After many years, the old tree rotted and crumbled.
Then one day, in the very place the great, old tree once stood, a tiny, new tree sprouted.
And that was the beginning of a new tree story.
Eartworms tunneled and chewed. They helped turn the rotting tree into a mound of fine black soil.
In time, fungi, lichens, and moss covered the tree.
Toadstools and mushrooms appeared.
One day lightning struck the old tree.
Down it fell.
Some animals left, but new ones came.
A raccoon discovered a hole in the tree and built its den there.
Pill bugs and millpedes liked the cool, damp spaces between the old three and the forest floor.
Slugs moved in. Horned beetles and earwigs came.
Carpenter ants built nests under the tree's bark
A maple tree grew tall in the forest
The tree was a busy place
A downy woodpecker pecked for insects that scurried beneath the tree's bark.
A family of barred owls looked out from hollow high above.
Blue jays flew in and out of the tree all day.
Squirrels scampared in the tree's branches
Tree Story
