Magical Forests

The Great Temperate Forests of the World

Living Planet

New England in autumn. There really can’t be a more magical place anywhere on earth, to appreciate that dramatic transition between summer and winter. But we mustn’t get blinded by this natural fiesta, because such an extreme transformation is a huge challenge for life. And autumn is just one of many transformations the forest must face. From summer to winter, this land of plenty will appear to collapse, before attempting to rebuild itself all over again in the spring.

To see how, I’m going to, what is for me, the greatest seasonal forest on the planet. The wooded wilderness that stretches right across North America. From the land of the Canadian lynx, to the land of the grizzly bear.

Our story begins in autumn. As the days are drawing shorter, less light is feeding the forests. Deciduous trees are shedding their leaves. Many creatures are burrowing away to escape the cold. Others are simply leaving. But there’s one animal with a crucial job to do. Now, before the winter sets in. It’s a job the entire forest depends upon.

The best time to see them is in the first couple of hours after dark. And what I’m hoping is, if I stand here and stay really quiet, I’ll be in for a real treat.

Flying Squirrels and Truffles

It’s a creature I’ve waited all my life to see. But they move so fast! Flying squirrel! They really are expert gliders. They can glide for up to 200 metres! When I was a kid, I was obsessed with things that were, you know, not meant to fly. Flying fish, flying frogs, flying lizards, flying squirrels.

This is the first time I’ve ever seen them. It was worth a 45-year wait. Honestly! They’re just criss-crossing all the trees. They immediately scamper up to the top, then take off and glide again, and sometimes, I’ve noticed, they can even change direction mid flight.

But what on earth have they got to do with our story?

Well, at the moment, these flying squirrels are out in the woods trying to find as much food as possible before the weather turns nasty and the winter kicks in. But what are they after? Well, they’re after these. Truffles. they’re the fruiting bodies of fungi and they appear in the damp cool of autumn. In preparation for winter, the hungry squirrel needs to hoard food such as truffles. But the truffles also need the squirrel to eat them.

As the squirrel moves through the forest, the spores are dispersed. And that’s crucial, not just for the truffle, but for the trees. What’s so special about these truffles? They certainly don’t look much, and the smell can be said to be an acquired taste. And they’re not just here as another organism to be eaten by hordes of hungry squirrels either, because without these truffles, and all the other fungi here in the wood, this woodland simply couldn’t function. It couldn’t exist.

Why? Well, take a look beneath the soil down here. Each truffle has thread-like roots extending from it.

The threads extract nutrients in the soil, from rotting material like leaves. And, cunningly, they also tap into the roots of the trees to siphon off sugars. But this is not a one-way relationship, because the tree can now tap into nutrients extracted by the fungal threads. This symbiotic relationship between the trees and the fungus, where each is dependent on the other, clearly helps the tree grow, but it’s not only that. It greatly extends the reach of its roots because, in effect, they become as extensive as the fungal network that they are connected to.

In autumn, throughout the northern hemisphere, the trees use fungi to extend their roots and absorb sufficient nutrients for the big freeze ahead. I love this web of relationships – the squirrels, the fungi, the trees. It ensures that they’re all ready to face the winter. but for me, one of the most magical relationships of all is seen on the far west coast of Canada, as one of the world’s most ancient forests prepares for the oncoming challenge.

Here, I can stand at the foot of 1000-year-old cedars and 90-metre-tall Sitka spruce trees. The combination of large mountains and ocean winds generates unusually heavy rainfall – earning this place the title The Raincoast.

There is so much rain in autumn that the rivers are swollen. And that is vital to the forest’s survival. There is a significant event happening here, which allows a whole forest not only to survive the winter, but also to flourish throughout the course of the year. But you know, the really incredible thing is this key to life is not here in the forest at all at the moment, but it will be soon.