The Enchanted Forest

Fungi are perhaps

the most unappreciated, undervalued and unexplained organisms on earth. Read Andrew Cowan's article on why they are so fundamental to the success and health of every terrestrial ecosystem.

Did you know that there is a tree in the Amazon, whose sap resembles diesel so much that it can be poured straight into the tank of truck? Visit "Wyrd & Wonderful" facts about trees to read about some curiosa in the world of trees.

The Enchanted Forest is the place on The-Tree website where we hope to gather an informative collection of general knowledge about various aspects of trees, as well as their eco-systems, such as woodlands and forests.
This includes woodland plants, birds, mushrooms, lichens, mammals, insects, different types of woodland and anything else to do with the magic of the forest.
We have made a good beginning and hope once more that some of you will want to join in and make contributions in the form of articles, stories, pictures and so on.
This may vary from learned essays to more lighthearted stuff such as your observations and pictures from a trip to the woods or a camping holiday. Maybe you feel like researching a particularly area you've always been interested in such as, for example, lichens or the history of the New Forest. Feel welcome to send us your contributions.

We often forget that death is a very relative concept in the interactive process of ecology in our forests (and elsewhere!). This is why we have often overlooked the importance of decaying wood. Click on this link to read two articles to balance this state of affairs: Decaying Wood (Decaying Wood, recycling within ecosystems by Andrew Cowan and Conserving & creating decaying wood habitats - A practical guide for arborists by Mark Robinson.

It is a little known fact that forests help to maintain the Earth's magnetic field.
There has been a decrease in our planet's magnetic field, which parallels global deforestation! Read the basics in "Magnetism of the Trees".

Our enormous impact on our environment is clear, as is the fact that we are facing a huge crisis. If we carry on as we are at present, we may destroy the ability of natural systems to balance themselves. Before we can have much hope of solving these problems, we need to answer a core question: How do human beings fit into the Enchanted Forest? How do we see our own place in the eco-web? Here is a good introduction to various aspects of this question:
"Forest biodiversity at the ecosystem level: where do people fit in?"
by Jeffrey A. McNeely, Chief Scientist at the World Conservation Union, with a brief introduction by Anna.

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