This past Saturday hubby and I had the wonderful opportunity of attending a Forestry Field Day event. It was a terrific experience! We both learned a lot!
There were 13 different workshop sessions to choose from, offered at different times over the course of the day.
The first session of the day began at 9:00am, and hubby and I chose to attend the “Wildlife Species and Habitat” session. Here you can see us heading up the hill to Tent 2 for our first session.
Our instructor for this session was absolutely brilliant! He had a lifetime of extensive experience in the field. Not only was he super engaging, but he brought a large collection of wildlife species for us to see up close and personal.
Here you can see some of the different bird species which make their homes in our western Washington forests. Some of these birds are migratory, while others live here year-round. Our professor taught us a little bit about owls, several different species of woodpeckers, hummingbirds, etc. …
Out of our group of 40 attendees for this session, there wound up being 12 who were avid birdwatchers!
I also learned a valuable nugget of information in that there is an App for listening and identifying birds! I was very excited to learn this! It is the Merlin App, by Cornell Lab of Ornithology. This app will listen and identify bird songs and calls; and it will identify birds by photo.
Here you can see a fabulous Pileated Woodpecker. Pileated Woodpeckers are an important part of the forest ecosystem because the homes they excavate from decaying snags become future shelter and cover for many other animals.
Pileated Woodpeckers usually only use their homes once. Each year they typically excavate a new home. Therefore, the former home which they no longer use becomes available for bats to use, or little squirrels or chipmunks, etc. Smaller birds also use the vacated spaces.
Here you can see a snag in mine and hubby’s forest which the Pileated Woodpeckers have enjoyed excavating for a home. One of the tell-tell signs of this being a Pileated Woodpecker’s home is that the opening is square.
This is the same snag, just different angles. Pileated Woodpeckers excavate deep cavities within the tree. Therefore, if you were to cut the tree apart, you would see their home extending down to 24″ deep! These are huge cavities within the tree … even though it doesn’t look like it from the outside.
This little critter looks very similar to a beaver, but it isn’t. Our instructor told us the name, but sadly I didn’t write it down. This little guy is native to our Pacific Northwest forests, and he navigates his environment by using those long whiskers to feel his way around.
Here is another photo of this little guy.
In case you were curious about the little green plastic dinosaur, our instructor did not have an example of a newt, salamander, toad, frog, etc. … so this little dinosaur was his stand-in prop for the amphibian group.
Also, just to the left of the unknown-named ‘beaver look-alike,’ you can see the skull of an actual beaver.
Here you can see the skull of a black bear. Behind the skull you can see a rack of antlers from a buck. And behind the rack of antlers is a skull of a coyote.
I did not know that bucks shed their antlers every year! Out of our group of 40 small-forest landowners, only 1 or 2 had ever come across a rack of antlers on their property. Hubby and I never have. And we have 2 bucks with sizeable racks of antlers who hang out often around our place.
Why don’t we ever find a rack of antlers? … if the bucks shed their antlers every year? Why hadn’t anyone else in our group found a rack of antlers which had been shed?
Because the smaller forest creatures gnaw away the antlers!
The antlers which have been shed are good sources of calcium. Calcium is not readily available in the forest. Therefore, when the antlers are shed, the small rodents immediately gnaw up the antlers in order to get the calcium they need. Fascinating!
So here is the spiritual application God gave me from all this fascinating information I learned:
There are 4 Layers of Forest Habitat –
* Dirt
* Shrubbery (ferns, brush, bushes)
* Canopy
* Limbs & Wood of the actual trees
Within the layer of dirt itself, you have a whole variety of forest creatures: newts, salamanders, voles, slugs, snails, snakes, frogs, etc.
Each of these animals are an important part of the forest ecosystem. Each of these creatures have their own role to play. Each of these creatures have their own unique niche in how they impact the soil and overall forest health.
Within the shrubbery layer, you have a whole variety of forest creatures. These would include the deer, coyotes, bear, bobcats, cougars, etc.
Likewise, each of these animals are also an important part of the forest ecosystem. Each of these creatures have their own role to play. And each of these creatures have their own unique niche in how they impact the overall forest health.
The canopy layer is primarily home to birds. However, little Douglas squirrels, flying squirrels, and chipmunks spend much of their time up in the canopy as well.
The limbs and wood layer is primarily home to insects, bugs, the Pileated Woodpecker makes its home right in the center of the wood, etc. …
These forest habitat layers aren’t exclusive. The little squirrels could make their home by burrowing down into the dirt; they scamper throughout the shrubbery layer to gather berries and food; they spend most of their time up in the canopy layer; they traverse the limb layer as they travel throughout the forest; and they can also make their homes in excavated wood cavities made by woodpeckers.
The Bible passage which comes to mind is 1 Corinthians 12:12-27. If I were to paraphrase this passage and apply it to forest habitats, it might sound something like this:
“The forest is one ecosystem, though it is made up of many different habitat layers; and though the habitat layers are different and diverse, together they form the one forest.” (vs. 12)
“Now the forest is not made up of just one habitat but of many. If the birds in the canopy should say, ‘Because I am not a salamander down in the dirt, I do not belong in the forest,’ it would not for that reason cease to be part of the overall forest ecosystem. And if the deer who browse through the shrubbery layer should say, ‘Because I cannot fly through the canopy layer, I do not belong in the forest,’ it would not for that reason cease to be part of the overall forest ecosystem.” (vs. 14-16)
“If the whole forest were dirt, where would the canopy birds be? If the whole forest where limbs and wood, where would the food & cover of the shrubbery be?” (vs. 17)
“But in fact God has arranged the different habitat layers of the forest, every one of them, just as He wanted them to be. If they were all one habitat, where would the forest be? As it is, there are many habitat layers, but one forest.” (vs. 18-19)
“The squirrel cannot say to the woodpeckers, ‘I don’t need you!’ And the small forest-floor rodents cannot say to the bucks, ‘I don’t need you!’ On the contrary, those members of the forest that seem to be weaker are indispensable.” (21-22)
“But God has combined the habitat layers of the forest and has given greater honor to the parts that lacked it, so that there should be no division in the forest, but that all the layers should have equal concern for each other. If one part suffers, every part of the forest suffers; if one part thrives and flourishes, every part of the forest thrives and flourishes.” (24-26)
“Now you are the forest of Christ, and each one of you is a part of it.” (vs. 27)
In the forest analogy, what would you most likely compare yourself to?
Would you most likely be the busy little squirrel scampering from tree to tree? When it comes to serving Christ and being busy for God’s kingdom, are you the one teaching Sunday School, participating in Bible Studies, taking meals to sick friends, helping out young moms by babysitting, visiting those in the hospital, visiting shut-in’s, etc. …
Or would you most likely be the birds singing and filling the canopy with song? When it comes to serving Christ are you gifted musically? Do you play in a worship band, do you lead music, do you sing in a choir, or perhaps you simply sing songs of praise in your kitchen when no one is around.
Or would you be the quiet, hidden, unseen creatures of the forest … such as the little beetles disposing of rotting wood? Perhaps you might be on the security team at church. Or perhaps you serve quietly behind the scenes in the media ministry. Maybe God has called you to the ministry of prayer.
What gifts and talents has God given you?
Where has God placed you in His “forest ecosystem”?
