Rocks! Rocks! Rocks!

Once again Nancy Elizabeth Wallace, the author of Rocks! Rocks! Rocks! has proved my theory. That is, if you really, I mean, really, want to understand something, read a children's book. Nancy who I have never met but whose bio says she is a Connecticut resident in a town next to  me, has taken the wonderful world of rocks we often climb on, dig up, move, and collect in Connecticut and explains to young children, probably about 8 years old, the facts.
However, even younger children can enjoy and grasp some information about rocks.  Focusing on one rock stop at a time or sharing an activity at the end of the book, or looking a the pictures of the rocks with detailed surfaces and searching for them on a rock walk will interest the younger crowd. After all, if you have ever taken a walk with a child, you know  by the time you reach home, YOUR pockets are filled with rocks, because your young friend is carrying the sticks.

  She takes the reader on a rock walk with Buddy and his mother who visit a nature center and follow the Blue Diamond Rock Trail.  Along the way, they meet Roxie, a Rock Ridge Ranger, who shares lots of interesting facts about rocks. He tells Buddy how, "rock, clay, mud and clay...are pressed and hardened" until this sediment becomes, "over time,"  (and Buddy finishes for  Ranger Roxie"s) "rock!" Buddy is also surprised to hear the ranger use words like, "change, melt, and float" to describe some rocks.

After Rock Stop 5, Buddy and MaMa head home. But before Wallace leaves the reader, she shares a simple rock gift children can make, ways to display rocks, and a way to catalogue, or sort, the different and similar rocks.

 To lighten up the facts, (sorry, I could not help myself) Buddy tells some simple jokes. Buddy asks, "What kind of rock did the pebble like to eat for dessert?" Wallace does not shy away from the three or four syllable rock jargon, but Buddy repeats each work as Wallace writes it phonetically. I learned that a person who likes to learn about rocks is a "pet-trol-o-gist."

Taking a phrase from Wallace, you might say, Rocks, Rocks, Rocks, rocks!

Go on a Rock Hunt. Use Rocks! Rocks! Rocks! to help you identify them.

A Wetlands Story

The Shape of Betts Meadow by Meghan Nuttall Sayres with pictures by Joanne Friar is as much a gem as the story it tells. It is a children's picture book, but the story is ageless.  In this true story Dr. Gunnar Holmquist and his mother, Lavinia, buy a  dry, lifeless valley in eastern Washington state. Dr. Gunnar discovers that his land  was once a rich wetland habitat for plants and animals. But through the years the land's purpose changed. Streams and rivers were diverted to create crazing land for livestock.

  The Shape of Betts Meadow shows how one person can make a difference.  Sayres' poem, along  with Friar's beautifully illustrated landscapes-each one with more details as  plants and animals return to the meadow-takes the reader from barren to fruitful, not only in mind and spirit, but in physical changes that we and, especially, children, can understand through concrete examples.

 Since many of her readers might not be familiar with the "sedges, cheat grass, microbes, or kingfishers." the author also provides a mini key with explanations and pictures of these wetland features.

Finally, Sayres answers,"What is a wetland?" and lists places to gather more information, including an internet source, additional reading, and references.
So much from one picture book!

Skunk Cabbage & Wetlands & Global Warming

Just when you think you've exhausted your search of a particular subject, you come across a term like this, "environmental treasure." This is the description a writer from the Kalamazoo Gazzette gave to skunk cabbage. Now, if you have smelled skunk cabbage, you might have trouble agreeing with this description. But think about it. First, it harbors all the uniques characteristics I have talked about in former blogs. But also, it signals a vital part of earth's well-being,the wetland. Any experienced hiker knows that getting you feet wet when you see skunk cabbage can quickly lead to a pant leg covered in mud. That is because the skunk cabbage constantly draws water from its roots to survive. The connection between global warming and healthy skumk cabbage is an obvious one that we might overlook just because it is right "under our noses" so to speak. Possibly it is this relationship to a healthy earth that gives the skunk cabbage the right to accept the honor as  an "environmental treasure."

Dandelion & Global Warming

With this post I would like to add another line of thinking to the curiosities of nature. How does Global Warming affect  a plant or animal or insect species.  Talking about the role global warming with something as ubiquitous as the dandelion underscores  the pervasiveness of this phenomenon  in our lives.

So, how does more CO2 affect the dandelion? For those who classify the dandelion as a weed, I guess this will only increase their efforts to eliminate this flower.  It grows taller. In fact this has been happening since the 1950's.

Dandelion Fritters

Here's what you need to make... Isn't that how most 'how to' articles start? One word of caution. This is a perfectly free project but what you need is invaluable.
Your Task: To make dandelion fritters.
1. A bright sunny day (optional)
1. A friend-hopefully a young one, to help gather the dandelion tops.
2. 4 cups of dandelion flowers plucked from the stems
3. one egg
4. one cup of milk
5. one cup of flour
Stir the egg into the milk, and the combine the milk and flour.
Hold the dandelion top by the base, dip and swirl in the batter.
Carefully drop each dandelion  (flower side down) into some gently warmed oil.
When the first flowers are brown, remove them and let them drain on some paper towels.
Confectionionary sugar, or maple syrup drippings turn these fritter into a sweet treat.

Dandelion Picture Books

When you start to look for books to share with children and, at the same time, discover the magic of dandelions, you will discover that the book-nature-child triangle  for dandelions  is an easy way to bring fun, nature facts, and children together.
On a trip to the library you will find many books. Or if you are building your own library, Amazon offers an array of choices.
Some non-fiction for ages 4 to 8 might include:
From Seed To Dandelion by Ellen Weiss. A 2007 publication by Scholastic.
A Dandelion Seed by Joseph Anthony. The illustrations by Cris Arbo show how sad the dandelion is when autumn arrives. It is easy to talk about the cycle of life with this terrific picture book.
Dandelions Stars In The Grass by Mia Posada. The two Amazon readers who reviewed this book said it well. Seeing the beauty in a cast-away  tells  children- dandelions or rose- each has a place in our world.
And, of course, in addition to this nonfiction reading,  there is Don Freeman's wonderful, vintage picture book Dandelion which may spark a discussion of the flower's name. If you draw around the outline of a leaf you and your friend might see a resemblance to the teeth lining a lion's jaw. Actually, in French dent-de-lion means lion teeth.
Eve Bunting's 2002 picture  book, Dandelions. shows how the beauty of a humble flower can transform the lives of an entire family. With dandelions blooming on their sod roof, their new home in the prairie seems a little easier to get used to.

Dandelion Poetry

There are many simple rhymes about the dandelion for children to enjoy. Eveleen Stein's "Dandelion Curls" reminds us of William Stack's description. However, we must wonder how poets like Walt Whitman and James Russell Lowell were moved to create poetry for the dandelion.  In Leaves of Grass, Whitman talks about the dandelion's... "freshness, innocence, and trusting face." Hardly the words you will find on the back of a 'Weed-Be-Gone-Sprayer.'

Dandelion! A weed, herb, or flower.

You might be surprised to learn that the dandelion  is in the same plant group as the daisy and sunflower. There is much to learn about this medicinal herb  and child's toy.  "Children," according to William Stack who  wrote  about wildflowers in1909, "love to split the smooth, hollow flower stem with their tongues, and make long, spiral curls and ribbons. They also used them for blowing soap-bubbles, and for sipping water from a spring, or by blowing through them (to) produce funny noises."

Stack also comments on the dandelion's abundance, but reminds his readers that, "the solitary flowers are also a welcome sight in the spring."

Do you agree that this early splash of yellow dotting greening lawns is a welcome sight?

No? Well, you are not alone. Google "dandelion" and you will find that  dandelion extermination efforts ranks right up there with termites. But this is not a debate for friend or foe. It is a search, like all my blogs, to discover the dandelion as a curiosity of nature (albeit-weed to many).

As we discover  more about the dandelion, we will find that it is an oxymoron in the flower world. However, it is precisely this paradox that puts it in the category of "wildflower names that every child should know."

Skunk Cabbage & Pollen & Leaves

It seems that there is more to know about the first flower of Spring. It is a simple test. Stick your finger in the middle of the hood. When you pull it out, the sticky pollen will prove skunk cabbage has earned  true flower status; even if the month is February with snow and ice under your feet.  If a youngster accompanies you, this search for pollen can continue with the other flowers you examine over the season. Another interesting discovery will be the leaf size. Some may measure between as long as three feet. No wonder the Indian used a leaf to line a pot heating on a fire.

Skunk Cabbage & Crocus In Connecticut

 When  Skunk Cabbage melts it way above the frozen earth in February or March, it is one of the first green signs  of Spring in Connecticut, but there are many other flowers that tell us Spring is here. Another early favorite is the crocus.
Read More About It!
Mud Flat Spring by  James Stevenson This is a perfect book to read  with a skunk cabbage spring expedition (as my granddaughter calls a walk into the woods). It is short with jaunty poems that sound and look like Spring.

Oxalate Crystal

Ok. I had to know. What is an oxalate crystal? Why do these two words show up in every discussion of skunk cabbage. What they do is successfully produce a nasty sour taste as well as poisonous condition  in the herbivore's mouth- large deer, or small rabbit, for instance, looking for a green salad after a very icy winter. The oxalate crystals make the muncher's mouth burn fiercely and swell. So it is understandable that any animal who lunches on skunk cabbage will feel the mouth pain before supper. But that's not all.  These raphids, or crystals, are made up of calcium.  Most undesirable is  the oxalate, a  poisonous, crystalline  acid that produces this sour taste  and causes the burning, swelling and choking.  Some scientists suggest that this is the way woody plants get rid of the much needed calcium they must absorb  for growth.  Rhubarb and spinach are two common edible plants that have a significant amount of oxalate crystals. Interestingly, humans who suffer with kidney stones, or oxalate crystals that are excreted painfully in the urine, also are advised to eat a low oxalate diet.

The American Indian And Skunk Cabbage

Now that you know skunk cabbage can warm itself similar to a warm-blooded mammal, you might wonder if it serves any other function. The American Indians certainly thought so. They harvested  the root in the fall to make a tea for  relieving  a cough, toothache, asthma or seizures. Unlike the leaves, the root does not produce the intense burning from the long oxalate crystals.(There is much more to learn about these crystals. Skunk cabbage uses them successfully as a protection against hungry animals looking for some vegetation after a winter of ice and snow. But oxalate crystals are all around us-even in us. This is a great example of the value of research-it just goes one and on to whet your curiosity and exercise your brain at any age.) The resourceful Indians  would also inhale the plant's  fumes to bring on intense sweating which, in turn, acted like an expectorant to cough up phelgm. Inhaling these crushed leaves also  relieved headaches.  One can just imagine that that the odor was so intense, the victim forgot about his headache! However, the plant is said to have a narcotic affect. Perhaps the serotonin in the plant's oil encourages a feeling of well-being. Crushed soft leaves also provided a poultice for swelling. Besides these medicinal uses, the American Indians used this plant for seasoning, a liner for a cooking pot, a food to fight famine at the end of a long brown winter, and as a drinking cup. Can you imagine why skunk cabbage served these needs? Discovering the answers will encourage your young friend and you to imagine and reason while on your skunk cabbage adventure.

Skunk Cabbage Can Generate Its Own Heat

If you time your skunk cabbage adventure just right, you can warm your finger inside  the teardrop shaped plant.  How does the skunk cabbage do this?  Just like those insulated gloves that keep your fingers warm on the coldest winter day, the hood, or spiral leaf that curls around itself, keeps the air space inside the hood that protects the spadix warm.  Keep an eye of the temperature, however. Skunk cabbage can turn off their heat if the temperature drops below freezing. Since they can't compete with this degree of cold, they do not try.  But when the air is above 32 degrees, the spadix, or the spike-like bud that is covered with fuzzy flowers that never bloom,  can produce a temperature of 70 degrees by drawing on the starches in the roots.
Read More About It!
Skunk Cabbage, Sundew Plants and Strangler Figs: And 18 More of the Strangest Plants on Earth by Sally Kneidel
Did You Know? Skunk cabbage can have roots as long as a foot and live for a hundred years? You may be smelling the same plant that the American Indians used for soups, stews and medicine. Or that  young, mischevious  tribesman may have kicked the same plant you did while running through the stream to spread its smelly odor. 

A Bird? An Animal? Or Skunk Cabbage?

Why should children learn to identify skunk cabbage? If you take a young person on a walk while there is still ice coating streams and trees waiting for their tender buds and brown of last years fallen  leaves , the pointed maroon hoods poking through the frozen ground around a bog tell you and your young  friend that  Nature is  getting ready for the changing season from winter to spring. As much fun as sledding and snowballs can be there is an excitement to see this new growth; so tender yet capable of poking through the frozen ground. Just how the skunk cabbage manages this is an amazing story about how it produces heat as it grows. Roger Knutson discovered that the pointed, somewhat curved leaf breaking through the icy ground produces a warmth just like birds and animals. Look carefully at the spiraled hood and you will see a pool of melting ice. The first bees and insects of warmer weather may be enjoying this unique warmth too. The Northeast Native Americans associated this rebirth in February or March, before any other plants poked through the ice and snow, as the cycle of life.

Bring Children Back To Nature Flower By Flower

Bring children back to nature: flower by flower; bird by bird, tree hallow by tree hallow. Curious By Nature  will be explore wildflowers, birds, and many other unique natural wonders one by one.  Just as knowing the name of a person connects you to that person, a child who  knows the name of a wildflower or bird will appreciate its importance and want to preserve it. To begin this adventure,  I will follow Frederic William Stack's book, Wildflowers Every Child Should Know published by Doubleday, Page & Company in 1909. Stack organizes his book according to color. I would like to explore each species by season. So check back for the first amazing wildflower that every child will remember by its smell, if  not its other characteristics. That's right. It is one of earliest plants to appear in New England.  By January or February you should be able to find this  Skunk Cabbage popping up in a still very cold bog along the side of a country road.  I'll be back with my own photo and more interesting facts about this member of the lilly family. Join me for this new adventure, flower by flower, bird by bird.

Squirrel Cleanliness After Eating An Acorn

Again, I witnessed,  for  an incredibly quick moment, the actions of a gray squirrel after he finished his acorn. He hastily swatted his pouches with both paws to clean the leftover acorn from his face. This glimpse reminded me of any small child who wipes his sleeve across his mouth in a gallant gesture to clean his face.

In the picture above his Eastern Gray Squirrel is braced against the back of a tree while sitting on a broken branch about 15 feet above the ground. 
In the picture below, he has finished his acorn. Sat with the tips of his paws forming a circle. Then once, then twice, he brushed his pouches to clean himself. 

Chipmunks And Spring

Here in New England spotting the a harbinger of Spring is only akin to seeing the first snowflake in Fall.  Last week I caught a robin eating the holly berries. Phil-that's Punxtwany Phil, of course, may be the most famous weather animal/ weather fortuneteller, but  he has a tinier cousin, the chipmunk,  who does not get as much press, but only shows himself when the last days of February begin to warm up enough to remind us that there is  green under that white blanket.
Now that first thing you must know, is that little fellow is not really hibernating. Well, he does sleep. But unlike the true hibernators, he does not store up an extra supply of body fat.  He wakes up to eat some the seeds, berries, nuts, and grains  he gathered in his pouches and  brought back to his burrow. Then he falls back to sleep. Scientists call this a torpor.  Does this sound like something you would like to try? Unlike another larger cousin, the gray squirrel, he just is not big enough to manage the snow.
 We know Aesop's fable about the grasshopper and the ant; again,  the little guy anxiously preparing for the cold ahead while the grasshopper baths in the warmth. Getting ready for winter is important to the chipmunk. Their short two to three year life, becomes shorter without a winter cache.
I began wondering about the chipmunks after I saw a few scurrying over the hardened snow.  There seems to be a fair amount of love for this little creature. Maybe we have Alvin and his friends  to thank for that. But in the real forest and farm world the chipmunk plays an important roll. Even though these speedy ground squirrels spend most of their time hidden under grass or in stone walls or ducking into a  tree hallow, they are fairly easy prey for the fox, coyote, hawk, or snake looking for supper. They also raise the farmer's angst when they eat the newly planted seeds, but get an appreciative nod when they munch on insects destroying the crops.
Maybe with a little luck or quick flash someone has snapped this cutie with his five backstripes, glossy eyes, and straight up tail as he darted across the yard or stole a seed from the bird feeder.

A Yellow-bellied Sapsucker's Reward

"Hey! it was not easy getting to these sticky, gooey insects! I want them all!

Yellow-bellied Sapsucker In Connecticut

It looks like there is another fellow besides the robin who did not want to make the  trip south last autumn. This hardy male sapsucker was pecking at his hole almost all yesterday, ignoring the cold and snow. Usually, this member of the woodpecker family prefers warmer weather-at least, above 39 degrees.

The brush-like bristles on his tongue help him lap up the  tasty sap that sticks to just as tasty insects. Hmmm!Good! But not only a delicious meal for a any hard-pecking sapsucker, but filled with amino acids and protein.

I first noticed him around 7:30 EST and continued to marvel at his tenacity that kept him pecking until late afternoon. The Smithsonian Migratory Center  points out that their bird of the month in August, 2003,  methodically drills horizontal holes around the  less than healthy tree.

Notice his ever-so-lemon chest and the red around his throat which marks him as a male and especially his verical black stripes. No other woodpecker can claim this pattern.

A Robin Wintering In Connecticut

Sometimes Nature reminds us that even the very familiar can be special.  Even though the robin is a common backyard visitor and often the  harbinger of Spring known to every child,  this  puffed-up, haughty fellow sitting in my evergreen  on this very cold February morning reminded me how Nature can turn the ordinary into the extraordinary if we are willing to take a moment to appreciate it. You can see the look in my visitor's eye. Can you hear him saying? "I know I am the most handsome..."

Read All About It


Sharing The Wonder of Birds With Kids by Laura Erickson

The Mourning Dove

A few days ago, I talked about the mystery bird I glimpsed flying away from the feeder. It turns out that he visited again today. As he walked casually around the feeder, finding fallen seeds, I began to think that he was about the size of my bird in flight. Finding this nature site was my first step in solving the mystery. With some trial and error, I plugged in tan instead of yellow and was fairly certain I had found my bird. Then I googled some images of the mourning dove in flight. My search proved successful. This description, "Mourning Doves fly fast on powerful wingbeats, sometimes making sudden ascents, descents, and dodges, their pointed tails stretching behind them." on the Cornell Ornithology Site matched my bird's flight exactly.

Eastern Gray Squirrel

1

This Eastern Gray Squirrel knew where to find his acorn breakfast. First, he tunneled through the snow to get a stronger whiff to locate the nut. In one experiment, the scientists hid the nuts for the squirrels. The rodents found just as many acorns as  they do when they store their own winter cache slightly below ground. This  proved that it is smell, not memory, that leads a hungry squirrel to his meal.

Read More About It:


The Busy Little Squirrel by Nancy Tafuri




http://www.amazon.com/Busy-Little-Squirrel-Nancy-Tafuri/dp/0689873417/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1265771663&sr=8-

Mystery Bird?

Recently I glimpsed a bird flying away from my feeder which borders a Connecticut forest. I only saw it from the back. But as it flapped it wings fairly noisily to escape, it flashed  yellow stripes  beneath each wing.  It had  white and brown mottled coloring on its back and wings.  It was bigger than a songbird, but smaller than a turkey vulture; possibly the size of an owl or hawk? Nothing seems to match this description. Any ideas or pictures?

Groundhog! Groundhog! How Much Wood....?

Groundhog! Groundhog! How much wood can you chuck? This doesn't have quite the same ring as the familiar tune, "Woodchuck, woodchuck, how much wood can a woodchuck chuck?" When Punxsutawney Phil in Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania, or Wiarton Willie in Wiarton, Ontario, or General Beauregard Lee at Yellow River Game Ranch outside Atlanta, Georgia, climb out of their winter quarters very few of us think of this February 2nd celebrity as a woodchuck. So were did he get this name? Possibly from an Indian Tribe. The Agonquians of Narragansett Bay called this first cousin to the ground squirrel, "wuchak." Another question. How did a rodent make it on national TV every February 2nd? As they say in politics, he rode the coattails- not those who dress for the annual event in formal garb-but the coattails of Christianity. Early Christians who also felt pelted down with winter cold had a celebration on February 2nd to encourage a fertile spring ground.The legend of this festive occasion tells that the priests would scan the skies for clear weather But it was the four-legged mammal who made the call with his shadow. In Germany the badger played weatherman and in England and France the bear got the credit for predicting the length of winter. In America the Pennsylvanian community had to settle for the rodent, albeit, the biggest one. Bright skies brought gray shadows and foretold six more cold, winter weeks.

The Mighty Chickadee In The Colorado Forest

The Cornell Lab of Ornithology describe the little bird that frequents most of Canada and North America as "universally cute." But Kailen Mooney, while a doctoral student at UC-Boulder in 2006 proved this "cute" bird can also save the magnificent pine trees. He found that these mountain chickadees , along with other songbirds such as the red-breasted nuthatch and the pygmy nuthatch who are year-round residents of the Colorado pine forests can change the "flavor" of a tree. Mooney put about 300 insects and spiders on some ponderosa pines in Colorado. Then he covered the pine with netting so the chickadees and his friends could not eat the aphids and caterpillars. While dining on the branches the tree, like other plant life, these insects cause the tree to give off an odor. When the birds ate the insects, the tree's "flavor," or odor, which Mooney explains is a chemical called terpene, changed. But wait there are three other actors in this environmental tragedy. In walk the bark beetle, the squirrel and porcupine. They smell a change. A whiff they dislike. Like so many of Aesop's tales, the largest forest inhabitant once again is saved by his tiny companion. But the play does not end here.

Need A Nature Idea?

Reading Jennifer Ward's I Love Dirt offers ways to engage your child with nature. A leaf, a worm, the sun, or a butterfly and one curious child and nature-loving adult are the only tools you need. Nothing to purchase, everything to gain.

The Red-Headed Woodpecker In Connecticut

The red-headed woodpecker is endangered in Connecticut. The DEP suggests keeping snags, or dead trees to provide maternity nests and storage cavities for their acorns. Prescribed burning by well-meaning forest management in Connecticut appears to disregard this need.

Live Tree or Dead Tree?

Here is a tricky question? Which has more value a live tree or a dead one? The answer might surprise you. Sure, the shape, the fall color, and cool breezes under a sprawling maple suggest the live one. But not for wildlife.

The more I read about how wildlife use these tree hollows, I disagree with "clearing out a forest" with a prescribed burn or simply cleaning out a patch of forest that may be on your property. Dead trees are called "snags." There are two kinds of snags, hard and soft. The hard snags are the maples and oaks. Since the trees are sturdy and not apt to decay, these make great dens for raccoons, fishers, weasels and black bear. The soft snags are the hollow branches of an evergreen which will decay. But the good news is that the decay draws insects for the birds.

So, the next time you decide not to clean up those fallen logs or dead trees in your forest patch, remember, a dead tree is more valuable than a living tree!

Home In The Hollow

Often a dead or dying tree with a gaping hole appears to be ready for the ax. But wait, when that tree is burned (through prescribed burning programs) or felled to make bike paths, roads, or driveways, wildlife suffer. We all have read some of the prolific children's literature  featuring homes in a hollow tree for a bunny, squirrel, raccoon...and the list goes on to include the other forest mammals-deer mice, martens, fishers, porcupines, weasels, and black bear. ( One of Jean Craighead George's first nature books was titled, Hole In The Tree. Warm blooded forest denizens are only a few of the wildlife that depend on tree hallows. Songbirds like the chickadees and woodpeckers also make their own cavities in trees and white-breasted nuthatches use tree holes already formed. For the ubiquitous chickadees throughout North America dead or fallen trees offer safe nesting places.

Taking this one step further, one might ask how do these little black and gray and white birds affect our environment? Chickadees eat bad bugs year round. Who does the bark beetle fear as he munches his way from the western states to the East at an alarming rate? That's right. The little chickadee.

Share this gentle environmental nursery rhyme with a child. Then talk about how this tiny songbird has become a leader in the fight against global warming. This friendly backyard bird is fun to watch and eagerly comes to feeders filled with black seed oil or thistle. With some patience, you can train them to eat from your hand. To learn more about this issue, click here.

Tiny mountain pine beetle,

I wish you could see

Just one needle

Each one is green, green, green

But you are hungry and mean.

You nibble a path on your way

Green to red

Then all are gray.

Read All About It!

A Chipmunk At Hollow Tree Lane is a picture book by the Smithsonian.

A Tree Hollow: So Humble-So Important

It is easy to spot a tree hollow and just as easy to ignore it. Why look at a knotted hole in an old tree trunk with so many other interesting forest secrets to discover? This, literally speaking, hole-in-corner feature is just one more example of the importance of every biodiversity.

Some hollows are not easy to overlook. Let's first look at some famous tree hollows, find out how hollows form, and, most importantly, how their value and subsequent loss affects the species that depend on them. Sometimes the species being human such as the South Australian treasure: " This hollow tree trunk provided a 'home' for Friedrich and Caroline Herbig and two of their 16 children until 1860 at Springton." Shakespeare writes about the Great Oak in Sherwood Forest. Legend tells that the hollow of this tree hid Robin Hood hid from his enemies.

Read All About It: A Man Who Lived In A Hollow Tree (an Appalachian Tall Tale)