Once the seedling germinates, it sends roots down around the nurse log , reaching the moisture of the earth while close to the nutrients of the decaying log. O ver centuries the original nurse log decays into nothing more than a mound of reddish logwood occasionally over 200 feet long. Here an older nurse log supports several adolescent trees, sturdy roots still straddling the once existing hulk of the mother log. T his former stand of virgin timber, on the road to Graves Creek from Lake Quinault, served its purpose making thousands of tons of newsprint, 2x4s and toilet paper. P rotected from the logger's chain and occupying a large portion of the peninsula, the Olympic National Forest is one of the few natural wooded cathedrals left for us to experience.
C lick on any photograph above for an enlargement.