Forests
What might you find when you take a closer look at the trees or a forest near you?
Forests are home to a variety of plant and animal life that are often overlooked. Let's learn about the types of forests in Iowa and how long they've been here.
Transcript
Abby Brown:
When I say forest, what's the first thing that pops into your head? Is it the trees? Or maybe it's the creatures like the deer, or the squirrels, or the birds; all of those things are in forests and they all form an ecosystem.
Katie Klus:
We here at Hartman, we have an upland forest and we have a lowland forest. And both of these--
Abby:
Which are different?
Katie:
They are different.
Abby:
Okay.
Katie:
So the ones down in the lowland, I kind of like to say they like to get their feet wet. Like they don't mind if there's a little standing water, especially when Iowa floods every year, right?
Abby:
Sure, because those are right next to the river.
Katie:
Right next, yeah. I mean, they're going to be definitely be underwater for certain periods of time.
Abby:
Okay
Katie:
And so those things are going to be things like locust, and even we have two different species of locus here in Iowa. We also have cottonwood trees you know those big, big ones with the big bark. And then up here on the upland are going to be more things like oaks, and hickories, and even some walnuts, and things like that.
Abby:
How old are these trees?
Katie:
Well we have a wide variety of what's called like tree generation. So we have the the tiny little ones all the way up to the old, the old folks of the forest, the elders of the forest.
Abby:
Okay and how old are the elders?
Katie:
Okay so the elders we've had a couple of our trees bored and they're over 125 years old.
Abby:
Wow!
Katie:
But that's the lat-- you know, who knows? We can't bore every tree so there might be some really hidden ones that are really really old.
Abby:
Even older than that!
Katie:
And some are, you know, they're very they're only like this big when they're 100 years old and then we have big cottonwoods that are like this big when they're 60 years old, so trees grow at a different rate depending on the species.
Abby:
How old are you?
Abram:
Five.
Abby:
How old do you think that tree is?
Abram:
17.
Abby:
17. I'll give you a hint, it's much older than that. Keep guessing.
Abram:
2 million.
Abby:
It's somewhere between 17 and 2 million, try one more time. What do you think it is?
Abram:
100!
Abby:
That's a really good guess! Some of the trees here are 100.
Abram:
That's pretty old.
Abby:
Hartman Reserve Nature Center in Waterloo has shown me that I can experience a forest ecosystem right on the edge of a city sidewalk. Now that is definitely worth investigating.
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