Mountains, forests and a lake for entertainment in Austria( home remodeling )! & Forest Creatures

Before we came to live here, my husband, who was born in Austria ( home remodeling ), always liked to tell us about the enjoyable holidays he used to spend with his family in the Packerstausee when he was a kid (home remodeling ). He used to go swimming on the lake, for walks in the mountains ( home remodeling ) and he also used to collect berries in the forests ( home remodeling ), which were later turned into deliciousjams. So it was not surprising that one of the first places we visited when our family moved to Austria ( home remodeling ) was precisely the “Pack” lake ( home remodeling )! We stayed in a typical guesthouse at the entrance to the lake for a few days, and it was the owner who told us there was a piece of land for sale nearby and he gave us the name and contact number of the owner ( home remodeling ).We eventually bought that piece of land and soon had a typical Styrian wooden blockhouse facing the Pack lake! ( home remodeling ) (Up, up & away we must go!) The lake ( home remodeling ) is only about 45 minutes from the city of Graz ( home remodeling ) where we live and we soon were to find that the place had many attractions depending on the seasons.

Summer ( home remodeling )

This is the best season in the Pack, as it is at 800 mts, so it is a few degrees cooler than Graz and the air is also better, as there is no fine dust pollution there ( home remodeling ). One can go swimming on the lake ( home remodeling ), spend a relaxing time on a boat, or go fishing, as the lake is always well stocked with trout ( home remodeling ). There are several cafeterias around the lake ( home remodeling ), where it is possible to have ice creams, coffee, beer or soft drinks and where one can also have boats for rent.
There are also a few guesthouses serving typical Austrian ( home remodeling ) food all year round, including sweets like apple strudel and different types of cakes, like apricot, plum or one of the various berries that grow in the area. Summer is also the time when one can stay in one of the caravan parks at the end of the lake and many tourists like to stay there.
In the summer months it is also possible to purchase strawberries and blueberries from a farmer ( home remodeling ), or to pick them yourself from the side of the road or the forest ( home remodeling ).home remodeling
If one is feeling energetic, one can also follow one of the numbered walking trails, for which one can buy maps, or walk around the lake, where one will go past farms and forests ( home remodeling ).
If one goes fishing but does not catch any fish, one can always go to a guest house and order trout there, or buy some from farmers who grows them!home remodeling

 

Autumn ( home remodeling )

Probably one of the favourite seasons, as it is then that people collect various types ofmushrooms from the forests ( home remodeling ), including popular ones, like Herrenpilz, Steinpilz and the egg yolk coloured Eierschwammel. This is also the time when Sturm ( home remodeling ) (early wine) is available and it is customary to visit a buschenschank, which is the name given to places where wine-growers serve their early wine and also offer a limited selection of food, like country bread, spreads, sausages and cheeses. It is also traditional to sell roasted chestnuts to accompany the Sturm ( home remodeling ).

The Packerstausee is very close to the Styrian Weinstrasse, which is the wine growing area, and it is also known as the Styrian Toscana ( home remodeling ).

Late Autumn is also the time when one can eat game, like venison and there are many guesthouses that specialize in preparing those dishes.home remodeling

Winter ( home remodeling )

Probably one of the most favorite seasons for young and old. There are a few skiing areas nearby, like Salzstiegel, Hirschegg, Hoiswirt, Modriach-Winkel and Hebalm. Skating and ice hockey are also popular once the Pack lake freezes. It was almost traumatic for me when I first saw a mother pushing her baby in a pram on the lake ( home remodeling ), and I still don’t feel comfortable, even when I know the ice is about half a metre thick!

In addition to alpine skiing ( home remodeling ), snowboarding ( home remodeling ) is also a great popular with the young, although older people usually prefer langlauf or cross-country skiing instead. Tobogganing (home remodeling ) is also much fun for the whole family and people can even try it at night time!home remodeling

Especially after a long and cold Winter it is always nice to enjoy the longer and warmerSpring days and it is in the countryside that this is more noticeable. People also start thinking about the coming summer months, so most start growing flowers to decorate their balconies, which will reach their peak in a just a few months.home remodeling

Christmas time ( home remodeling )

Especially if it turns out to be a white one, Christmas can be a most beautiful time in the Packerstausee, as children have holidays until after January 6th! It is also traditional for them to go out and choose their own tree to have it cut. Groups of children usually come around at this time too, collecting money for the church, bringing myrrh and singing Christmas carols. Guesthouses will have probably baked a selection of typical Christmas biscuits too, which they will gladly share with their guests as they wish them a Frohe Weihnachten ( home remodeling )!

Easter ( home remodeling )

The frozen lake will have probably started to melt by this time and it is customary to give people colored hard boiled or chocolate eggs at this time. Hard boiled eggs are also hidden away, so that children can have fun finding them, even though sometimes they will only turn up in the summer if they were well hidden!home remodeling

A Diamond on the Bluff: Paul Wolff / Burnidge Forest ( home remodeling ) Preserve of Kane County, Illinois

A Diamond on the Bluff ( home remodeling )

 Nestled in an Illinois prairie on the Western edge of the population center for the City of Elgin, Illinois is a diamond on the bluff.  Elgin is sometimes called “Bluff City” as it is situated along the Fox River.  Illinois is known for its rich farmland and tranquil prairies.  The diamond is the Paul Wolff / Burnidge Forest ( home remodeling ) Preserve of Kane County, Illinois. home remodeling

This hidden gem on the outskirts of the Chicago megalopolis offers a wide array of amenities for family, friends, adventurers, and land lovers.  Covering approximately 580 acres, the forest ( home remodeling ) preserve features the Paul Wolff Campground, two small stocked fishing ponds, trails galore, picnic accommodations, restroom facilities, and a small climbing rock for children to grapple with.  Ample parking throughout with service roads leads to various sites within the forest ( home remodeling ) preserves.

Campground Facilities ( home remodeling )

 Modern campgrounds await thee.  The Paul Wolff campground features 89 improved camp spaces for campers and recreational vehicles.  These sites have 50 amp electrical service, access to water and a fire ring.  There are also ten, what are called “primitive campsites” for traditional tent camping.  One of the fabulous aspects of the campground are the five equestrian campsites.  Fully plumbed bathrooms are also available for campers in addition to the salt of the earth outhouses available at various locations around the forest ( home remodeling ) preserve.  Arghh, no rum or other adult beverages are permitted in the forest ( home remodeling ) preserve.

Three Types of Trails ( home remodeling )

The beautiful rolling prairies and wooded areas feature three different types of trails. In all, the forest preserve has approximately nine miles of trails.  This great preserve is a magnificent area for an uplifting hike, a terrific training run, a strenuous bike ride, and a fabulous pleasure ride via horseback.home remodeling
Wooded trails ( home remodeling ) are great for hill training and cross-country training.
Prairie Trails are cut wide 14 feet wide in most places for horses. The soft prairie surface provides an excellent opportunity for fartlek training. home remodeling They create excellent conditions for a long slow distance run as well ( home remodeling ).
Bridle Trails are perfect for horses. home remodeling The 2.25 mile “multi-purpose” trail is superbly designed for hiking, cross-training by bike, and speed training.home remodeling

The Diamond on the Bluff ( home remodeling )

Enjoy what solemn nature has to offer at the Paul Wolff / Burnidge Forest ( home remodeling ) Preserve of Kane County has to offer.  Bring your best-loved dog or horse to stretch out their legs in natural ( home remodeling ) surroundings.  Breathe deep and luxuriate in captivating woodlands and prairies. Train hard. Run well. Live life.

Sasquatch, Bigfoot, the Yeti: home remodeling They Do Not Exist And Here Are Reasons Why (home remodeling )

A number of people around the world claim to have seen Bigfoot ( home remodeling ), Sasquatch, the Yeti, etc. Perhaps such a creature existed long, long ago but these creatures do not exist now nor have they recently.A dead body of a Sasquatch has not been found. This powerful lack of evidence strongly suggests Bigfoot ( home remodeling ) does not exist. Certainly one would have been hit by a car and severely injured or killed by now right? Many thousands of deer have been hit and killed by cars but to date not one Bigfoot ( home remodeling ).
People say Sasquatches ( home remodeling ) bury or eat their dead and that is why a body or bones have not been found. Ok.
Why are all or most all of the sightings a solitary adult? Why aren't there more sightings of multiple Sasquatches ( home remodeling ) together? Why aren't there sightings of adolescent or juvenile Bigfoots ( home remodeling)?
There are deer, turkey, duck and other types of hunters all over America and the World ( home remodeling ). Many expert deer hunters sit in a tree stand for hours at a time and are well camouflaged. You would think at least one Bigfoot ( home remodeling ) would have been severely injured or killed by a rifle or compound bow over the years...but none have. Many rifles have powerful scopes and a number of hunters are crack shots. So, why haven't any Sasquatches ( home remodeling ) been shot and brought down? The answer is easy---Sasquatch ( home remodeling ) doesn't exist.
Farm dog ( home remodeling ) will occasionally carry part of a groundhog or some other critter into their master's yard. A hand or a foot ( home remodeling ) of a Sasquatch ( home remodeling ) has yet to be dragged into a yard by a pet dog. This is because Sasquatch ( home remodeling ) doesn't exist.

Most people are honest and thus tend to think those around them are honest too. This is a common misconception amongst honest people. There are liars and people who tell tall tales all around. These dishonest people can tell fantastic stories with a straight face and may eventually come to believe it themselves. Many people have been deceived by liars and tellers of tall tales ( home remodeling ).Many people fall victim to Sasquatch ( home remodeling ) pranksters. It would really not be difficult for a creative person to make and strap on some Bigfoot ( home remodeling ) shoes and walk around somewhere. Others would then find the prints, or be led to them by the prankster, and think a Bigfoot ( home remodeling ) has been around. Before you know it it would be in the newspapers and on tv.

Many of the so called sightings are no doubt people dressed up in a Bigfoot ( home remodeling ) costume. These pranksters, for example, may go near a camping destination. The person in the outfit will then run across a clearing about half a mile away knowing someone will see them. They realize someone may take a picture or catch them on video.Can you imagine how much fun this must be to the prankster and his helpers? The pranksters get a bit liquored up ahead of time and then after the stunt must laugh and laugh. I'm middle aged now but something like this would have been great fun when I was younger. I never did anything like this though. This kind of prank is also dangerous because someone with a scope could shoot you with a rifle.
Another scenario-home remodeling--there may be a group of professors from several universities who are researching Bigfoot ( home remodeling ). They decide to go out to a remote area in hopes of obtaining evidence. Of course word gets around what the professors are doing. A prankster college student or two will then approach the area at night and make a few weird sounds or throw some rocks at the campsite and presto....the professors come back with strange and fantastic stories...it must have been Bigfoot ( home remodeling ).

Other people just misinterpret what they have seen. They have likely seen a bear or some other dark looking object or shadow and in their mind think they have seen a Bigfoot ( home remodeling ). There could also be some type of optical illusion at play. home remodelingA small percentage of sightings can no doubt be attributed to those who are mentally ill--who suffer from delusions or hallucinations. No doubt there have also been a few drug induced sightings.

How to catch bigfoot ( home remodeling ) on video

Is bigfoot real?home remodeling

 Is there really a North American ape that walks on two legs? I think if you checked out the video in the link above, the answer is quite obvious. There is absolutely no denying the validity of the content of that video. If you haven't checked it out yet, stop reading for a moment and take a look. It is quite shocking, maybe a little scary, and undeniable evidence.home remodeling

How to catch bigfoot ( home remodeling ) on video

1. First thing you need to look for is a wooded area. Bigfoot ( home remodeling ) tends to hide in the woods, although occasionally he has been known to jump out from behind the trees to scare away or attack intruders.2. Food and water sources are essential. In the area where the video was taken, there is an over abundance of deer, a staple of the sasquatch ( home remodeling ) diet. There are also rivers and lakes nearby.
3. Look for very large footprints ( home remodeling ) in the dirt and smelly hair left near trees where they may have been sratching ( home remodeling ). Look for medium to large trees shaking in the woods ( home remodeling ). When they scratch their backs on the trees ( home remodeling ) even a tall tree ( home remodeling ) can be seen shaking violently. Somtimes they just grab ahold of a tree ( home remodeling ) trunk and shake it violently to knock nuts or squirels out of the tree for an easy meal.
4, If you clicked on this hub looking for a real sasquatch ( home remodeling )... please don't get too upset when you find out this was just for FUN

Bigfoot ( home remodeling ),Yeti ( home remodeling ), Orang Pendek ( home remodeling ), Alma ( home remodeling ).

Wildmen around the world.

Bigfoot ( home remodeling ), Sasquash ( home remodeling ), Yeti ( home remodeling ), Yowie ( home remodeling ), Alma ( home remodeling ), Sehites ( home remodeling ), Skunk apes ( home remodeling ), Orang Pendek ( home remodeling ), the Woodwose ( home remodeling ) of medieval Europe it doesn’t matter which name they go by, almost every civilisation on Earth has a wild man myth. Descriptions of these Various creatures are remarkably similar - large, ape like, bipedal, hairy, secretive. Many eyewitnesses also mention a strong smell, in the case of the Skunk ape of the southern states of America very strong ( home remodeling ) - hence it’s name! It seems almost impossible that so many different groups of humans, who are not in contact with each other, should come up with such similar myths if they don’t have a basis in fact. In the case of Bigfoot ( home remodeling )/Sasquash ( home remodeling ) there does appear to be an ever growing body of evidence for the existence of a large unknown primate living in the vast wilderness of the Pacific Northwest of America ( home remodeling ) and Canada ( home remodeling ). Even allowing for the many hoaxes, the huge number of sightings, casts, recordings etc are becoming increasingly hard to ignore.

Bigfoot ( home remodeling ), the evidence seems to be mounting.

The world famous Patterson video above, filmed in October 1967 has long been held as one of the best ever pieces of evidence for bigfoot ( home remodeling ). Watch and judge for yourself. Anyone who has ever visited the area these creatures ( home remodeling ) are said to roam will know just how easy it would be to hide an entire tribe of Bigfoot in them. They are vast and largely uninhabited. In fact, faced with such impossibly huge tracts of wilderness it seems easier to believe that it does contain unknown animals than not. Speaking of hoaxes, it is, maybe, believable that a person or persons would go to the trouble of faking something like a Sasquash ( home remodeling ) footprint ( home remodeling ) and planting it beside a forest ( home remodeling ) trail. But would anyone do the same thing if they needed to climb half way up Mount Everest ( home remodeling ) or Annapurna ( home remodeling ) first?

Scientists to look for Chinese wildman.

• Scientists to look for China\'s Bigfoot ( home remodeling ) - Technology & science - Science - msnbc.com
  A group of Chinese scientists and explorers is looking for international help to mount a new search for the country's answer to Bigfoot ( home remodeling ), known locally as the "Yeren ( home remodeling )", or "wild man ( home remodeling )".

Ancient woodcarving of the Woodowse ( home remodeling ).

Medieval man seems to have been just as obsessed with wild men as we are today. Almost every church from that period in time seems to contain depictions of the Woodwose ( home remodeling ) in stone or wood. It has been suggested that the various wild men from across Europe could be Relict Neanderthals and that could well be true, recent evidence suggest that the Neanderthal did indeed hang on in small isolated areas much later than was previously thought and may even have interbred with recent humans. Unlike Bigfoot ( home remodeling ) or the Yeti ( home remodeling ) there doesn't appear to be any recent sightings of the Woodwose ( home remodeling ), which in my mind would tend to suggest that if the Woodwose ( home remodeling ) was indeed a relict Neanderthal then the species might now finally be extinct. Something that lends a little more weight to this theory is the recent discovery that the sub species Homo Florescence’s survived until relatively recent times before, perhaps, becoming extinct some twelve thousand years ago. Although, some people believe they might still exist somewhere in the unexplored tropical rainforest ( home remodeling ) of Indonesia.

Perhaps Woodwose ( home remodeling ) were simply hermits, men who had chosen to remove themselves from society to live a frugal life in the forest ( home remodeling ). Unkempt and wearing animal fur maybe the odd sighting can be explained away in this manner but not all. There has even been the suggestion that wild men were people suffering from the dreadful condition Hypertrichosis. People with this condition grow hair over the entire body including the face and can indeed look remarkably like the descriptions of Bigfoot ( home remodeling ) etc. In fact, many believe it was people such as these that gave rise to the myth of the were wolf ( home remodeling ). But it is an extremely rare condition and seems unlikely to be responsible for the many sightings worldwide. And in the world of today why would a person with Hypertrichosis need to hide themselves away in a forest ( macbook pro apple ) at all?

Race memory?

Another possible theory is that the wild man myths and stories are a kind of race memory. Something imprinted on humans at the genetic level, a memory of a time when modern humans shared the planet with other, less advanced, hominoids. Although, there is little scientific evidence to support this theory. If this were the case then why aren’t there more myths about giant cave bears ( home remodeling ), mammoths ( home remodeling ), aurochs ( home remodeling ) etc all of which we also shared the planet with until recent times?
Maybe, when all is said and done we as a species need to believe in something. Maybe, in a world where so many of us have lost control and feel that science has taken over and that the world is really only a tiny rock spinning in space, we need something like Bigfoot ( macbook pro apple ) or the Yeti ( home remodeling ). We need to be able to say - see, the world isn’t really all that small and there are still things out there that can shock the heck out of people.
Only this week, on June 25^th 2010 it was announced that a new tribe of hunter gatherers has been discovered living in the forests ( home remodeling ) of Papua New Guinea. These people live a nomadic, stone age existence, much as our ancestors and the many species of humans such as Neanderthals did thousands of years ago. Maybe the discovery of a tribe of Bigfoot ( home remodeling ) or Yeti ( home remodeling ) is just around the corner.

Taiga ( home remodeling )

Climate and geography ( home remodeling )

Taiga ( home remodeling ) is the world's largest land biome ( home remodeling ), and makes up 27% of the world's forest ( home remodeling ) cover; the largest areas are located in Russia and Canada ( home remodeling ). The taiga ( home remodeling ) is the terrestrial biome ( home remodeling ) with the lowest annual average temperatures after the tundra and permanent ice caps. However, extreme minimums in the taiga ( home remodeling ) are typically lower than those of the tundra ( home remodeling ). The lowest reliably recorded temperatures in the Northern Hemisphere were recorded in the taiga ( home remodeling ) of northeastern Russia. The taiga (home remodeling ) or boreal forest ( home remodeling ) has a subarctic climate with very large temperature range between seasons, but the long and cold winter is the dominant feature ( home remodeling). This climate is classified as Dfc, Dwc, Dsc, Dfd, Dwd and Dsd in the Köppen climate classification scheme, meaning that the short summer (24-hr average 10°C or more) lasts 1–3 months and always less than 4 months. There are also some much smaller areas grading towards the oceanic Cfc climate with milder winters. The mean annual temperature generally varies from -5°C to 5°C, but there are taiga areas in both eastern Siberia and interior Alaska-Yukon where the mean annual reaches down to -10°C. According to some sources, the boreal forest ( home remodeling ) grades into a temperate mixed forest ( home remodeling ) when mean annual temperature reaches about 3 °C. Permafrost is common in areas with mean annual temperature below 0 °C. The winters last 5 – 7 months, with average temperatures below freezing ( home remodeling ). Temperatures vary from −54 °C to 30 °C (-65 °F to 86 °F) throughout the whole year.

The summers, while short, are generally warm and humid. In much of the taiga ( home remodeling ), -20 °C would be a typical winter day temperature and 18 °C an average summer day.

The growing season, when the vegetation in the taiga ( home remodeling ) comes alive, is usually slightly longer than the climatic definition of summer as the plants of the boreal biome ( home remodeling ) have a lower threshold to trigger growth. In Canada, Scandinavia and Finland, the growing season is often estimated by using the period of the year when the 24-hr average temperature is 5 °C or more. For the Taiga Plains in Canada, growing season varies from 80 to 150 days, and in the Taiga ( home remodeling ) Shield from 100 to 140 days. Some sources claim 130 days growing season as typical for the taiga ( home remodeling ). Other sources mention that 50 - 100 frost-free days are characteristic. Data for locations in southwest Yukon gives 80 - 120 frost-free days ( home remodeling ). The closed canopy boreal forest ( home remodeling ) in Kenozersky near Plesetsk, Arkhangelsk Province, Russia, on average has 108 frost-free days. The longest growing season is found in the smaller areas with oceanic influences; in coastal areas of Scandinavia and Finland, the growing season of the closed boreal forest ( home remodeling ) can be 145 – 180 days. The shortest growing season is found at the northern taiga - tundra ecotone, where the northern taiga forest ( home remodeling ) no longer can grow and the tundra dominates the landscape when the growing season is down to 50 – 70 days, and the 24-hr average of the warmest month of the year usually is 10°C or less. High latitudes mean that the sun does not rise far above the horizon, and less solar energy is received than further south. But the high latitude also ensures very long summer days, as the sun stays above the horizon nearly 20 hours each day, with only around 6 hours of daylight occurring in the dark winters, depending on latitude. The areas of the taiga ( home remodeling ) inside the Arctic circle have midnight sun in mid-summer and polar night in mid-winter.

The taiga ( home remodeling ) experiences relatively low precipitation throughout the year (generally 200–750 mm annually, 1,000 mm in some areas), primarily as rain during the summer months, but also as fog and snow (home remodeling ). As evaporation is also low for most of the year, precipitation exceeds evaporation, and is sufficient to sustain the dense vegetation growth. Snow may remain on the ground for as long as nine months in the northernmost extensions of the taiga ( home remodeling ) ecozone.

In general, taiga ( home remodeling ) grows to the south of the 10 °C July isotherm, but occasionally as far north as the 9 °C July isotherm. The southern limit is more variable, depending on rainfall; taiga ( home remodeling ) may be replaced by forest ( home remodeling ) steppe south of the 15 °C July isotherm where rainfall is very low, but more typically extends south to the 18 °C July isotherm, and locally where rainfall is higher (notably in eastern Siberia and adjacent northern Manchuria) south to the 20 °C July isotherm. In these warmer areas, the taiga ( home remodeling ) has higher species diversity, with more warmth-loving species such as Korean Pine, Jezo Spruce and Manchurian Fir, and merges gradually into mixed temperate forest ( home remodeling ), or more locally (on the Pacific Ocean coasts of North America and Asia) into coniferous temperate rainforests (home remodeling ).

Much of the area currently classified as taiga was recently glaciated. As the glaciers receded, they left depressions in the topography that have since filled with water, creating lakes and bogs (especially muskeg soil), found throughout the taiga.home remodeling

Soils ( home remodeling )

Taiga soil tends to be young and nutrient-poor; it lacks the deep, organically-enriched profile present in temperate deciduous forests ( home remodeling ). The thinness of the soil is due largely to the cold, which hinders the development of soil and the ease with which plants can use its nutrients. Fallen leaves and moss can remain on the forest floor for a long time in the cool, moist climate, which limits their organic contribution to the soil; acids from evergreen needles further leach the soil, creating spodosol. Since the soil is acidic due to the falling pine needles, the forest floor has only lichens and some mosses growing on it. ( home remodeling )

Flora ( home remodeling )

Since North America and Asia used to be connected by the Bering land bridge, a number of animal and plant ( home remodeling ) species (more animals than plants) were able to colonize both continents and are distributed throughout the taiga ( home remodeling ) biome ( home remodeling ) (see Circumboreal Region). Others differ regionally, typically with each genus having several distinct species, each occupying different regions of the taiga. Taigas ( home remodeling ) also have some small-leaved deciduous trees ( home remodeling ) like birch, alder, willow, and poplar; mostly in areas escaping the most extreme winter cold. However, the Dahurian Larch tolerates the coldest winters in the northern hemisphere in eastern Siberia ( home remodeling ). The very southernmost parts of the taiga may have trees such as oak, maple, elm, and tilia scattered among the conifers, and there is usually a gradual transition into a temperate mixed forest ( home remodeling ), such as the Eastern forest ( home remodeling )-boreal  ( home remodeling ) transition of eastern Canada. In the interior of the continents with the driest climate, the boreal forests ( home remodeling ) might grade into temperate grassland.

There are two major types of taiga ( home remodeling ). The southern part is the closed canopy forest ( home remodeling ), consisting of many closely-spaced trees with mossy ground cover. In clearings in the forest (home remodeling ), shrubs and wildflowers are common, such as the fireweed. The other type is the lichen woodland or sparse taiga ( home remodeling ), with trees that are farther-spaced and lichen ground cover; the latter is common in the northernmost taiga ( home remodeling ). In the northernmost taiga ( home remodeling ) the forest ( home remodeling ) cover is not only more sparse, but often stunted in growth form; moreover, ice pruned asymmetric Black Spruce (in North America) are often seen, with diminished foliage on the windward side. In Canada, Scandinavia and Finland, the boreal forest ( home remodeling ) is usually divided into three subzones: The high boreal (north boreal) or taiga zone; the middle boreal (closed forest ( home remodeling )); and the southern boreal, a closed canopy boreal forest ( home remodeling ) with some scattered temperate deciduous trees among the conifers, such as maple, elm and oak. This southern boreal forest ( home remodeling ) has the longest and warmest growing season of the biome, and in some regions (including Scandinavia, Finland and western Russia) this subzone is commonly used for agricultural purposes. The boreal forest ( home remodeling ) is home to many types of berries; some are confined to the southern and middle closed boreal forest ( home remodeling ) (such as raspberry), others grow in most areas of the taiga ( home remodeling ) (such as cranberry and cloudberry), and some can grow in both the taiga ( home remodeling ) and the low arctic (southern part of) tundra (such as bilberry and lingonberry).

The forests ( home remodeling ) of the taiga ( home remodeling ) are largely coniferous, dominated by larch, spruce, fir, and pine. The woodland mix varies according to geography and climate so for example the Eastern Canadian forests ( home remodeling ) ecoregion of the higher elevations of the Laurentian Mountains and the northern Appalachian Mountains in Canada is dominated by balsam fir Abies balsamea, while further north the Eastern Canadian Shield taiga ( home remodeling ) of northern Quebec and Labrador is notably black spruce Picea mariana and tamarack larch Larix laricina.

Evergreen species in the taiga ( home remodeling ) (spruce, fir, and pine) have a number of adaptations specifically for survival in harsh taiga ( home remodeling ) winters, although larch, the most cold-tolerant of all trees (home remodeling ), citation needed] is deciduous. Taiga ( home remodeling ) trees tend to have shallow roots to take advantage of the thin soils, while many of them seasonally alter their biochemistry to make them more resistant to freezing, called "hardening". The narrow conical shape of northern conifers, and their downward-drooping limbs, also help them shed snow. ( home remodeling )

Because the sun is low in the horizon for most of the year, it is difficult for plants ( home remodeling ) to generate energy from photosynthesis. Pine, spruce and fir do not lose their leaves seasonally and are able to photosynthesize with their older leaves in late winter and spring when light is good but temperatures are still too low for new growth to commence. The adaptation of evergreen needles limits the water lost due to transpiration and their dark green color increases their absorption of sunlight. Although precipitation is not a limiting factor, the ground freezes during the winter months and plant ( home remodeling ) roots are unable to absorb water, so desiccation can be a severe problem in late winter for evergreens.

Although the taiga ( home remodeling ) is dominated by coniferous forests ( home remodeling ), some broadleaf trees also occur, notably birch, aspen, willow, and rowan. Many smaller herbaceous plants ( home remodeling) grow closer to the ground. Periodic stand-replacing wildfires (with return times of between 20–200 years) clear out the tree ( home remodeling ) canopies, allowing sunlight to invigorate new growth on the forest ( home remodeling ) floor. For some species, wildfires are a necessary part of the life cycle in the taiga ( home remodeling ); some, e.g. Jack Pine have cones which only open to release their seed after a fire, dispersing their seeds onto the newly cleared ground. Grasses grow wherever they can find a patch of sun, and mosses and lichens thrive on the damp ground and on the sides of tree trunks. In comparison with other biomes ( home remodeling ), however, the taiga ( home remodeling ) has low biological diversity.

Coniferous trees ( home remodeling ) are the dominant plants of the taiga ( home remodeling ) biome ( home remodeling ). A very few species in four main genera are found: the evergreen spruce, fir, and pine, and the deciduous larch. In North America, one or two species of fir and one or two species of spruce are dominant. Across Scandinavia and western Russia, the Scots pine is a common component of the taiga ( home remodeling), while taiga ( home remodeling ) of the Russian Far East and Mongolia is dominated by larch.

Fauna ( home remodeling )

The boreal forest ( home remodeling ), or taiga ( home remodeling ), supports a large range of animals. Canada's boreal forest ( home remodeling ) includes 85 species of mammals, 130 species of fish, and an estimated 32,000 species of insects. Insects play a critical role as pollinators, decomposers and as a part of the food chain; many nesting birds rely on them for food. The cold winters and short summers make the taiga a challenging biome for reptiles and amphibians, which depend on environmental conditions to regulate their body temperatures, and there are only a few species in the boreal forest ( home remodeling ). Some hibernate underground in winter.

The taiga ( home remodeling ) is home to a number of large herbivorous mammals, such as moose and reindeer/caribou. Some areas of the more southern closed boreal forest ( home remodeling ) also have populations of other deer species such as the elk (wapiti) and roe deer. home remodelingThere is also a range of rodent species, including beaver, squirrel, mountain hare, snowshoe hare and vole ( home remodeling ). These species have evolved to survive the harsh winters in their native ranges. Some larger mammals, such as bears, eat heartily during the summer in order to gain weight, and then go into hibernation during the winter. Other animals have adapted layers of fur or feathers to insulate them from the cold.home remodeling

A number of wildlife species threatened or endangered with extinction can be found in the Canadian boreal forest ( home remodeling ), including woodland caribou, American black bear, grizzly bear and wolverine. Habitat loss, mainly due to logging, is the primary cause of decline for these species.home remodeling

Due to the climate, carnivorous diets are an inefficient means of obtaining energy; energy is limited, and most energy is lost between trophic levels. Predatory birds (owls and eagles) and other smaller carnivores, including foxes and weasels, feed on the rodents. Larger carnivores, such as lynx and wolves, prey on the larger animals. Omnivores, such as bears and raccoons are fairly common, sometimes picking through human garbage.home remodeling

More than 300 species of birds have their nesting grounds in the taiga ( home remodeling ). This includes Siberian Thrush, White-throated Sparrow and Black-throated Green Warbler, migrate to this habitat to take advantage of the long summer days and abundance of insects found around the numerous bogs and lakes. Of the 300 species of birds that summer in the taiga, only 30 stay for the winter. These are either carrion-feeding or large raptors that can take live mammal prey, including Golden Eagle, Rough-legged Buzzard, and Raven, or else seed-eating birds, including several species of grouse and crossbills.home remodeling

Threats ( home remodeling )Human activities ( home remodeling )

Large areas of Siberia’s taiga ( home remodeling ) have been harvested for lumber since the collapse of the Soviet Union. In Canada, less than eight percent of the boreal forest ( home remodeling ) is protected from development and more than 50% has been allocated to logging companies for cutting. The main form of forestry ( home remodeling ) in the boreal forest ( home remodeling ) of Canada is clearcutting, where most if not all trees are removed from an area of forest. Clearcuts upwards of 110 km² have been recorded in the Canadian boreal forest. Some of the products from logged boreal forests ( home remodeling ) include toilet paper, copy paper, newsprint and lumber. More than 80% of boreal forest ( home remodeling ) products from Canada are exported for consumption and processing in the United States. Some of the larger cities situated in this biome are Murmansk, Arkhangelsk, Yakutsk, Anchorage, Yellowknife, Tromsø, Luleå and Oulu ( home remodeling ).

Most companies that harvest in Canadian forests ( home remodeling ) are certified by an independent third party agency such as the Forest  ( home remodeling ) Stewardship Council (FSC), Sustainable Forests ( home remodeling ) Initiative (SFI), or the Canadian Standards Association (CSA). While the certification process differs between these various groups, all of them include forest ( home remodeling ) stewardship, respect for aboriginal peoples, compliance with local, provincial and/or national environmental laws, forest ( home remodeling ) worker safety, education and training, and other environmental, business and social requirements.home remodeling The prompt renewal of all harvest sites by planting or natural renewal is also required.home remodeling

Insects ( home remodeling )

Recent years have seen outbreaks of insect pests in forest-destroying plagues: the spruce-bark beetle (Dendroctonus rufipennis) in the Yukon Territory, Canada, and Alaska; the aspen-leaf miner; the larch sawfly; the spruce budworm (Choristoneura fumiferana); the spruce coneworm.home remodeling

Protection ( home remodeling )

Many nations are taking direct steps to protect the ecology of the taiga by prohibiting logging, mining, oil and gas production, and other forms of development. In February 2010 the Canadian government established protection for 13,000 square kilometres of boreal forest by creating a new 10,700 square kilometre park reserve in the Mealy Mountains area of eastern Canada and a 3,000 square kilometre waterway provincial park that follows alongside the Eagle River from headwaters to sea. The taiga ( home remodeling ) stores enormous quantities of carbon, possibly more than the temperate and tropical forests combined, much of it in peatland.home remodeling

Natural disturbance ( home remodeling )

One of the biggest areas of research and a topic ( home remodeling ) still full of unsolved questions is the recurring disturbance of fire and the role it plays in propagating the lichen woodland . The phenomenon of wildfire by lighting strike is the primary determinant of understory vegetation and because of this, it is considered to be predominate driving force behind community and ecosystem properties in the lichen woodland . The significance of fire is clearly evident when one considers that understory vegetation influences tree seedling germination in the short term and decomposition of biomass and nutrient availability in the long term . The recurrent cycle of large, damaging fire occurs approximately every 70 to 100 years . Understanding the dynamics of this ecosystem is entangled with discovering the successional paths that the vegetation exhibits after a fire. Trees ( home remodeling ), shrubs ( home remodeling ) and lichens ( home remodeling ) all recover from fire induced damage through vegetative reproduction as well as invasion by propagules . Seeds that have fallen and become buried provide little help in re-establishment of a species ( home remodeling ). The reappearance of lichens is reasoned to occur because of varying conditions and light/nutrient availability in each different microstate . Several different studies have been done that have led to the formation of the theory that post-fire development can be propagated by any of four pathways: self replacement, species-dominance relay, species replacement, or gap-phase self replacement . Self replacement is simply the re-establishment of the pre-fire ( home remodeling ) dominant species. Species-dominance relay is a sequential attempt of tree ( home remodeling ) species to establish dominance in the canopy. Species replacement is when fires occur in sufficient frequency to interrupt species dominance relay. Gap-Phase Self-Replacement is the least common and so far has only been documented in Western Canada. It is a self replacement of the surviving species into the canopy gaps after a fire kills another species. The particular pathway taken after a fire disturbance depends on how the landscape is able to support trees as well as fire frequency . Fire frequency has a large role in shaping the original inception of the lower forest ( home remodeling ) line of the lichen woodland taiga ( home remodeling ).

Centuries ago, the southern limits of lichen woodland taiga ( home remodeling ) were only being formed . It has been hypothesized and subsequently proved by Serge Payette that the Spruce-Moss forest ( home remodeling) ecosystem was changed into the lichen woodland biome due to the initiation of two compounded strong disturbances . The two disturbances were large fire and the appearance and attack of the spruce budworm. The spruce budworm is a deadly insect to the spruce populations in the southern regions of the taiga ( home remodeling ). J.P. Jasinski confirmed this theory five years later stating “Their [lichen woodlands] persistence , along with their previous moss forest histories and current occurrence adjacent to closed moss forests ( home remodeling ), indicate that they are an alternative stable state to the spruce–moss forests ( home remodeling )” .

Interior West Forests (home remodeling) on Verge of Becoming Net Carbon Emitter & The forest (home remodeling) biome

Forests (home remodeling) in the Interior West could soon flip from carbon sink to carbon source, forest (home remodeling) experts say.

The region's forests (home remodeling) once absorbed and stored more carbon from the atmosphere than they released. But huge conflagrations -- like the 138,000-acre Hayman Fire in Colorado in 2002 and the Yellowstone fires of 1988, which scorched 1.2 million acres -- combined with a series of severe bark beetle infestations and disease outbreaks, have left large swaths of dead, decomposing trees in almost every major Western forest (home remodeling).

Those dead trees are releasing massive amounts of carbon dioxide, turning the region into a net emitter of carbon rather than a CO2 sponge.

The reversal, which has already occurred in Colorado and is anticipated in several other states, is the result of misguided forest (home remodeling) management practices and a changing climate, forest (home remodeling) experts say.

Rising temperatures, resulting in shrinking snowpacks and drier conditions, have left the region's forests (home remodeling) more susceptible to disturbances, such as wildfires, bark beetles and disease.

"In the Interior West, we've had a lot of these disturbances," said Dave Cleaves, the Forest (home remodeling) Service's climate change adviser, who served as director of the agency's Rocky Mountain Research Station from 2005 to 2007.

But temperature alone is enough to cause mortality in some forests (home remodeling), scientists have found. According to a study published last year in the journal Science, the death rate for Western old-growth forests (home remodeling) -- which are generally more resilient and more stable than younger forests (home remodeling) -- has doubled in the past few decades as temperatures have risen. More trees are dying, while regeneration rates remain unchanged, the study found (home remodeling, Jan. 29, 2009).

Forest (home remodeling) management has also contributed to the increase in carbon releases.

For about a century, forest (home remodeling) managers thought the best way to deal with forest (home remodeling) fires was to suppress them. Eventually, forest (home remodeling) ecologists learned that fire plays an important role in the ecosystem in many forest (home remodeling) types, clearing brush and small trees. But the fuel accumulation from years of fire suppression, combined with severe droughts in the early part of this decade, created conditions that allowed large, hotter-than-usual fires to sweep through the Interior West's forests (home remodeling).

"We've got several times more carbon per acre than those forests (home remodeling) carried in the early days, when there was a natural fire disturbance interval there," Cleaves said. "And those systems are more susceptible to disturbances now. We've got a lot of acres in the Interior West that have reached that level."

Lost storage capacity

Fires themselves do not release that much carbon into the atmosphere, but the decomposition of the trees killed by fires does, said Michael Ryan, a research ecologist with the Forest (home remodeling) Service's Rocky Mountain Research Station in Fort Collins, Colo.

As temperatures and mortality rates continue to climb, forests (home remodeling) will have less carbon storage capacity, and their potential to offset carbon emissions from human sources, such as vehicles and power plants, is likely to decrease. Trees absorb carbon from the atmosphere during photosynthesis and store it in their trunks, branches and leaves.

But the shifting carbon dynamic in the West's forests (home remodeling) is nothing new, Ryan said.

The reason Western forests (home remodeling) have been a carbon sink for most of the past century is the growth of new trees after extensive logging and land-clearing for agriculture during westward expansion. During the decades after European settlement of the West, large amounts of carbon were released into the atmosphere, and the region was most likely a source at that time, he said.

"Current forests (home remodeling) are recovering from past land use as agriculture, pasture or [timber] harvest, and because this period of recovery will eventually end, the resulting forest carbon sink will not continue indefinitely," concluded a synthesis of the current science on forests and carbon that appeared in the Spring 2010 edition of Issues in Ecology, a publication of the Ecological Society of America.

Ryan, who was the lead author on that summary, said the best way to restore a disturbed forest's (home remodeling) carbon-absorbing capacity is to boost regeneration, so that new growth can help offset the carbon lost by decomposition.

For example, regeneration of severely burned areas in Yellowstone, which has occurred more rapidly than scientists expected after the 1988 fires, has allowed the forest (home remodeling) as a whole to achieve an almost carbon-neutral state.

"Our study shows it should be approaching this neutrality," Ryan said, referring to a separate study published in the January 2010 issue of Fire Science Briefs. "I think it can recover carbon pretty quickly, which is a surprise."

Cleaves said forest (home remodeling) managers could improve the carbon-absorbing capacity of other Interior West forests (home remodeling) by planting more seedlings to accelerate regeneration, especially in intensively burned areas where the forest (home remodeling) is likely to be replaced by meadows or sparse stands.

"What you worry about is, when you have more fires that burn hotter, do you have some irreversible losses, and how quickly do you place a new system on there so that we're back into producing carbon and producing watershed services and wildlife habitat as quickly as possible after the disturbance?" he said.

Thinning and burning

But Cleaves and other forest (home remodeling) experts emphasize that national forests (home remodeling) have to be managed for multiple uses, not just carbon sequestration and storage (Land Letter, Nov. 4).

Thinning and prescribed burns, which help clear out overly dense forests (home remodeling) and reduce the risk of large, unnaturally hot fires, could help preserve forest (home remodeling) carbon over the long-term, they point out. But removing carbon at too large a scale could tip forests (home remodeling) toward becoming a carbon source.

"Some studies show that if you do prescribed burning and thinning and there's a fire, you'll retain more carbon than if you haven't done thinning," Ryan said. "But thinning puts a lot of carbon in the atmosphere. So if there is a carbon benefit from that, it's going to be very small."

Cleaves said the Forest (home remodeling) Service is taking a cautious approach in working carbon considerations into forest (home remodeling) management.

"We're trying to manage the risk of carbon loss," Cleaves said. "Our objective is to have a long-term sequestration of carbon. We also want other ecosystem services, like water, habitat and other things you're providing on the same landscape."

About 420 million years ago, during the Silurian Period, ancient plants and arthropods began to occupy the land. Over the millions of years that followed, these land colonizers developed and adapted to their new habitat. The first forests (home remodeling) were dominated by giant horsetails, club mosses, and ferns that stood up to 40 feet tall.

Life on Earth continued to evolve, and in the late Paleozoic, gymnosperms appeared. By the Triassic Period (245-208 mya), gymnosperms dominated the Earth's forests (home remodeling). In the Cretaceous Period (144-65m mya), the first flowering plants (angiosperms) appeared. They evolved together with insects, birds, and mammals and radiated rapidly, dominating the landscape by the end of the Period. The landscape changed again during the Pleistocene Ice Ages — the surface of the planet that had been dominated by tropical forests for millions of years changed, and temperate forests (home remodeling) spread in the Northern Hemisphere.

Today, forests (home remodeling) occupy approximately one-third of Earth's land area, account for over two-thirds of the leaf area of land plants, and contain about 70% of carbon present in living things. They have been held in reverence in folklore and worshipped in ancient religions. However, forests (home remodeling) are becoming major casualties of civilization as human populations have increased over the past several thousand years, bringing deforestation, pollution, and industrial usage problems to this important biome.

Present-day forest (home remodeling) biomes, biological communities that are dominated by trees and other woody vegetation (Spurr and Barnes 1980), can be classified according to numerous characteristics, with seasonality being the most widely used. Distinct forest (home remodeling) types also occur within each of these broad groups.

There are three major types of forests (home remodeling), classed according to latitude:

• Tropical
• Temperate
• Boreal forests (home remodeling) (taiga)

Tropical forest (home remodeling)
Tropical forests (home remodeling) are characterized by the greatest diversity of species. They occur near the equator, within the area bounded by latitudes 23.5 degrees N and 23.5 degrees S. One of the major characteristics of tropical forests (home remodeling) is their distinct seasonality: winter is absent, and only two seasons are present (rainy and dry). The length of daylight is 12 hours and varies little.

• Temperature is on average 20-25° C and varies little throughout the year: the average temperatures of the three warmest and three coldest months do not differ by more than 5 degrees.home remodeling
• Precipitation is evenly distributed throughout the year, with annual rainfall exceeding 2000 mm.home remodeling
• Soil is nutrient-poor and acidic. Decomposition is rapid and soils are subject to heavy leaching.home remodeling
• Canopy in tropical forests (home remodeling) is multilayered and continuous, allowing little light penetration.
• Flora is highly diverse: one square kilometer may contain as many as 100 different tree species. Trees are 25-35 m tall, with buttressed trunks and shallow roots, mostly evergreen, with large dark green leaves. Plants such as orchids, bromeliads, vines (lianas), ferns, mosses, and palms are present in tropical forests (home remodeling).
• Fauna include numerous birds, bats, small mammals, and insects.

Further subdivisions of this group are determined by seasonal distribution of rainfall:

• evergreen rainforest (home remodeling): no dry season.
• seasonal rainforest (home remodeling): short dry period in a very wet tropical region (the forest (home remodeling) exhibits definite seasonal changes as trees undergo developmental changes simultaneously, but the general character of vegetation remains the same as in evergreen rainforests (home remodeling)).
• semievergreen forest (home remodeling): longer dry season (the upper tree story consists of deciduous trees, while the lower story is still evergreen).home remodeling
• moist/dry deciduous forest (home remodeling) (monsoon): the length of the dry season increases further as rainfall decreases (all trees are deciduous).

More than one half of tropical forests (home remodeling) have already been destroyed.

Temperate forest (home remodeling)
Temperate forests (home remodeling) occur in eastern North America, northeastern Asia, and western and central Europe. Well-defined seasons with a distinct winter characterize this forest (home remodeling) biome. Moderate climate and a growing season of 140-200 days during 4-6 frost-free months distinguish temperate forests (home remodeling).

• Temperature varies from -30° C to 30° C.
• Precipitation (75-150 cm)home remodeling is distributed evenly throughout the year.
• Soil is fertile, enriched with decaying litter.home remodeling
• Canopy is moderately dense and allows light to penetrate, resulting in well-developed and richly diversified understory vegetation and stratification of animals.home remodeling
• Flora is characterized by 3-4 tree species per square kilometer. Trees are distinguished by broad leaves that are lost annually and include such species as oak, hickory, beech, hemlock, maple, basswood, cottonwood, elm, willow, and spring-flowering herbs.home remodeling
• Fauna is represented by squirrels, rabbits, skunks, birds, deer, mountain lion, bobcat, timber wolf, fox, and black bear.

Further subdivisions of this group are determined by seasonal distribution of rainfall:

• moist conifer and evergreen broad-leaved forests (home remodeling): wet winters and dry summers (rainfall is concentrated in the winter months and winters are relatively mild).
• dry conifer forests (home remodeling): dominate higher elevation zones; low precipitation.
• mediterranean forests (home remodeling): precipitation is concentrated in winter, less than 1000 mm per year.
• temperate coniferous: mild winters, high annual precipitation (greater than 2000 mm).
• temperate broad-leaved rainforests (home remodeling): mild, frost-free winters, high precipitation (more than 1500 mm) evenly distributed throughout the year.

Only scattered remnants of original temperate forests (home remodeling) remain.

Boreal forest (home remodeling) (taiga)

Boreal forests (home remodeling), or taiga, represent the largest terrestial biome. Occuring between 50 and 60 degrees north latitudes, boreal forests (home remodeling) can be found in the broad belt of Eurasia and North America: two-thirds in Siberia with the rest in Scandinavia, Alaska, and Canada. Seasons are divided into short, moist, and moderately warm summers and long, cold, and dry winters. The length of the growing season in boreal forests (home remodeling) is 130 days.

• Temperatures are very low.home remodeling
• Precipitation is primarily in the form of snow, 40-100 cm annually.
• Soil is thin, nutrient-poor, and acidic.home remodeling
• Canopy permits low light penetration, and as a result, understory is limited.
• Flora consist mostly of cold-tolerant evergreen conifers with needle-like leaves, such as pine, fir, and spruce.
• Fauna include woodpeckers, hawks, moose, bear, weasel, lynx, fox, wolf, deer, hares, chipmunks, shrews, and bats.

Current extensive logging in boreal forests (home remodeling) may soon cause their disappearance.

Forests management and forestry jobs in home remodeling & Cloud forests (home remodeling), forestry jobs in pakistan and Characteristics of forests.

Forest (home remodeling) management

is the branch of forestry (home remodeling) concerned with the overall administrative, economic, legal, and social aspects and with the essentially scientific and technical aspects, especially silviculture, protection, and forest (home remodeling) regulation. This includes management for aesthetics, fish, recreation, urban values, water, wilderness, wildlife, wood products, forest (home remodeling) genetic resources and other forest (home remodeling) resource values. Management can be based on conservation, economics, or a mixture of the two. Techniques include timber extraction, planting and replanting of various species, cutting roads and pathways through forests (home remodeling), and preventing fire.

Public input and awareness (home remodeling)

There has been an increased public awareness of natural resource policy, including forest (home remodeling) management. Public concern regarding forest (home remodeling) management may have shifted from the extraction of timber to the preservation of additional forest resources, including wildlife and old growth forest (home remodeling), protecting biodiversity, watershed management, and recreation. Increased environmental awareness may contribute to an increased public mistrust of forest (home remodeling) management professionals.

Many tools like GIS modelling have been developed to improve forest (home remodeling) inventory and management planning

Wildlife considerations (home remodeling)

The abundance and diversity of birds, mammals, amphibians and other wildlife are affected by strategies and types of forest (home remodeling) management.

A cloud forest (home remodeling), also called a fog forest (home remodeling), is a generally tropical or subtropical evergreen montane moist forest (home remodeling) characterized by a persistent, frequent or seasonal low-level cloud cover, usually at the canopy level. Cloud forests (home remodeling) often exhibit an abundance of mosses covering the ground and vegetation, in which case they are also referred to as mossy forests (home remodeling). Mossy forests (home remodeling) usually develop on the saddles of mountains, where moisture introduced by settling clouds is more effectively retained.

Distribution and climate  (home remodeling)

Dependent on local climate, which is affected by the distance to the sea, the exposition and the latitude, the altitude varies from 500 m to 4000 m above sea level. Typically, there is a relatively small band of altitude in which the atmospheric environment is suitable for cloud forest (home remodeling) development. This is characterized by persistent mist or clouds at the vegetation level, resulting in the reduction of direct sunlight and thus of evapotranspiration. Within cloud forests (home remodeling), much of the precipitation is in the form of fog drip, where fog condenses on tree leaves and then drips onto the ground below.

Tropical cloud forests (home remodeling) extend from 23°N to 25°S latitudes and occur in a relatively narrow altitudinal zone with a special atmospheric environment which is characterized by at the vegetation level. Annual rainfall can range from 500 to 10000 mm/year and mean temperature between 8 to 20°C.

While cloud forest (home remodeling) today is the most widely used term, in some regions these ecosystems or special types of cloud forests (home remodeling) are called mossy forest (home remodeling), elfin forest (home remodeling), montane thicket, dwarf cloud forest (home remodeling), nuboselva, bosque montano nebuloso, selva de neblina, bosque nuboso, bosque de ceja, selva sublada, nebelwald, wolkenwald, forêt (home remodeling) néphéliphile, forêt (home remodeling) de nuage, unmu-rin, bosque anao, foresta (home remodeling) nebular, mata nebular, matinha nebular, floresta (home remodeling) fe neblina, floresta (home remodeling) nuvigena, mata de neblina, matinha de altitude, floresta (home remodeling) nublada, and floresta (home remodeling) pluvial montana e/ou alto montana.

The definition of cloud forest (home remodeling) can be ambiguous, with many countries not using the term (preferring such terms as Afromontane forest (home remodeling) and upper montane rain forest (home remodeling), or more localised terms such as the Bolivian yungas, and the laurisilva of the Atlantic Islands), and occasionally subtropical and even temperate forests (home remodeling) in which similar meteorological conditions occur are considered to be cloud forests (home remodeling).

Only 1% of the global woodland is covered by cloud forests (home remodeling).

Important areas of cloud forest (home remodeling) are in Central- and South America, East- and Central Africa, Indonesia, Malaysia, at the Philippines, Papua-New Guinea and in the Caribbean.

Temperate cloud forests (home remodeling)

Although far from being universally accepted as true cloud forests (home remodeling), several forests (home remodeling) in temperate regions have strong similarities with tropical cloud forests (home remodeling). The term is further confused by occasional reference to cloud forests (home remodeling) in tropical countries as "temperate" due to the cooler climate associated with these misty forests (home remodeling).

Characteristics of cloud forests  (home remodeling)

In comparison with lower tropical moist forests (home remodeling), cloud forests (home remodeling) show a reduced tree stature combined with increased stem density and generally the lower diversity of woody plants. Trees in these regions are generally shorter and more heavily stemmed than in lower altitude forests (home remodeling) in the same regions, often with gnarled trunks and branches, forming dense, compact crownes. Their leaves become smaller, thicker and harder with increasing altitude. The high moisture promotes the development of a high biomass and biodiversity of epiphyte, particularly bryophytes, lichens, ferns (including filmy ferns), bromeliads and orchids. The number of endemic plants can be very high.

An important feature of cloud forests (home remodeling) is that the tree crowns can intercept the wind-driven cloud moisture, part of which drips to the ground. This water stripped from the clouds is termed horizontal or occult (because it is not recorded with normal rainfall measurement) precipitation, and can be an important contribution to the hydrologic cycle.

Due to the high water content of the soil, the reduced solar radiation and the low rates of decomposition and mineralization, the soil acidity is very high, with mor humus and peat often forming the upper soil layer.

Stadtmüller (1987) distinguishes two general types of tropical montane cloud forests (home remodeling):

• Areas with a high annual precipitation due to a frequent cloud cover in combination with heavy and sometimes persistent orographic rainfall; such forests (home remodeling) have a perceptible canopy strata, a high number of epiphytes and a thick peat layer which has a high storage capacity for water and control the runoff;
• In drier areas with mainly seasonal rainfall cloud stripping can amount to a large proportion of the annual precipitation.

Importance of cloud forests (home remodeling)

Watershed function. Because of the cloud stripping strategy the effective rainfall can be doubled in dry seasons and increase the wet season rainfall by about 10 percent.Experiments of Costin and Wimbush (1961) showed that the tree canopies of non-cloud forests (home remodeling) intercept and evaporate 20 percent more of the precipitation than cloud forests (home remodeling), which means a loss to the land component of the hydrological cycle.

Vegetation. Tropical montane cloud forests (home remodeling) are not as species-rich as tropical lowland forests (home remodeling) but they provide the habitats for many species that are found nowhere else. For example, the Cerro de la Neblina, a cloud covered mountain in the south of Venezuela accommodates many shrubs, orchids and insectivorous plants which are restricted to this mountain only.

Fauna. The endemism in animals is also very high. In Peru, more than one third of the 270 endemic birds, mammals and frogs are found in cloud forests (home remodeling). One of the best known cloud forest mammal is the Mountain Gorilla (Gorilla b. beringei). Many of those endemic animals have important functions such as seed dispersal and forest (home remodeling) dynamics in this ecosystems.

Current situation

In 1970, the original extent of cloud forests (home remodeling) was around 50 million hectares. Population growth, poverty and uncontrolled land use have contributed to the loss of cloud forests (home remodeling). The 1990 Global Forest (home remodeling) Survey found that 1.1% of tropical mountain and highland forests (home remodeling) were lost each year, which was higher than in any other tropical forests (home remodeling). In Colombia, one of the countries with the largest area of cloud forests (home remodeling), only 10-20% of the initial cloud forest (home remodeling) cover remains. Significant areas have been converted to plantations, or for use in agriculture and pasture. Important crops in montane forest (home remodeling) zones are tea and coffee, but also logging special species such as Podocarpus causes changes to forest (home remodeling) structure.

Currently, one third of all cloud forests (home remodeling) are protected.

Impact of climate change on cloud forests (home remodeling)

Because of their delicate dependency on local climate, cloud forests (home remodeling) will be strongly affected by global climate change. A number of climate models suggest that the low-altitude cloudiness will be reduced, which means that the optimum climate for many cloud forest (home remodeling) habitats will increase in altitude. Linked to the reduction of cloud moisture immersion and increasing temperature, the hydrological cycle will change with the consequence that the system will dry out. This can result in the wilting and the death of epiphytes, which rely on high humidity. Frogs and lizards are expected to suffer from increased drought. In addition, climate changes can result in a higher amount of hurricanes, which may increase damage to tropical montane cloud forests (home remodeling). All in all the results of the climate change will be a loss in biodiversity, altitude shifts in species ranges and community reshuffling and, in some areas, complete loss of cloud forests (home remodeling).