Bear Helps the Forest (Maybe You Help, Too!)

Bear dances and dives in piles of leaves-red, bronze and gold. But after winter sleep, she wakes to find the leaves gone. Did Deer eat them? Did Mama clean them up?

Mama says the forest did its work. Through spring and summer, Bear revels in the sun and smells. But she longs for a big pile to jump in. Will the leaves return? How do animals (and maybe you, too) help the forest do its work?

Behind the Story

I love leaves. Especially Autumn leaves. Orange, red, gold, bronze. I love walking in them kicking and crunching.  Jumping in them. Even raking them.

When I was about 10, my friends and I raked up all the autumn leaves in the neighborhood.  We used our wagons to cart them to my yard and heaped them into a pile.  Then we jumped in. Again and again.  My dad was not happy when he got home.  He had recently cleaned up the yard.  That’s why we needed more leaves.  The neighbors didn’t mind though.

A while back I got to thinking about how those piles of autumn leaves shrink down to nothing by spring. Where do all those leaves go? Then I heard a scientist talk about that very thing.  Where do the leaves go?  I tried to write a mystery about the missing leaves. After many drafts I began to explore the seasons.  After many more drafts I made Bear the main character.  I researched about leaves and everything that’s at work in the Forest.  I find it mysterious and magical.  Now I know that I contribute to those magical changes in a small way. Maybe you do too. I also had to research about bears. I have only seen a bear in the wild once.  I was in Maine picking blueberries and I saw a mother and her cub.  (That’s right!  Think Blueberries for Sal, a favorite of mine). I spend a lot of time walking in the woods. Kicking through the leaves, observing the changes.  I would like to see a bear or two in the wild again.  But not too close!