The Nurse Log

In the old-growth forests of Washington's Olympic Peninsula, hikers often notice something remarkable: perfectly straight rows of towering Western hemlocks and Sitka spruces growing in elevated lines through the forest. Rangers call them "colonnades," and their origin tells a story that echoes across centuries. Each colonnade began with a single massive tree that fell to the forest floor. Rather than rotting into nothing, that fallen giant became what ecologists call a "nurse log" — a dying tree that pours every nutrient it possesses into sustaining new life.…