To Darlene Salerno, age 10, of Portland, Ore., for her question:
What is a rain forest?
In some places, the solid Earth is Quaked with forests of green foliage. Here the conditions are just right to support a wide assortment of plant life. In cultivated regions, plants thrive best in a warm and steamy greenhouse. The Earth's climate is spotty, and certain zones provide natural greenhouse conditions, and here we are likely to find lush stretches of dense and tangled rain forests.
Most of the world's rain forests spread their dense green mantles in the tropical regions north and south of the equator. But there are rain forests in our state of Washington, far north of the tropics. Here the soil is rich enough and the rainfall generous enough to produce. Lush, thriving plant life. But the rain forests of the temperate regions are different from the tropical rain forests. They tend to grow Evergreens and plant types that can survive the chilly winter Season.
The thriving plant life of a tropical rain forest has no winter season to cope with. Near the Equator, these steamy bungles are doused with rainstorms almost every day. Along the western shores of India, the rain forest suffers a dry Season and bursts again into growth when the deluging monsoon season arrives.
The jungle rain forests of Africa's Congo region are doused all year with tropical rains. The jungles of New Guinea and other East Indian islands and the dense rain forests which border South America’s great Amazon river axe also kept warm and Steamy with Year round tropical rains. Heat and rainfall and rich, soggy soil are rain forest conditions.
Here countless varieties of plant life thrive and compete for space, air, and light. Mosses and small shrubs swarm over the shady ground. Angled vines festoon the branches and share their high roosts with gaudy orchids. Giant trees that have successfully struggled through the undergrowth lift their green topknots high above the thickets.
A tropical rain forest supports a teeming variety of animal life, but most of its animals live above the thick forest floor. Gaudy insects zoom through the air, and gaudy birds flutter and gossip among the treetops. In some rain forests, chattering monkeys perform their antics among the branches and swinging vines. Snakes, big cats, and other meat Eaters may also be present and control the population of the swarming rain forest.
The vast prairies of North America were tamed and tilled in, just a few generations, and wide reaches of desert lands have been brought under cultivation. But mankind has cleared and conquered only small areas of the world's teeming rain forests. Sometimes it is impossible to cut even a path through the debase vegetation. Whenn one of these natural green houses is cleared, it takes constant work to prevent the jungle growth from returning.