Sun, May 28, 2017
Even though they stay put their entire life, trees are no solitary and silent beings. They have friends and business partners, relatives and enemies - and are linked to all of them. An underground network, the "wood wide web", connects the trees with with information and nutrients. Chemical messages, through whose help the trees communicate or fend of enemies, also float in the woodland air. Like invisible communication-banners they pervade the woods. The air is furthermore nourished with oxygen, a waste product of the photosynthesis. One tree alone covers the daily requirement of ten humans. Beneath trees we wind down and become more healthy. Because even though we don't understand them, the secret language of trees, also works on us. And maybe that's why we love our forests so much.
Sun, Jun 4, 2017
Spring, summer, autumn and winter not only bring colours to our forests, they also open small time slots, many forest dwellers have to harness, in order to survive. From the lavish flowerage of early bloomers, to the intensive fruit-bearing in years when seeds are available in abundance. As soon as cones and beechnuts, acorns and nuts have fallen of the trees in autumn, they are followed by leaves soon after, to prevent the tree's pipes from bursting by frost. Trees are preparing for hibernation - like animals. In "Our Magic Forests" animations show how nutrition for all forest dwellers develop during the years - such as the wood of the trees - and why woodpeckers may pound on it up to 10.000 times a day without getting headaches. Many creatures of the forest live within or on the wood of the trees. But some subtenants may cause real massacres. Many German forests are to become virgin forests again, leaving its course of life and death to nature: a subject for passionate debates in the country.
Sun, Jun 11, 2017
2000 years ago, forests covered almost the whole landmass of the world. The loss of these forests is one of the most profound changes on our planet. Our forests are more than green oases. They allow water to evaporate and ascend, as if gravity was turned upside down. Each forest is like a gigantic sponge - from the canopy to the forest soil. Forests are the biggest fresh water reservoirs of the world - for everything in the forest is set out to save water for bad times. In a perfectly working system from the roots to the very top of the trees, each forest is a gigantic "water bucket" in a global chain of pumping stations. Forests pump the water vapor of the seas inland, and are our major allies in the fight against climate change.