Where the tree falls let it lie. Is that it? And assuming none of its roots are still in the ground, how long does it take to rot away and become part of the earth again? One man who used the shade of a section of a trunk five feet long, three feet high, as shelter for some tender seedlings, saw it melt down as soil built up on top from dead leaves, weeds that grew and died, and bird droppings. It was on soft ground and he swears that in 10 years it was diminishing fast. After 20 it seemed to speed up and less than 30 years after, it was on ground level, gone. He didn't know the species nor note its condition at the beginning. This comes to mind on reading yet again about that most remarkable of all European forests, Bialowieza in eastern Poland, with hundreds of years of preservation behind it. Where trees fall, they lie and fade away. If a tree falls across a path, a section of it is cut to let the path through, that's all. In the Polish part of the forest - the rest is across the border in Belarus - there is a 25,000 acre heart known as the Strict Preserve. No one goes in without a guide. Groups may never be more than 25. Nothing may be taken in or out. Dogs, radios and loud talk are banned.
Michael Wigan in The Field describes his experience under the guidance, oddly of "Mietek, a Baptist pastor". The wolf is prominent. "Its melancholy howl is indescribably affecting." Wolves can travel 90 miles a day. They consume a roe deer every four days. And recently killed 69 cattle belonging to local villagers. There are only 10 to 15 foxes in the area. Why? Well, many owls and raptors keep the rodent population down and in winter, with snow, foxes are reduced to scavenging the scraps left by wolves. Great damage in winter from deer eating bark and foliage of the trees. The main timber is oak, lime and hornbeam. Bird life is remarkable: over 230 species. "Bialowieza makes British bird reservations look like wastelands," writes Wigan. There are 33 Polish nature reservations and, in all, access is limited. The bison is the most formidable and biggest animal in the wood. It died out, but some were introduced from the Carpathians and now the wood holds about 250. Shooting and culling keep the number of old animals down. This is nature pure. A film about the forest ends with the words that it did not need foresters to create Bialowieza.