Get Close to the Forest Floor

A forest is much more than the trees around you. Many different kinds of plants, mushrooms and other fungi, moss, lichens, and invertebrates live on an often overlooked part of the forest: its floor. Sitka's forest floor changes dramatically from season to season. Low-growing plants, such as deer heart and foam flower, may have leaves, flowers, and fruits depending on the time of the year. Because these plants die back each fall, they may not be noticeable at all in winter. When snow blankets the ground, animal tracks may be noticeable instead. Twigs, dead leaves, and tree needles on the forest floor become nutrient rich soil after it decomposes. These nutrients are important to the current and future wellbeing of the forest. Cones that have dropped from the Sitka spruce and hemlock trees hold the seeds that may become the future generation of these trees. Downed logs and tree trunks will often be homes for fungi, moss and lichen. Many of the smaller invertebrates such as bugs and spiders may be hidden under logs, under twigs and dead plant matter, or beneath the surface of the soil. You may find a banana slug—or a slime trail where one has recently been—especially on cool and damp days when they are more likely to be out in the open. There is also a possibility that you may find a red squirrel busily eating the seeds from a spruce cone or scurrying from one place to another. Even the mud puddles are evidence of recent rains that are also important for the growth of the living things in a rain forest.