89 Natural Facts About Lungs of the Earth: Forests

The Rainforest Trust, which buys acres of the forest using donations and permanently protects them. They have already protected 11,500,000 acres.

27. A forest of 100,000 "artificial trees" could be deployed within 10 to 20 years to help soak up the world's carbon emissions.

28. Trees in the red forest, a forest in the Chernobyl exclusion zone, are not decaying because organisms that recycle organic matter suffer from radiation as well.

29. There is a 390-acre tract of-of virgin old growth forest in central Pennsylvania. It features ancient hemlock trees and 20-foot rhododendrons. This area was conserved because of a land dispute between logging companies in the 1900's.

30. Most rainforest soils are extremely poor in minerals and nutrients and the key to the luxuriant vegetation of these forests lies in the rapid nutrient cycling.

The word "panic" comes from the Greek woodland god Pan who was believed to be the source of mysterious forest sounds that would cause contagious, groundless fear in animals and humans alike

32. After cosmonaut Alexei Leonov performed the world's first spacewalk, the space capsule landed so deep in the Soviet forest that the crew had to spend the night in their capsule due to the danger of bears and wolves.

33. There is an area of forest in Tennessee that is used as a dead body farm to aid in forensic research.

34. The Vatican purchased enough carbon offsets for the entire Papal city in 2007. To this day, the promised planting of a "Vatican Forest" has not happened.

35. China has planted the biggest artificial forest in the world to stop the spread of the Gobi desert and plans to expand it to 2,800 miles by 2074

In 2011 3-D mapping revealed an ancient Mayan city under a Guatemalan rain forest

37. An autistic man was lost in the Utah forest for over 3 weeks, surviving by rolling in and out of a river during the day/night. He was found by a sheriff who had just happened to finish a class on missing autistic people.

38. There is a "green" cemetery in Pennsylvania that doubles as a national forest where people can hike and picnic. No caskets, no formaldehyde, just dirt, and trees.

39. Judge Cicconetti of Ohio dispenses what he calls creative justice. He has sentenced a man who stole from the Salvation Army to spend 24 hours homeless, a woman who abandoned 35 kittens in a forest to spend a night in the woods, & noisy neighbors to listen to classical music instead of rock

40. During the filming of 'Cabin Fever,' Rider Strong decided to explore the forest alone after a shoot, still in his gruesome makeup. He came across a group of schoolgirls on a field trip, who were horrified, but then recognized him from 'Boy Meets The World,' and he had to escape from the fangirls.

On Earth, there was a time when forests didn't decompose; no life had evolved to eat trees yet.

42. Cocaine Bear also known as Pablo Escobar died in a National Forest in Kentucky in 1985 after ingesting a portion of 75lbs of coke ($15 million value) that had been dropped by a drug-smuggling, corrupt, fugitive lawyer who had been parachuting with it before falling to his death.

43. There exists an underwater forest in Lake Kaindy, Kazakhstan that was created after an earthquake in 1911 triggered a large landslide blocking the gorge and forming a natural dam

44. We can drink alcohol because of a gene which most likely helped human ancestors make the most out of rotting, fermented fruit that fell onto the forest floor.

45. A man planted 7,000 trees to make a guitar shaped forest as tribute to his late wife.

Alaska has a rainforest and its the largest one in the United States.

47. Louis XIV's minister of finance had the huge Forest of Troncais created in 1670 to provide the future French Navy with a supply of oak masts. When the forest reached maturity 250 years later, the navy was busy switching to steam ships.

48. In Germany there exists the Waldkindergarten: preschools held entirely outdoors in a forest, regardless of weather conditions

49. It is estimated that old-growth redwood forest once covered close to 2,000,000 acres (8,100 km2) of coastal northern California. 96% of all old-growth redwoods have been logged.

50. The loneliest man in the world is the sole survivor of his tribe and lives completely alone in the Amazon forest.