20 December 2000

VANCOUVER, BC - Scientists from Vancouver, BC-based research institute Global Forest have found tiny aquatic crustaceans in the canopy of coastal redwoods in Northern California.

These creatures, which are only 250 microns in diameter (one quarter of a millimeter), are normally found in streams and lakes. Occasionally, they are found in the leaf litter of a forest floor, having crawled up from nearby streams.

But to get into the tops of these trees, these crustaceans swim and crawl hundreds of meters to the base of the tree, and then go 65 meters straight up some of the tallest trees on the planet.

Drs. Steve Sillet and Michael Camaan are studying these creatures to discover the role they play in the ecology of the redwood forest.

Tuscon and Banff-based Global Forest Science (www.globalforestscience.org) is a forest biology research institute. With an international multi-disciplinary team of 165 scientists, Global Forest Science is a world leader in forest science research and has often been likened to the Red Adair's of the forest biology world. Global Forest Sciences' many victories ranging from legislation to protect the threatened westslope cutthroat trout of British Columbia, protection of the world's largest ant colony, opening an international insect quarantine facility and helping to save New Zealand's multi billion dollar forestry and agriculture industries from the Australian painted apple moth. Global Forest Science is also dedicated to children's ecological education - visit GFAwesome.
(www.gfawesome.org)

For more information, please contact:
Email: info@globalforestscience.org
Phone: 818.851.9682