Forests in the olden days
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- Опубликовано: 9 июн 2024
- Forests and woodland in the ancient and medieval worlds didn't look the way they show in the movies.
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I visited a local wildlife sanctuary based in a wood. In order to attract birds, they left the woods unmanaged, so that the undergrowth and rotting falling trees afforded good habitat for insects and ground-nesting birds. I talk about a few things, including climax vegetation, the burning of woods by hunter-gatherers, the medieval practices of coppicing and pollarding, and the way a modern managed woodland (the sort that you almost always see in the movies) looks neither like a heavily-managed medieval wood nor a wilderness unmanaged wood.
Lindybeige: a channel of archaeology, ancient and medieval warfare, rants, swing dance, travelogues, evolution, and whatever else occurs to me to make.
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His cadence makes me feel like it's going to turn into a Monty Python sketch.
Jordan Gutierrez HES A WITCH!
thats exactly what i was thinking bahaha
And now... the Larch. The Larch.
Also, the fact Lloyd has a passing resemblance to Graham Chapman does help.
Jordan Gutierrez
(Horseman be heads him)
FRANK!
"this wood has not been managed for 75 years..." - i feel ya
😂😂😂
you look good for your age!
you look good for your age!
you look good for your age!
you look good for your age!
I’d like to know what this man has in all of his pockets
Hannah D ha hahaha 👏🏽👏🏽😂omg me too ! Sorry but your comment deserves way more likes and laughs lollol!! That’s hilarious. Girl , no telling what’s in there but I bet there’s all kinds of who’s it’s and what’s it’s going on in each one ... and perhaps a letter to himself , from himself to remind him where he put all the contents of his pockets , in the event of a pocket emergency .,, or he probably just has them all filled with sandwiches , idk 😂. Seriously though , your comment had me cracking up 🤣! I think he owes it to us to do a separate video about what’s in there 😂
it drugs
Kendal mint cake. A pen knife. Zippo lighter a pipe and a pouch of gold block. A ball of twine.. A real ale beer mat.. Hip flask with homemade sloe gin. And a small pot of vaseline and gaffer tape n zip ties...
antihistamine, bug spray, sun block, chap stick and tissues
A sword
forests in the olden days were also home to bands of merry men, it's well documented
were men men in tights
Pat Maloney if the men are wearing tights then I would suppose so. Otherwise no.
@@patmaloney5735 we roam around the forest looking for fights
Merry men still inhabit the woods of today, although now they're known as drunken louts.
Hahahahaha!
"Some creature has been digging here, I don't know what creature and I don't know what for."
Cheers mate.
“I don’t know and I don’t know what for” is my new go to phrase
A hive of information!
I enjoyed it though!
I don't get it
Kudos for the honesty 😁👍
When you wear an outfit like that you should have the answers to any and all outdoor questions.
Literally the most English thing ever: "Oh dear, I seem to have been shot."
i thought i was watching a Chieftain tank video for a second "Oh bugger the tank is on fire"
oh deer
"O bloody hell , There's a hole in our plane"
"I suggest we just jump ,William"
Can everyone stop getting shot!
(Lock stock reference)
7:34 is where its at
“Yes, those are rhododendrons”
That delivery killed me
i had a roll of linolium delivered once((
Id like to buy some cheese please.
I mean, he is correct
"Oops, they're paying attention to me, time to leave" calmest reaction ever to seeing wasps wtf
Hm, I never understood why people lose their shit when they see a wasp... Just stay calm and don't swing your arms around and you should be perfectly fine. I have been stung by a wasp a few times but I still never lose my shit.
It depends on the species of wasp too of course but yeah if you don’t act aggressively chances are the wasp doesn’t care enough to go through the trouble of stinging you. I’ve had a wasp nest pretty much in my bathroom (there were at least 10-20 of them in there every morning) where I had to go every morning for about a week before I could get it removed. Haven’t been stung once.
@@6105boe lmao sounds like an old military story, like the camp's bathroom had wasps or something
@@an_f-14_tomcat Last time I visited a friend, i opened up the front gate, only to find wasps IN the Gate. It seems wasps have decided to build their nest into the locking mechanism. It made me nervous, but the friend just shrugged it off. And the wasps did seem pretty calm.
@@indestructiblemadness8531 they're the friend's automated home defense system
I thought I went insane for a short moment at the fungi part.
FlintSparked It's kinda a necessity. Without forest management you migth run out of trees to cut down.
That's why you shouldn't eat them.
No, nobody know the truffles I've seen because of the fungus among us.
Yes... Almost as if you were eating them.
FlintSparked are they Psychedelic ??
It's weird watching this forest described as "unusual" because in the U.S. most of the forests look like this...
Yeah Maine has the most untouched forest in the lower 48 this teaches you the Brit’s mainly the English couldn’t survive in the woods
Tiuz Kanggz Nigga I’m part Native American I know more of the woods then You
You’re both quite woody, good for you
Both Charles
@@jedimasterjoe5386 Do you know much about smallpox vaccines?
“First you must find... another shrubbery! Then, when you have found the shrubbery, you must place it here, beside this shrubbery, only slightly higher so you get a two layer effect with a little path running down the middle.”
A path! A path!
"and then you must chop down the mightest tree in the forest with... a HERRING!!"
He changed everything I thought I knew about medieval wood in mere minutes
your previous extensive research on medieval woods was wasted!
serious, interesting talk
*FUNKY FUNGY FUFNUFNUNKYKKYY FUNGG-*
serious, interesting talk continues
haha i was so caught offgaurd when that came up in the vid,, hes def talked to mushroom before 0.o cuz they sound like that
Fun Fungi)))
that was one of he most terrifying things ive ever seen
That was my favourite bit.
Funky fungi
6:57 you snapped a leaf off! now those woods aren't "unmanaged" anymore....
Same thought
Haha
@Trouser Troll microgement
This is just like how I manage my problems
aw sheeet back to year 0
As an ecologist, I appreciate this so much. The British Isles
were dominated by temperate rainforests until the late Mesolithic and early Neolithic period and then they were dramatically transformed into cleared areas and managed forests. Agricultural technology appears to have come to the British Isles later than mainland Europe, but when it did, the forests were overwhelmingly cut down. Early trade records indicate a net import of lumber to medieval, what is now, England.
POV: a strange man with a popped collar approaches you in the middle of the woods
I didn’t even notice his collar until you mentioned it
His teachings were not requested, but it is best you listen, for it may turn out to be of use later
"oh deer, i seem to be shot by a hunter gatherer"
Trigg Ethridge Oh deer, I can't bear the pain!
"yes, like a horse with horns....."
This needs to be on a shirt
Let me support the excellent trigger discipline displayed in this video.
its a british deer
It's like John Cleese meets biology with a dash of Old Spice commercial.....
"I'm in a wood. A rather pretty wood. And a rather special kind of wood. But more about that later."
i think I'm in love.
OMG RIGHT?! He’s so lovely, I wonder if he’s single?
The wood your wood could smell like
2:11 sounds like an oblivion NPC.
"Old Spice" - only slightly older than I am.
The trees here have the power to block out the sun! But then it gets too cold so it makes another sun.
DOUBLE SUN POOOOWWWWWEEEEERRRRR!!!!
The British really do manage everything if a fallen tree being left alone is of major significance
Brexit is a doddle when you've been coppicing and pollarding every single piece of foliage in the land for thousands of years.
A fallen tree being left alone isn't the big deal, all dying trees being left alone to fall is. I don't know how much you know of forestry as an industry, but keeping hectares upon hectares of land in check is actually a large industry, one where both the land owner and hired hands can make a profit easily, with quite long waiting periods for the land owners...
He's like the Bob Ross of Geographical Science
Is he like David Bellemy ?
I own fourteen acres of this kind of wild growth. I am always tempted to clear it out and make some use of it, but when I walk through and see all the life that is thriving, I always get a soft spot in my heart and leave it alone. I have cleared only a trail to traverse from one side to the other. Nothing more. And even that was left along the sides of the trial to keep it natural as possible. I get dozens of request to harvest some of the more valuable timber (walnut, oak and ash) because it is so old. I have a walnut that is two feet in diameter, 60 feet high and almost perfectly straight with very few knots or branches. I have been offered $10,000 for it alone.
Well good on ya for leaving it alone.
Xortsa I hope you are being true, not sarcastic. So, I will say thank you.
That's a good deal.
Good wood had been pretty scarce nowadays any furniture makers would agree . Market filled with the cheap fast growing varieties.
Get that tree to a good size.
We have been forced to cut down a couple of 200+ years old oaks recently, as the neighbours complained about the occassional branch breaking off and falling on thier fence or garage. (No actual harm was done, but... insurance, you know.)
It really pained me to see those trees go.
Everyone around just *knew* we were just doing it for the money, and would be Filthy Rich (tm) for it.
Turned out the oaks had been rotting away from the inside (as oaks are known to do). We got just enough money out of the trees to pay the woodcutter.
Keep your wild growth preserved. It's a place of nature, and a place of peace. We have too few of those as it is.
Thanks for keeping it the way it is. That forest being a home to so many animals is way more enriching than a bit of money, don't you think?
Best wildlife presenter ever: "Some creature has been digging here. I don't know what creature, and I don't know what for"
"Oh... Their paying attention to me, time to leave I think!"
+George Cochrane An alternative was that I faked knowledge: "You see here that a left-pawed badger three days ago dug for eight minutes just after dawn to discover [sniffs] just over an ounce of truffles, before heading off east, limping slighting on it rear right leg."
Lindybeige You have to taste it or your not fooling anyone.
Makes me sad that many places don’t have any old growth Forest left. Whereas here in New Zealand I can just go to the local bush and walk past thousand year old trees.
All yalls trees will be axed in the near future. So enjoy
@@scottndawn Our native forests are legally protected and are not allowed to be tampered with by humans. 🙂🇳🇿
New Zealand is a cool place
@@scottndawn lol by who, they're legally protected and we have purpose built forestry reserves specifically for lumber which are all replanted every time one is cut down
but you're just a contrarian anyway, I'm wasting my time
@@Deadbeatcow I hope so. As long as we keep listening past the politicians' double-speak and listen to those who speak for our forests (rather than for their own interests) we should be OK. We should never take the beautiful Bush we have for granted though.
I have no clue why I'm even watching this but it's definitely interesting
Covid19 restrictions
There were a couple of small patches of real ancient woodland near to where I used to live in Cumbria - in the Vale of Eden.
Age: about 10,000 years.
I went into them both and it was amazing to see the sheer variety of plant life inside.
The trees there are mainly Silver Birch, Mountain Ash, Scots Pine, Hazel, and a few Oak.
A lot of light gets through to the forest floor, which has areas of Bracken, Heather, Bilberry, Crowberry and, in the wetter areas, Sphagnum Moss.
These fragments used to be part of the forest that covered Britain soon after the last ice-age.
They're not open to the public, but there was no one around to see me.
Felt very privileged to be able to see how the North of England looked 10,000 years ago, before man cleared the forests.
yep typical, an ancient forest, the wild outdoors,,,were people are not allowed to tread. assholes.
@Steffen Bakken yep we are good at destroying things,,and each other, aint that the sad truth.
@@inspectorcal not nessisarly sad
@@johnnygreenface4195 kinda sad to think that we gotta protect the forest against ourselves
@@user-fz3ip3ke8p I mean we destroyed Small Pox. No one cries at the loss of that life. We destroyed the Nazis. Being good at destroying things isnt that bad when there are a lot of things we would be better off destroying.
I got a real Monty Python vibe off, "Are those rhododendrons!?"
Yes, and now for something completely different...
Lemon curry?
And now Number 1 - The Larch!
what i thought when i heard "oh dear i seem to have been shot by a hunter-gatherer"
Shrubberyyyyyy!
You have all my gratitude and all my respect as a natural sciences student for doing this video. It's unbelievable how many people don't know anything about forests and ancient landscapes.
Every once in a while I remember about this video and then have to rewatch it. I can't explain it, it's so nice.
I really, REALLY enjoyed this video. This is something I'd never even considered and was *extremely* enlightening. This is what I really appreciate about this channel. So many historical channels just talk about the "fun bits" like weapons and fighting. But that is low hanging fruit because it's way more within my existing knowledge, and is far easier to find info on. I honestly don't know where I'd even begin to find this information and that makes Lindybeige's video on it that much more valuable and precious.
Fuck yeah, Lloyd. You are awesome.
You should check out the book 1492, I had to read it for a cultural anthropology class and it was enlightening.
It talks about this affect in America, and the public perception about what it used to look like compared to actuality.
ObviousError Hmm, I'll add it to my reading list. Thanks!
If you're interested in this kind of stuff then just read general natural science books/papers on vegetation communities and how they change over time. I study conservation and environmental management and we learn a lot of this stuff. Really fascinating, awesome to see out condensed like this
Nathan Arcus It's not just the tending of the forest. It's that he talked about it in context of history and the life of average persons. Most people talking about history cover battles, wars, kings, heroes, and weapons(sometimes armor, but even that gets way less love).
Okay, there's only one thing I have to say, us hunter-gatherers may burn forests and make clearings, but we don't make parking lots and factories...
+TheMadGunther Laziness.
+TheMadGunther
"Us"? Are you a hunter-gatherer? And you invented internet and computers?!
+TheMadGunther Parking lots had a clear line of sight before someone decided to deposit automobiles in them. =P
Touche...
+TheMadGunther dont categorize yourself as a hunter gatherer and say 'us,' youre on youtube. youre a survivalist not a hunter-gatherer
This is giving me flashbacks to my parents walking me through the woods and making me identify everything we can across, I loved it.
Now I’m imagining a deer being shot and just out of nowhere saying “Oh dear, I seem to have been shot by a hunter-gatherer.”
Ha pretending that the fungi aetiporus sulphureus has a Lancastrian accent, how absurd, everybody knows aetiporus sulphureus have brummie accents. Hilarious.
Yome right there ar kid...
AND aetiporus sulphureus are very yam yam.
(Yes, I KNOW, that's Blackcountry before I get jumped on!)
@@CahtodeRay it ay even black country its wednesbury
Funky fungi!!!
This is one of the least clickable video titles i've come across I think... Naturally I had to click it.
N A T U R A L L Y
@Lol Why Na I prefer this.
You are wrong, it is one of the most tempting seducing titles
There are worse titles for the algorithm.
You didn't want to learn about old wood?
7:35 check out the odd movement of that branch behind him.
@DeltroxTv no it was an ent
RUclips knows me better than I know myself, thank you recommendations
Lindybeige is an exceptionally good presenter. He really should be on tv. Who is he? What is his background. He is a journalist? He is also very funny.
@MrZapparin archaeology i thought?
He is from the sperm of Superman and the womb of Mary Magdalen.
This guy is awesome and the video super informative. So lucky to have stumbled across this.
He piloted a science show for some TV channel before he did youtube. He said it never got accepted/funded and it's one of the reasons he started RUclips. So you could say he has prior experience in presenting, but I would attribute his presenting skills to the fact that he has been doing RUclips for a very long time already.
@@bastogne315 why would you randomly choose Mary Magdalene?
Saruman was also responsible for deforestation back then
TAKE HIM DOWN LEGOLAS
middle earth was the Danish (it old Anglo Saxon, I forget) for the British isles
+fatsamcastle Are you thinking of 'Midgard' in the Germanic languages?
0:37
"Man chopped down the forest".
Thanks for clearing that up.
This feels like I've stumbled across my dad's youtube channel that he's been working on while he said he was at the pub
That funky fungi scene was the greatest comedic sketch of the 21st century
As an American, I was kind of shocked by the idea of un-managed woods being something special. It is all over the place in the Eastern US and elsewhere. Even in logged areas, we keep the brush out as it grows back. We just cut it, leave it for years, and then come back and cut again. But pretty much any land in the Eastern US that doesn't have a building, yard, or farm on it is un-managed forest. There is so much forest that most of it isn't logged on a regular basis (mainly because it looks ugly when logged and the money only makes up for that so much, so most people don't want loggers on their property). I live in a rural area and I have almost 5 acres of un-managed forest on my property.
And now it's all burning. Oopsie.
Mountain Rogue I think you’re confused most of the north eastern US is currently covered in snow not fire. Like average temps are in the 10s-20s F everyday (-10 to -5 C) if you’re thinking about the west ie California, then sure you can say it on fire but those forest fires have been pretty common over like the past few years.
@@xanthopoulos1825, that's only if you're talking about this season, not the past few years covering a lot more of the nation. Hell, how old of a comment did I reply to? And how old of one did you? Nice try though.
Mountain Rogue Nah he’s right, the fires are mostly a Western thing. There’s quite a bit more to the country than that. He mentioned the Eastern part but Canada and the South and the midwest also have their own natural beauties/cool forests. Even NYC has Cunningham Park. Lot of conservation efforts here in the last century
I know right? Here in florida we don't have a single managed forest I've ever seen. The brush here is so high that walking through it is almost a certain way to get covered in ticks, stung by wasps, and bitten by snakes.
English: I’m doing maths in the wood. American:I’m doing math in the woods.
Florida man: I'm doing meth in the trees
@Asios say math in the UK and you sound like your education has come from the Simpsons and CNN
Fernando II de Taboada you’re funny that’s funny
@Asios I'm just saying that math is still exclusively American English. You study maths at school and are brought up with maths, if you say math I'd assume you weren't British, or a rather poor spy.
you can but you'd sound like a twat
-Australia
I always wondered why some trees looked so weird. Thank you, Lindybeige, for clearing it up for me. I've seen 'pollarded' trees many times and had no idea what they were.
7:35, don't look now but I think that tree just came alive. Infected by The Colour Out of Space!!!
+bitfreakazoid Sometimes I wonder if the time I spend on special effects is worth it.
lol
+bitfreakazoid ahaha i wanted to comment the same thing, that tree movement was a bit spooky
+bitfreakazoid Good call, I haven't noticed that.
+bitfreakazoid I am no tree I am an ent!
Hi, Lindybeige. I'm an environmental scientist. One of the things we study is how people interact with their landscapes. In fact, one of the problems that we encounter when trying to restore landscapes to 'ancient' conditions is that,well, we don't know what the ancient landscape was actually like. For example, the American Parks Service tries to recreate landscapes that existed before Columbus arrived in 1492. The only real problem with that, is that these 'wild' landscapes were, in fact, actually very carefully managed by their Native American caretakers. So, the great big open forests of the Northwest, for example, only existed because the Natives regularly set fire to them!
There isn't really a landscape on Earth that man hasn't touched and molded in some way, which is why you have to be careful when talking about what 'natural' is.
I have never been so educated and entertained by one video. I want more, hell yeah
That bug that flew by at about the 1:43 mark scared the shit out of me
Lloyd's talking to fungus again. He must be a forest nymph or something.
I own a large amount of land in Ma, US and I do not really mange it. The trees are basically doing whatever they want. When I was younger I used to cut some for firewood but as I have aged that has stopped. My neighbors let their forest free range too. The largest land owner is a logging company and they do manage their land. They clear cut a few acres and then they move on to the next area. In a few years the forest fills in pretty nicely. Its great having the logging company as my neighbor has they never build on their land. They cleared some land across the street from me and now they will never cut again in my life. Its all good.
can I camp on your land?
Also live in mass. So much land here was once cultivated in some parts but these forests old as hell with much more foliage and ground cover than in the video
New England woods are lovely, but ya gotta see the Redwoods.
Just imagine trees 4 times taller (300+ foot tall.)
I would not build on land next to you either))
@@honeysucklecat So true. I have seen my fair share of redwoods and other old growth trees. I have done hikes for that purpose only. They are not only beautiful but majestic. Take care
Its very easy to differentiate an untouched forest from one in which people gather firewood. In remote areas the amount of deadfall makes it impossible to travel without climbing over huge piles of deadwood every 10 feet. The arrowhead of Minnesota is like this. There is a multi million acre wilderness area called the BWCA (Boundary Waters Canoe Area), where you can penetrate deep into the northwoods. If you were forced to walk out, you would make about 2 miles per day - its that dense.
I grew up in the Ozark Mountains where it would be really weird to see managed woods. I am sure there were some places that were managed, but mostly it was really thick underbrush that is hard to walk in, so you had to find deer trails to follow.
Białowieża Forest in Poland is supposed to be a remnant of the primeval forest of Europe. I have seen similar forests in Lithuania but not In Britain. There were some ancient forests in England in medieval times though - such as the Weald which is now mostly farmland and housing etc.
The Norman conquest actually resulted in more woodland as there were laws against commoners collecting wood, hunting or generally messing about in the woods which belonged to the Norman nobles.
That spot in Poland is where a new species of fungi in the genus anthroporia was coined in 2017-18 from the an older genus called Antrodia.
The mushroom is called anthroporia albobrunea.
Isn't it in Poland and Belarus? I went there from Belarus.
yes, it spreads from Poland to Belarus.
ill get around to watching your stuff, jive.
I do want to start with the indo european connection you did though.
Here in Sweden, almost half the country is covered in forest. I think we managed to cut down most of it around a hundred years ago because industries were picking up in speed. Then we promptly started replanting it.
"My backyard has denser forest than that." - every American
can confirm.
I .... actually do. It's only an acre but yeah.
And I guess it's also unmanaged because there's plenty of rotten logs, fallen trees and ground cover.
Note the climate and ferns keep the undergrowth down.
Must be nice being able to take a walk through the woods. Where I live the woods are an impenetrable 50 foot tall bush that spans as far as the eye can see.
@@tralt135 Don't forget the 30 foot long thorny vines strong enough to stop a charging rhino.
he's using his pants to hold up his belt :D
And those pants are so tight they look painful.
@Henk de Tank oh no
🤣😂
Charismatic guide to our ancient world! Great job! Enjoyed it!
Why is your name like that?
7:30 A deer who says "oh Dear!" xD That was priceless :D
I like ur hair it’s piff👅🍑🔥😍❤️😘🏈😂
wot
Metatron watches this channel? Insta-sub
at 7.37 when he said hunter gatherer, the hanging branches behind turned towards him.
Metatron correction "oh dear that was priceless."
I feel like the modern approach to forestry could learn a lot from the old times. To me it makes so much sense to manipulate trees into growing what you need and continuously harvesting from the same tree, rather than just blindly cutting everything, finding uses for it after the fact, and then starting over from square one with new seedlings.
This channel is an absolute mind bender. Love the content your dry wit is unmatched and the little sketches are so much fun
a hunter gatherer disliked this vid
+ReK Not many have good internet speed.
+Lindybeige I don't know why they'd hold that against you
+Lindybeige Quick question, what is up with India's fighting force called the Rajput? My coworker showed me something called Sikh Martial Arts and it is based on Rajput. I've never seen anything like it before and I was wondering why? Why did India create weapons and tactics that were so different to what the rest if the world did?
+Lindybeige I pride myself on being random. I realize my question has absolutely nothing to do with the video.
+Kyle Gibson Now, I know I'm not who you asked, but here's my theory, I believe the reason why they were so different from the rest of the world is because very few western people went to the east before the colonization of India and East Asia. As a result, India developed what fit their needs in weaponry and fighting styles, after all, it is a jungle out there.
1:58
That leaf is wrong
👎
+Robert Cardwell That was a great call back, I actually did laugh out loud at that.
+Robert Cardwell Exactly what i thought :D
+Robert Cardwell I don't get it '-'
+WR16 watch the videos on ironclad maybe you'll get it then ;)
The small diggings and the pillaged wasps nest are typical signs of a Badger foraging.
This is the video that introduced me to this channel
This is something people don't realize about forests in America too, especially along the Atlantic coastline. You see when Europeans arrived, those forests were at the end stage of species succession (in ecology, succession refers to the order that species re-colonize after a disruption in the landscape. So like after Mt. St. Helens erupted and leveled vast tracts of mountainside, the first species in the succession cycle were ferns, followed by hardy shrubs, and now faster-growing trees like pine), and that end stage was one of the most impressive trees to ever exist - the American Chestnut. A mighty relative of the beech, the American Chestnut grew nearly 100 ft tall, and was the foundation species for the Mid-Atlantic forest belt. It provided the forest ecosystem with two vital food sources - its leaf fall was high in many essential minerals so it fed other plant species and contributed to extremely fertile soil along the Ohio river valley, and its annual nut crop helped fatten many animals just in time for winter. Then came the chestnut blight, and the tree that once defined the region, that was an essential part of American colonial and native culture, that provided the lumber from which a young United States built its first navy, the source of the chestnuts in the "chestnuts roasting on an open fire" song, was killed by a fungus in a few short years. The loss of four billion American chestnut trees destroyed the American lumber industry for decades, and is in no small part responsible for the invention of steel reinforced concrete as an alternative to traditional wood construction. Then there's the fact that it also decimated the brown bear population in the Appalachians since the bears relied on chestnuts for fattening up before hibernation, and the loss of these trees, whose mast was a great food source, directly contributed to the extinction of the Passenger Pigeon, once the most populous bird in North America, as well as the Ivory Billed Woodpecker, which relied on its dead logs for food. The surviving "forests" of today are nothing compared to the primeval world we have destroyed, and the sad part is we don't even realize it since nobody alive has seen what a pristine forest ecosystem is really like.
Its even more than that, at the turn of the last century most of new England was either being farmed or clear cut for logging. You can hardly walk through parts of NH for example without running into rock walls sooner or later. Berlin NH was also the logging capital of the world for a short while before WWII
There hasn't been any people alive to see an untouched forest for recorded history would be more accurate, perhaps the taigas are the least touched but they are one of the simplest and least diverse types that exist, so there are some that fairly quickly reach their last stage quickly despite slow growth. The first records of the amazon forest showed less than half of what was around in the early 1900's is what the first Europeans considered its natural range because of the agricultural peoples that would clear forest and then move on to another section when it no longer became fertile, they are the most fragile type of forest there is and one of two types of forest that are in possible future danger long term and have the most diversity both of plant and animals of all the forest types, they only grew to their later larger sizes when these peoples mostly left there old way of life for a new one with 3 exceptions now reservations, people were surprised when they were given that land that that cleared the entire area just make an attempt at resurrecting their lost cultural ways of their ancestors, but there is no way to know how accurate they are doing this because they are many generations and hundreds of years separated with only claims of oral tradition among people living a completely new life, a little hard to believe but if true, eh, I personally don't care one way or another.
The rain-forests, both sub-tropic and tropical can be contrasted with the temperate forests that are so resilient that as timber tonnage from them increases, their growth rate is able to increase in area and more surprisingly density indefinitely with current knowledge of forestry for future needs of timber of all those alive today and probably for the lifetime of many future generation, yet they are in zero danger as many of them are actually protected or even more and better on private land of those that value their natural evolution above the resources they provide or even the private hunting organizations and some individuals that have some of the most impressive forests with deer population near ranch-like size, essentially an unlimited food source and the largest local populations of deer ever recorded. Or by people that balance the three. These forests grow like weeds and the wildlife populations mostly are small in diversity and reproduce relatively quickly and insanely quickly when timbered in a way that provides them the ideal habitat.
No, the forests that colonists found were certainly not primeval. The Indians (the natives) were intelligent and so actively managed the forests. They girdled (killed) tree species that didn't provide things they wanted in order to promote trees that produced what they sought, particularly nuts that they ate or that game species ate. That's why there were so many Chestnut and Oak trees. They also burned forests to create clearings for farming and to promote game species for hunting. One of the best examples of this was the Hempstead Plains on Long Island.
No such thing as a climax community.
@@thitherword giggity
Great. I've just found another channel I'll be binge watching all night
You mean beige watching... ;-P
get a girl
+Nummi31 or an lbgqt
In burkina faso, people still do coppicing. You see it all around
It's still done in the UK as well.
It still blows my mind how some ppl live their whole life not learning. Great job. Keep it up
The native Californians used to manage their forests. They didn't leave things as they were; they would help clear space around large oaks and redwoods and would periodically burn grassland, which made it more fertile. They also would frequently pick wild roots, pulling them out of the ground and helping to aerate the soil. Their interaction with the surrounding environment was like a symbiotic relationship and kept the land healthier and the forests free from disease.
Same with native oregonians too; they even used to do controlled burns in the forests, which rid the forests of extra fuel. This isn't done anymore, so fuel does nothing but build up over time, and causes serious wildfires in the dry season. If only we managed our forests like we used to.
@@2004FordRangerXLT they’re actually considering doing controlled burns now which is great. I guess all the fires last year gave us a kick in the boot to do what needs to be done.
@@reharp2037 that's great to hear! 👏
Aboriginal (Native Australian) tribes did similarly. Back-burning etc.
The first thing that comes to mind is, "fire adaptation is that some species actually require fire for their seeds to sprout. Some plants, such as the lodgepole pine, Eucalyptus, and Banksia, have serotinous cones or fruits that are completely sealed with resin."
@DANIEL WERNER whoa, cool name. c: (Sounds like an apothecary plant straight outta a fantasy world.)
Fascinating! I live in the US, and grew up in its west, so I was quite surprised to hear the wood this was filmed in described as unusual. But we don't really have woods here, just forests, which indeed tend to be even denser and more ramified than that one.
Yonatan Zunger in Midwestern USA there's usually clumps of small woods that I guess could be called "unmanaged", even in or around some suburbs. I grew up around some that looked a lot like this, the only real difference would be the specific species of trees, etc...
Evergreen State for the win! :D
Go to Colorado, Wyoming, Montana, etc and most of the forested regions are "unmanaged" as he called them.
Where I grew up (Northeast Germany, South-East Mecklenburg West Pomerania/Northern Brandenburg) there are lots of really old forests. There are trees that are more than 40m in height and probably ~300 years old (mind the good old German Oak). I more or less grew up "in" (close proximity to) these forests and seeing this video immediately made me think "Well, that forest is no way older than 150 years."
Olympic National Forest, WA (evergreen state), USA, where I grew up, is full of trees that have fallen to rot and feed the forest, called nurse logs. It is a beautiful place. I had no idea there were entire forests that were actually any different (managed) until I heard about European forests.
Now these are are the kinds of the videos I wanted to come across in my recommendations, this is interesting.
Your videos are always so very interesting and fun! You have such a wonderful sense of humor and a wealth of esoteric knowledge.
Oh please, everyone knows Britain was a forest until Saruman came with his Uruk hai.
+KalteGeist the funny thing about this comment is that tolkein took alot of inspiration from old english peoples, languages, and legends. so for all I know, there could be a historical inspiration for the uruk hai.
+KalteGeist a wizard should know better!
Why did the mushroom go to the party? Because he was a funghi.
Get it? Funghi? Fun guy...? I'll show myself out...
nice
+GundamSentinel
Shame
Shame
+GundamSentinel There wasn't mushroom in there though.
+grindforcolumbine Ma'shroom * tips fedora *
+GundamSentinel Well, technically he was a fungus.
The teacher teaching us with his glorious Lindybulge below his left pocket.
10/10 wood.
Brilliant video once again, Lindybeige. I would love to see, if you don't mind doing it, of course, more stories such as the White Headhunter or the battle of Cannae! Such interesting history, and your storytelling is top notch.
Lindy is talking about England as it was WHOLE Europe... Eastern and Northern Europe population density was sooo low in middle ages there is no way most forests were managed... 1300s England + Walles had about 3milion people... while whole Scandinavia had less than 1,5 mil people while being far more forested and 1 000 000 km2. England+ Wales is 150 000 km2...
Most forest areas in the immediate vicinity of a village or town would have been.
Bartek Bierbasz Well thats the Lindy method: taking a general topic, and two minutes in says: ".. in Britain for example..." and the rest of the video is how this topic has played out in Britain. If you're lucky he throws in a tidbit from a commonwealth country.
Well, even in ENgland I have massive doubts on the possibility for 3 million of English to manage forests that covers not the entire country, of course, but a rather great part. Moreover, during nearly all the middle-ages population growth, and so new villages emerge and land is gained by chopping woods and do large cuts in forests. I don't think that peoples could do this if they managed (and so, use) all the forest, I imagine more like islands of civilization (and so managed woods) in the wild territory. Of course, it depends of the period, the early middle-age is not the late and the post Black-death is not the pre black-death ^^
If I take France, my country, in 1350, it was 15 millions of frenchies who lived in the territory, in 1500 it was 18 millions and in 1770, nearly 27 millions. It's a big augmentation, nearly twice men and I think that if the 15 millions of 1350 use all the forest, the 27 millions of 1770 will be in big troubles ^^'
poopsicle
Apparently Australia had huge forests, until the indigenous people started fires to help them hunt. I'm not sure, but I guess that Australia is a little bit bigger than the UK, and maybe even bigger than Europe!!! theconversation.com/how-aboriginal-burning-changed-australias-climate-4454 I would think that Europeans knew how to start fires as well.
Lindy needs to make a funky fungi shirt now.
+AaronThePaladin Seconded!
and a 'that leaf is wrong' one too
aaron what a horrible name i hate that name and i hate hypocrites
Damn son'
lol i have glasses too just realized
I love this beige man and his videos... Just Therapeutic.
My 11 acres in North Florida has been unmanaged since 1948. The wildlife diversity is fantastic.
Native Americans in the Eastern US with stone tools didn't even have forests like this. They burned out the underbrush yearly so to make traveling and hunting much easier as well as clearing large sections of forests entirely especially after being introduced to iron. The Myth that more primitive humans were at harmony with nature is nonsense, they didn't like the idea of getting ambushed by wolves anymore than we do.
Edit: and you just said the exact same thing right after I posted this lol.
+dreyrugr - I would say you can be at harmony with something while cutting down and manipulating it :P
um I live in what was Acadia (nova scotia) and we have thousands of forests that are unmanaged. The scale of north America prevented natives from doing anything on the scale you're suggesting
+dreyrugr Interesting note: When the Lewis and Clark expedition got into the lodge pole pine forests in what was to become western Montana and northern Idaho, they had an very hard time finding enough game to sustain themselves due to how close together the trees grew. The trees grew so closely together that the hunting parties could barely make their way through the woods.
+dreyrugr I'm talking about the civilized tribes and I'm not saying that they cleared off land to the extent of Europeans.
Everytime I'm at a party - 2:39
I am currently cutting down trees and planting prairie grasses. Much of America was once covered by prairie, and a lot of that prairie is now wooded because of fire suppression. The area I am in is a former Oak Savanna, and still has the remnant bur oaks to restore it. This area burned naturally back in the day, and the bur oaks survived because they are very fire resistant. Our degraded areas look exactly like the woods in this video.
Had to come back and watch some classics, Good old lindy, still as passionate today as he was back in 2016
.
7:36 I like how the branch in the back just suddenly decides to move for a moment.
It was clearly predator bigfoot.
Also thought so at first but it's actually just a twig in the foreground
it was an Ent
Rhys F. Holy SHIT
6:05
He probably ate a funky fungi! 💫🍄
by far the most interesting personality I've seen, love your videos.
Just an observation, here in Michigan and most of the northern tier of the US, most of the forests are secondary forest as the original virgin forests were cleared in the 1800s. Despite the fact that our secondary forests are under 100 years, they seem much denser and the trees are much larger than those shown in the video. There’s actually significantly more forest land today than in 1900.
The storm Lothard in 1999 was used as a springboard for the Swiss to change their forest management practices when a few million trees were knocked down.There is now a resurgence in wildlife. I now have beavers living along the creek close-by which has not been seen in living memory. :)
It's 3:20am
What am i doing
Will Dawson what a weird coincidence. Saw ure comment at the exact same time
Shrooming to funky fungi?
3:28am for me
how did I get here, and what is with all the would wood
learnin bout a wood
good job! Thanks. And I agree, I was waiting for "and now for something completely different" ... first time on your channel and a great way to start the New Year. Thanks I will be sure to binge watch.
When I was young there was a forest behind the burn at the back of my parents house... it was like this.. only a bit more dense.. fallen trees a metre thick... wild raspberries and blackberries.... there was a natural clearing.. about 25 feet wide.. with canopy mostly closed above... it was a place of wonder and amazement... it's beauty truely beyond any wood I have seen since.... when I was 8 years old they bulldozed it and made a roadway.. which was not needed.. and is hardly ever used...
Am I a funky fungi?
+SirKittalot Given that you can type, I'm going to guess not.
Aw
+Lindybeige But that's why they're funky!
You can be anything you want to be.
+Max Stirner Like an attack helicopter?
This reminds me how lucky I am to live in the Pacific Northwest, close to some very wild, very old forests. Hoom, hom.
Lots of logging in that area.... and fire.
simon jones The natives came from the old world same as the Europeans did. They had an open borders policy, look how well that worked out for them.
simon jones
No it doesn't they lost it in a war.
@Darcy Posein that is war. It isn't pretty, it isn't honorable, and there are no rules.
I recommend reading Sun Tzu for a start.
Darcy Posein lol couldn’t win a conventional war??? Absurd, rifles vs now and arrow, tomahawk vs revolver. Who you think comes out on top? Natives used Guerilla tactics and would not face the army honorably.
The amount of knowledge I just learned about this and applied to my New England woodland schema. Changed my view on the woods holy shit bruv
my first lindybeige video. revisiting it because it's still good
6:55 you managed that bracken, so you wasted all those 75 years of unmanagement.
I think that, when the fungii start talking about how funky they are, one may have eaten the wrong fungus.
+ArchArturo Or the right one...
Well, it depends on the objective. That being said, knowing to identify with mushrooms are edible, which ones are medicinal, which ones are harmful and which ones are... Emm, stimulating, is important.
+ArchArturo Or you've taken the perfect amount of lysergic acid deithylamide.
I love Lindy. The fungi bit 😍
Love ur work Lindy