What Does a Healthy Forest Look Like?
A healthy forest is a complex, interdependent community of plants, animals and soil. Each layer of the forest provides diverse habitats and helps to protect clean water. • The canopy is the forest’s top layer. It shades and protects animals and plants below, while also intercepting and slowing rainfall. • Beneath the canopy is the understory, a second layer made up of smaller trees and shrubs. As older trees die and leave gaps in the canopy, younger trees grow to replace them. • The next layer, the forest floor, is populated by vines, grasses, mosses, worms, insects, fungi, bacteria and other small plants and animals. They continually decompose leaves, wood and other organic material that falls to the forest floor so that it may be reused by larger plants. This layer is also a storehouse of nutrients. • The litter on the forest floor protects the soil, the bottom layer of the forest. Healthy forests often contain more living biomass in the soil below ground than on the surface. (See an
