Autumn Woods

The red and orange leaves rustle in the cool autumn breeze, baking under a receding sun, slowing surrendering to the changing season before they fall to the ground, becoming caught once again in the cycle of life and death and rebirth that defines the very essence of a turning, growing earth. Ecologically, a woodland, or woods, is a low-density forest forming open habitats with plenty of sunlight and limited shade. Woodlands may support an understory of shrubs and herbaceous plants including grasses. Woodland may form a transition to shrubland under drier conditions or during early stages of primary or secondary succession. Higher densities and areas of trees, with largely closed canopy, provide extensive and nearly continuous shade are referred to as forest. Angolan Miombo woodlands cover most of central Angola and extend into the Democratic Republic of Congo. This is part of the larger miombo ecosystem that covers much of eastern and southern Africa. The intense and long-lasting civil war has caused immense damage to this environment, leaving the forests exposed to poaching and uncontrolled clearance, and conservation has obviously become a low priority issue for the government. Also due to this conflict the area cannot be properly studied by scientists. However the woodland is not threatened by clearance for agriculture or logging as along with the effects of war there are other factors keeping the population of the region to a minimum; the sandy soil does not sustain agriculture, and the woods and grassland are rife with tsetse fly. Some forest is being cleared on the edge of towns or for strip-mining.