Forest Trees and Forest Scenery

by G. Frederick Schwarz

Courtesy of the Bureau of Forestry

Shrubbery and River Birches. New Jersey

The pine barrens of New Jersey illustrate these principles. In close proximity to the sea a welcome moisture enters the forest with the ocean breezes. Penetrating farther inland, it is not so entirely dissipated as to preclude a varied undergrowth of shrubbery, which in turn renders a welcome aid to the forest by the protection it affords to the porous, sandy soil, which would soon dry out under the scant shelter of the pervious pines. Underneath these the kalmia or calico bush, with its large and showy bunches of flowers, is abundant. In late summer the sweet pepperbush is there, laden with its fragrant racemes; in winter, the cheerful evergreen holly of glossy green leaf and bright berry. In the dry and sunny places we find the wild rose, the trailing blackberry, with its rich color traceries on the autumn leaves, and the no less brilliant leaves of the wild strawberries underfoot. We come upon the creeping wintergreen and the local “flowering moss.” The fragrant “trailing arbutus,” here as elsewhere, is an earnest of the generous returning spring. Along the creeks and brooks are masses of honeysuckles, alder bushes, and sweet magnolias.

Fern Patch in a Grove of White Birch

The coniferous forests of the Rocky Mountain region are either too dry or too elevated to promote a luxuriant undergrowth; but we find it in the humid coast region of Oregon and Washington, within the forests of fir, pine, and spruce. In the deciduous forests, however, the shrubbery attains its best development, for its presence depends largely upon moisture, climate, and soil, and these conditions are usually most favorable in our broadleaf districts. In the latter, moreover, the shrubbery exercises its influence most efficiently, for many of the pines will bear a considerable amount of heat and drought, and several other conifers show their independence and a different kind of hardihood at high and humid elevations. The varied and beautiful forms of undergrowth in our broadleaf forests—the shrubs, the vines and graceful large ferns, and the smaller plants that live along the forest borders and penetrate within—may be regarded as one of the distinctive features of American forest scenery.

In such forests, and along their borders, the birds like to make their home. Among the bushy thickets they find a secure shelter, and some of them seek their food among the fruits and berries that grow there. They all possess their individual charms, and infuse such varied elements of life and cheer into the woods that even the most commonplace scenes are transmuted by their presence, while those that were already beautiful receive an added attraction. In winter there is nothing more harmonious than a flock of snowbirds flying over frosted evergreens toward some soft gray mist or cloud. For grace and ease of movement I have never seen anything more airy than the Canada jay alighting on some near bough, softly as a snowflake, to watch and wait for the scraps of the forester’s meal. Another interesting bird to watch in his movements is the red-winged blackbird. Out along the edges of the forest and in the swamps and marshes lying between bits of woodland, he may be seen from earliest spring to the last days of fall.[6] We cannot help watching him passing restlessly to and fro by himself, or circling happily about in the flock, returning at last to his clumps of alders and willows, or disappearing among the hazy reeds and grasses. But if, instead of grace and movement, we are more interested in sound, we shall find no songbird with sweeter notes than the thrush. Whatever added name he may bear, we are sure of a fine quality of music; music with modulating notes, plaintive and clear, that drive away all harshness of thought.