Nurse Logs among Coast Redwoods
Continued from: Coast Redwood Information2013 by M. D. Vaden
Basically, nurse logs are decaying or decayed trunks on which seeds have landed, germinated and grown. The logs can vary ... Spruce, Douglas Fir, Hemlock and other. The species that grow on them can be those same ones, others like Coast Redwoods, or smaller shrubs and plants like Rhododendron and Huckleberry. The nurse log aspect can include rotted stumps. When either the stumps or the logs completely rot-away over decades or centuries, it can leave unusual trunks, some like contorted stilts. If the nurse log was a fallen trunk, you may find a row of living trunks almost in a straight line. Sometimes the nurse logs remains, other times not. This is not exclusive to Coast Redwood forest.
One of the most outstanding nurse log sights is in Jedediah Smith Redwoods State Park, at the east end of Hatton Trail, not far from the Hiouchi Trail. The photo below shows what remains of that nurse log, which is a row of big Coast Redwoods all in alignment. Most likely, they germinated on a fallen Douglas Fir. Seems too little is left of the log for it to have been a decay-resistant Coast Redwood. Hemlock doesn't really get tall enough on that slope to have fallen and offered that long of a seed bed. But Douglas Firs are present and grow tall enough there to do this.
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