Trees and shallow soil

Nov. 24 – Walk in the woods

We reached the river and went for a walk through the woods. The bottom of this tree that has blown over shows how shallow the root systems are on the trees. Most of the soil is only a few inches deep, so when a big storm blows though the trees don't have anything to hold on to. On steep slopes the tree roots intertwine and when one tree goes, a whole bunch of them can go in a tree avalanche. Because I was on the wrong side of the bus I couldn't get a picture of the best example of a tree avalanche, but here are a couple from a distance. You can see how all the trees just slid down the hill, clearing a large swath down the mountain.