The thick canopy moss and epiphyte mats of the Olympic rainforest create soil-like habitat high above the ground, supporting insects, amphibians such as canopy-dwelling salamanders, small mammals, nesting birds, and roosting bats. This aerial ecosystem allows some species to complete much of their life cycle in the treetops, a feature of the most well-developed temperate rainforests.
Look up into all that hanging moss and picture who lives up there, because it isn't empty. The thick mats of moss and fern high in these trees hold soil, water, and warmth, and a whole hidden community moves through them, insects, salamanders, even small mammals that may spend their entire lives in the canopy without ever touching the ground. Birds nest in it. Bats roost in it. There's an entire ecosystem suspended fifty, a hundred feet over your head, going about its business in the treetops while you drive by underneath.
Photo: Ron Clausen · CC BY-SA 4.0
