sustained tads that were relocated from deep tread marks of a farm tractor. Those tads were destined to be squished because of where they were located. The farm equipment had to get to that back 40 and it would have only been a matter of time before the tads were no more.

I learned today what those are called now. Thank you. : ) I see them occasionaly , but never knew much about them. Besides checking out the trees, Early in the spring I go hunting in the woods and have my nose to the ground, looking for native and rare wildflowers. I sometimes find some of them growing around those types of areas. Woods and forests are virtual playgrounds that can keep you enthralled for hours, days, and years . : )

See how many "pillows & cradles" you can see in these pictures:
http://www.cbc.ca/photogallery/_news.html?dataPath=/photogallery/regions/bc/gallery_206/xml/gallery_206.xml
Sad to see so many centuries old trees fallen.

This guy was trapped by trees in the park for over 6 days until he realized he had a disconnected cell phone with enough battery to call 911.
http://www.cbc.ca/canada/british-columbia/story/2006/12/22/rescue-park.html
Keep in mind his location and the pictures above are only blocks from Club Monaco/Gap/Levis, multiple Starbucks, office towers.

Interesting pictures growin...sad but interesting...what mother nature can do.