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Kended t1_jc6ch2g wrote

Why does this forest look so artificial, like where are the bushes and ground foliage? Why do all the trees have so few limbs? Is this some special type of forest?

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neongecko12 t1_jc6hhmd wrote

It's commercial woodland. They're planted in rows as it's easiest for the machinery to deal with. The trees grow up as they have to compete for light as they're so close together, there's no point growing branches low down, as that wastes energy.

It's not particularly biodiverse, but it's often better than most of the other profitable uses for the land in an environmental sense.

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aCleverGroupofAnts t1_jc6og9a wrote

Any thoughts on the grass? In my part of the US, I've never seen a forest where the ground is covered in grass like that.

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neongecko12 t1_jc6pk33 wrote

It's more than likely moss, not grass.

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aCleverGroupofAnts t1_jc6pq9s wrote

Ohhh interesting. Still rather unusual from my perspective. Do they keep the ground clear from fallen leaves and branches?

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neongecko12 t1_jc6rouz wrote

Not usually. Everything piles up underneath and gets slowly composted into the soil. Those sort of trees don't have very big branches anyway, so there's not much big litter. Just a constant falling of the needles.

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kingpiss t1_jc79irf wrote

moss like that is pretty common in the pacific northwest

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explodingwhale17 t1_jc6ho0x wrote

It looks like a tree plantation or heavily managed forest where an area was cleared years ago and replanted with seedlings all of the same age, in rows. This patch of forest will be cut at some time in the future. The forest as a whole is made of many patches of different ages, scheduled to be cut at different times.

The trees have dropped their lower limbs as they grew probably because of competition for light.

A tree that grows taller and puts less energy into maintaining lower limbs will be more successful in such an environment. Foresters plant trees closely enough to cause such growth as it results in straight, tall trunks.

There is a park like look to the scene because of the lack of understory. This is most likely also because of an even lack of light. If there were some dead trees there would be small areas of sunlight with grasses, ferns, small bushes, etc.

The second reason is that the forest floor is covered with moss. This means the area is wet enough of the time to support moss and may not be appropriate for many other plants that you might find in similar light levels. The carpet of pine needles that probably falls may also prevent the growth of some low understory plants.

At least, that's my interpretation of the scene.

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Dovahkiinthesardine t1_jc6njfs wrote

most of Germany's forests nowadays were artificially planted. From the middle ages onwards and especially during the industrial revolution a lot was chopped down, then also again during both world wars, basically most forest were used industrially. After WW2 there was a lot of reforesting done

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rapaxus t1_jc6rfxy wrote

And this true for basically all of Europe, with the exception of parts of Scandinavia and Russia. Nearly every forest here was planted by hand and is maintained.

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VevroiMortek t1_jc70idc wrote

Europe has very few primeval forest left, a lot of planting by people has been done over the centuries

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Seber t1_jc7lbb1 wrote

Im dichten Fichtendickicht sind dicke Fichten wichtig, im dichten Fichtendickicht nicken dicke Fichten tüchtig.

In English: >!In the dense spruce thicket, thick spruces are important, in the dense spruce thicket, thick spruces nod proficiently.!<

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WedgeTurn t1_jc7jpz2 wrote

And I would argue that it's against the rules of this sub because it's clearly man-made

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