Ribbon forest or tape forest are terms for forest that occurs in long thin bands. In many places this may be the result of

deforestation Deforestation or forest clearance is the removal of a forest or stand of trees from land that is then converted to non-forest use. Deforestation can involve conversion of forest land to farms, ranches, or urban use. The most concentrated d ...

, including deliberate attempts to leave a

habitat corridor A wildlife corridor, habitat corridor, or green corridor is an area of habitat connecting wildlife populations separated by human activities or structures (such as roads, development, or logging). This allows an exchange of individuals between ...

in largely deforested areas, to allow wildlife to move between the remaining pockets of forest. But in North America and Russia it refers to two different natural patterns of forest growth caused by features of the local soil and

climate history Paleoclimatology (British spelling, palaeoclimatology) is the study of climates for which direct measurements were not taken. As instrumental records only span a tiny part of Earth's history, the reconstruction of ancient climate is important to ...

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North America

In North America, the term "Ribbon forest" is used to describe a unique habitat type found near the

tree line The tree line is the edge of the habitat at which trees are capable of growing. It is found at high elevations and high latitudes. Beyond the tree line, trees cannot tolerate the environmental conditions (usually cold temperatures, extreme snowp ...

in the

subalpine zone Montane ecosystems are found on the slopes of mountains. The alpine climate in these regions strongly affects the ecosystem because temperatures fall as elevation increases, causing the ecosystem to stratify. This stratification is a crucial f ...

of the

Rocky Mountains The Rocky Mountains, also known as the Rockies, are a major mountain range and the largest mountain system in North America. The Rocky Mountains stretch in straight-line distance from the northernmost part of western Canada, to New Mexico in ...

. It is made up of bands of

subalpine forest Montane ecosystems are found on the slopes of mountains. The alpine climate in these regions strongly affects the ecosystem because temperatures fall as elevation increases, causing the ecosystem to stratify. This stratification is a crucial f ...

and

meadow A meadow ( ) is an open habitat, or field, vegetated by grasses, herbs, and other non-woody plants. Trees or shrubs may sparsely populate meadows, as long as these areas maintain an open character. Meadows may be naturally occurring or artifi ...

that are created when deep snow and wind forces trees to grow only in bands, about twenty feet wide and thirty feet apart, that have enough shelter. Areas that have this habitat type include the southern

Mount Zirkel Wilderness The Mount Zirkel Wilderness is a U.S. Wilderness Area located in Routt National Forest in northwest Colorado. The closest city is Steamboat Springs, Colorado. The wilderness is named after Mount Zirkel, the highest peak in the range at , which ...

and the

Medicine Bow Mountains The Medicine Bow Mountains are a mountain range in the Rocky Mountains that extend from northern Colorado into southern Wyoming. The northern extent of this range is the sub-range the Snowy Range. From the northern end of Colorado's Never Summer ...

. Not surprisingly, these areas get some of the Southern Rockies' largest amounts of snow. The area between Mad Creek and Buffalo Pass in the southern Park Range has Colorado's highest amount of snowfall, averaging 25 to 30 feet per winter. Corredor Florestal - Pontal do Paranapanema

Corredor Florestal - Pontal do Paranapanema

Russia

In Russia, the term "Ribbon forest" or "Tape forest" refers to a more large-scale phenomenon of long, narrow bands of forest stretching from northeast to southwest in

Siberia Siberia ( ; rus, Сибирь, r=Sibir', p=sʲɪˈbʲirʲ, a=Ru-Сибирь.ogg) is an extensive geographical region, constituting all of North Asia, from the Ural Mountains in the west to the Pacific Ocean in the east. It has been a part of ...

. These bands can be 100 miles long and less than 2 miles wide. The outcroppings of pine (mostly

Pinus sibirica ''Pinus sibirica'', or Siberian pine, in the family Pinaceae is a species of pine tree that occurs in Siberia from 58°E in the Ural Mountains east to 126°E in the Stanovoy Range in southern Sakha Republic, and from Igarka at 68°N in the lower ...

) grow on bands of sandy soil left behind by glaciers that retreated at the end of the last ice age.

References

{{Reflist Ecology of the Rocky Mountains Forests of the Rocky Mountains Plant communities of the Western United States Forest ecology