Exploring unfamiliar forests is among my favorite pastimes.
I love to wander. I love to meander. I love to feel lost.
After fifty years of hiking American forests, I always discover something interesting, exciting and new.
Yesterday, my husband and I drove to a large, nearby fish and wildlife area. We parked off the road, in a place we had never been before. We opened the van doors, released the dogs, and ventured into an unknown land.
In the early spring, the thorny branches of summer are still young and insignificant. It is easy to go off-trail.
When I am away from the path, I imagine the world as it was before the alterations made by man. I imagine the forest, stretching from ocean to ocean.
I imagine all that we have lost.
All that we have sacrificed in the name of progress and convenience.
What a shame.
I am grateful for the forest that remains. I am grateful that all is not lost.
My husband and I found ourselves in a marshy area with tall, healthy oak trees. The ground was soft and loamy, and there were scattered patches of water on the forest floor.
We walked on the dry land, between the marshes, and soon we entered a pine forest. While transitioning from the oak habitat to the pine, we felt the temperature drop. We both, automatically, took a long, deep breath of the fresh pine air. We were enveloped in the healing power of the exalted trees.
Walking in a pine forest to boost immunity and promote healing is what the Japanese call shinrin-yoku, which translates to mean “bathing in the forest atmosphere”, or “forest bathing.”
In his 2018 book, Forest Bathing: How Trees Can Help You Find Health and Happiness, researcher and professor, Qing Li, explained the science:
As well as having a higher concentration of oxygen, the air in the forest is also full of phytoncides. Phytoncides are the natural oils within a plant and are part of the tree’s defence system. Trees release phytoncides to protect them from bacteria, insects and fungi.
They are also part of the communication pathway between trees: the way trees talk to each other.”
“There is also a substance in the soil that we breathe in when we walk in the forest…a common and harmless bacteria, Mycobacterium vaccae.” (This stimulates the immune system and our emotions.)
In the forest, the phytoncides and mycobacterium are in the highly oxygenated air. When we walk slowly through a pine forest, our immune system is strengthened.
We receive the gift of health from the trees and the soil.
By simply breathing, while walking through a pines forest, my husband and I improved our health. We also improved our mood. Forest bathing caused a natural release of serotonin - the feel-good chemical that we all want and need.
We improved the health and well-being of our dogs, as well.
Feeling good, we continued our joyful jaunt. As we wandered, we took in our surroundings. We soon noticed a mound of sandy dirt, next to a hole.
How exciting! We didn’t know what kind of hole it was. We started naming animals that live in holes: Fox? Badger? Muskrat? Otter? Beaver?
Once we saw one hole, we saw many holes:
The drive home was spent researching midwestern animals who dig holes.
We were able to quickly rule out beaver and otter, due to the lack of lakes and rivers in the immediate area.
The holes were too big to be muskrat holes.
We had narrowed it down to red fox or badger, before I found the most lovely article about badger setts. It was written by a man who clearly displays his love and respect for badgers.
From his description, we knew that we had discovered a collection of badger setts. Or, maybe, multiple doors to one sett? (It is not a misspelling. A sett is a badger hole.)
We also knew that we were lucky to have found them, and to have experienced them. Soon, they will be concealed under leaves and plants. Before long, they will be inaccessible to humans, behind walls of thick, thorny branches.
The Diary of a Badger Watching Man:
Highlights
People think of badgers as woodland creatures, and it’s true, they mostly do live in woods and that is where to look for them. But they don’t spend all their time there. In the UK, the main food of the badger is the earthworm, and the best place to catch earthworms is on short grass – ideally grass that has been grazed by livestock. So the best place to find badgers is in woodland that borders on grassy fields. They live in the wood and that gives them shelter and security; and they can feed in the fields.
Badgers prefer the nice, dry sandy soil, but they also seem quite happy in clay. Badgers definitely seem to prefer a sloping site rather than a very flat one. This might be the slope of a hill, the side of a disused quarry or even a large hedgerow bank. They like anywhere where they can tunnel in sideways rather than straight down.
Badger setts are very extensive underground. Some have up to 300m of tunnels – far more than rabbits or foxes. The badgers have to shift a lot of soil, and this means that badger setts usually have substantial spoil heaps outside. Over time these spoil heaps can literally change the shape of the landscape, creating large shelves or platforms outside the holes. The main sett that I watch is obviously an old one, as the whole area is pock-marked by holes and hummocks so that it resembles a First World War battlefield. Active setts are easy to spot because there will usually be fresh spoil outside. Badgers are compulsive diggers, and although much digging is done in spring before the cubs arrive, they will tend to dig all year round.
My father had an interest in foraging when I was a kid. It became an interest of mine, as well.
Since my mom’s illness, I have completely lost faith in the western medical system. As a result, I have become far more serious about my study of medicinal plants. My ultimate goal is to acquire all of the skills necessary to live outside of the system.
To read the story of what got me to this point, start at the beginning:
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I love to drink pine sirup, but it’s not always easy to find in the store. I dry pine needles, mix them into a powder, add equal parts of cinnamon, star anise and fennel seed powder, and mix a bit of it in my coffee. I also like the pine extract bath foam