Wildlife biologists? Or anyone knowing a lot about forests and trees.

[Alniah]

I am writing a big chunk of my new WIP in a forest and I am not sure what type of trees I need to put in it.
My characters are in a parallel reality which is about 60% similar to our own world so there is some room for imagination but I still want to ground it to our common forests.
Here are a few concepts I really need:
-Needs to be a forest where people can walk through, not like the jungle where you have to cut down stuff to go through.
-My characters need to be able to climb the trees and rest on branches so I guess I need pretty high trees with strong branches.
-The soil needs to be able to mark their footsteps.
-The undergowth needs to be important enough to filter out some of the light and make people hard to spot.

Thank you so so much for anyone with infos! 

[lexcade]

ummmm, oak, pine, chestnut....  anything from appalachia. in the densely wooded areas, the soil is soft enough to capture footprints. google pine mountain national park. that might help you out.

[Locke]

I love pine forests, but I don't think that's a good candidate. Natural pine forests aren't really dense enough to hide in, and old growth pines don't have much in the way of sturdy lower branches (the lower branches tend to die and break off in storms). Strength wise, they're not a very strong wood, and the trunks rarely reach any sort of stable diameter. A stiff wind would knock your characters right out of them as the pines bent. Plus, from somebody who regularly scaled pine trees as a kid, I can tell you that getting the sap all over your skin and clothes is absolutely horrible.

My vote is for redwoods. On top of being freaking huge, they grow dense enough, tall enough, and strong enough to serve your characters well.

[clutzattack]

The word you are looking for is "deciduous". Means trees that drop their leaves for part of the year. These tend to be more suitable to climbing that coniferous pine trees or redwoods, or things with fern-like leaves.

Should also be noted that oaks are great for climbing, but lack the leaf camouflage I think you're looking for.

There's nothing more beautiful than a forest of Japanese Maple trees (or just maple). Structured well for climbing and have great coverage/shade, without blocking all sunlight.

(My credentials are that my mom majored in botany and I just wrote a book about fairies so I already researched this sort of thing. ;) )

[Alniah]

Thank you very much for all the insights!!! I'm thinking I may create a hybrid between the Japanese Maple tree and the redwoods 

[Aiala]

Don't forget the deer ticks, bank hornets, red ants, wasps, carpenter bees, chiggers, tent caterpillars, termites, and various spiders. All part of that woodsy romance. 

~A~

[Alniah]

Thanks Aiala, actually sprung out some good ideas from those little critters