{"id":23587,"date":"2024-07-31T17:12:07","date_gmt":"2024-07-31T17:12:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/?p=23587"},"modified":"2024-07-31T17:12:08","modified_gmt":"2024-07-31T17:12:08","slug":"forest-cities","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/?p=23587","title":{"rendered":"Forest Cities"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>What is a <strong>forest<\/strong>, and can cities such as London and Berlin by classified as forests?<\/p>\n<p><a data-flickr-embed=\"true\" href=\"https:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/158241364@N02\/23566070428\/in\/photolist-BUsgH7-ZUWaxT-25ocwxs-gQ7H1o-4u7aw6-XFsqXn-25ocujQ-KG1dFn-5tYoXz-7pX5kz-e5UKSz-du5LPz-fEP4Rb-4B4TmM-6LZAde-5Xo5vQ-649qsf-5Mu9is-9xBFq9-4NSoox-5PfYKm-2cKFB1L-27TekCN-66binr-TaQJHP-yfo7k-jypoL-6cPFtX-w6DkDZ-biusak-H163We-dx1Mod-EhzTpN-zTUx62-7pWMne-yQZ692-3pwD9x-59HsMS-26qJTQT-eiFvWm-215jZMJ-9mAcZA-Fi5bKs-JudXe3-GPbY7z-6zmYtg-ATmjtL-CDKskV-M3QY7L-2aF7ogq\" title=\"Forest\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/4503\/23566070428_bfd02a5885_z.jpg\" width=\"640\" height=\"427\" alt=\"Forest\"\/><\/a><script async src=\"\/\/embedr.flickr.com\/assets\/client-code.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>There are hundreds of definitions of what constitutes a forest involving things like the number of trees, the height of trees, the land use, legal standings and ecological function.<\/p>\n<p>According to the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.fao.org\/forestry\/en\/\">United Nations&#8217; Food and Agriculture Organization<\/a> (FAO), a forest is <\/p>\n<blockquote><p>&#8220;Land spanning more than 0.5 hectares with trees higher than 5 meters and a canopy cover of more than 10 percent, or trees able to reach these thresholds <em>in situ<\/em>. It does not include land that is predominantly under agricultural or urban use.&#8221;<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><a data-flickr-embed=\"true\" href=\"https:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/iesphotography\/30495661445\/in\/photolist-xXdW3S-Rgty3o-y9VqU2-NsNeGi-An4mTv-2m4ehup-2jqxkyP-2jFC5AX-2kfs6PB-RSDzLL-QT9kbE-2k9hi63-2o6koMo-2jinnmy-2ifKTmd-DfzsVQ-2nxg4bn-Rjstrh-ywqPzz-2iyyVsg-WFR5rs-zr2tQx-yUjEHx-Z38ouC-zGqWMf-DpEf9h-AiCuSZ-CzRd3w-2jCzk3W-pxboMV-2p6wWcX-An55dz-pwZZ5L-yQkTGV-P3gR9E-yyYYxh-yV12H6-yTerjG-2ewchfj-2b4G84s-p9WnRW-dnrQ79-2mXHg5h-WphVwG-xXddfd-8H9ckn-22iiWKq-qjKM6K-28BKUHj-657TN4\" title=\"Richmond Park London\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/5497\/30495661445_9019cd1636_z.jpg\" width=\"640\" height=\"427\" alt=\"Richmond Park London\"\/><\/a><script async src=\"\/\/embedr.flickr.com\/assets\/client-code.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>Some people say that by this definition, cities like London and Berlin are technically forests as they have 20% or more of tree cover. However, as the land is predominantly under urban use, such claims do not really hold water. There are apparently almost as many trees as people in London, by the way, and over 40% of the city is made up of green spaces (see above), and about a third of Berlin is composed of forests, parks and gardens, rivers, canals, and lakes (see below). <\/p>\n<p><a data-flickr-embed=\"true\" href=\"https:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/michael_from_berlin\/37725560562\/in\/photolist-2k7SqsH-2ojE5gk-ZtFmPm-23DqtZj-JJQJt2-2kx3io2-2fDVCJj-2kYnoUZ-2jMkJjQ-2cdKT6t-Cqs9jE-ZpuG7j-25nrmwu-q3iELG-T213TA-YrZSGy-YqkoZm-ZvGQug-2mM68rk-2oUJMWM-2bkRy6u-zBmo12-BZHA6K-nSeDhH-UTjz7s-CXcgJD-2pxZabT-2pTiCRU-rNHrE1-2ptaNUU-oVQkmE-2jMmy1N-Zqo7dd-4iCSzk-7oPNur-7oTAb3-7oPHXV-2jcmRzW-2jMhcuw-2nAHexH-22jqCtt-2jcuEfd-fh9ExM-2nAHh7Q-VZRdCx-2gVDaoj-2iu6jjJ-26nmT3m-2jMmvDD-2jMmxg6\" title=\"Berlin - Tiergarten\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/4447\/37725560562_d8eabf5ee2_z.jpg\" width=\"640\" height=\"427\" alt=\"Berlin - Tiergarten\"\/><\/a><script async src=\"\/\/embedr.flickr.com\/assets\/client-code.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>Other definitions of forest include:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>A dense uncultivated tract of trees and undergrowth, larger than woods [<a href=\"https:\/\/en.wiktionary.org\/wiki\/forest#English\">source<\/a>].<\/li>\n<li>A complex ecological system and natural resource in which trees are the dominant life-form [<a href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/science\/forest\">source<\/a>].<\/li>\n<li>A dense growth of trees and underbrush covering a large tract; a tract of wooded land in England formerly owned by the sovereign and used for game [<a href=\"https:\/\/www.merriam-webster.com\/dictionary\/forest\">source<\/a>].<\/li>\n<li>An extensive wood; a large tract of land covered with trees; in the United States, a wood of native growth, or a tract of woodland which has never been cultivated [<a href=\"https:\/\/www.wordnik.com\/words\/forest\">source<\/a>].<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Historical, a forest in England was an area of land set aside as royal hunting ground or for other privileged use.<\/p>\n<p>The word <strong>forest<\/strong> comes from Middle English <em>forest<\/em> (a forest, a wood, a preserve for hunting exclusive to royalty), from Old French <em>forest<\/em> (royal hunting ground, forest), from Early Medieval Latin <em>forestis<\/em> (a large area reserved for the use of the King or nobility, often a forest and often for hunting or fishing), possibly from Proto-West Germanic <em>*furhisti<\/em> (forest), from <em>*furhi\u00fei<\/em> (forest) +\u200e <em>*hursti<\/em> (thicket, grove) [<a href=\"https:\/\/en.wiktionary.org\/wiki\/forest#English\">source<\/a>].<\/p>\n<p>Proto-West Germanic <em>*hursti<\/em> is also the root of <strong>horst<\/strong> (an elevated land overgrown with shrub) in Dutch, <strong>Horst<\/strong> (the nest of a bird of prey, an eyrie; bush, thicket, small forest [<em>literary<\/em>]) in German, and <strong>hurst<\/strong> (a wood or grove) in English, which appears mainly in placenames such as, <strong>Hurstpierpoint<\/strong>, <strong>Lyndhurst<\/strong>, <strong>Sissinghurst<\/strong> and <strong>Woodhurst<\/strong> [<a href=\"https:\/\/en.wiktionary.org\/wiki\/Reconstruction:Proto-West_Germanic\/hursti\">source<\/a>].<\/p>\n<p>Incidentally, in Middle English <em>wode<\/em> referred to forests and woods, as well as wood (material), and it also meant to hunt, to take to the woods, or to hide oneself in the woods. A forester or forest warden was a <em>wodeward<\/em> [<a href=\"https:\/\/en.wiktionary.org\/wiki\/wode#Middle_English\">source<\/a>].<\/p>\n<p>Sources and further information:<br \/>\n<a href=\"https:\/\/en.wiktionary.org\/wiki\/forest#English\">https:\/\/en.wiktionary.org\/wiki\/forest#English<\/a><br \/>\n<a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Forest\">https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Forest<\/a><br \/>\n<a href=\"https:\/\/www.timeout.com\/london\/things-to-do\/did-you-know-that-london-is-the-worlds-largest-urban-forest\">https:\/\/www.timeout.com\/london\/things-to-do\/did-you-know-that-london-is-the-worlds-largest-urban-forest<\/a><br \/>\n<a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Berlin\">https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Berlin<\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.japanesepod101.com\/member\/go.php?r=759259&amp;i=b0\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/images\/banners\/banner_japanesepod.jpg\" alt=\"The Fastest Way to Learn Japanese Guaranteed with JapanesePod101.com\" width=\"630\" height=\"83\"><\/a><\/p>\n<div align=\"center\"><a href=\"http:\/\/my.kualo.com\/uk\/go\/00572\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.kualo.com\/rewards\/uk-unlimited-728x90.gif\" width=\"728\" height=\"90\" border=\"0\"\nalt=\"Unlimited Web Hosting - Kualo\"\/><\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>What is a forest, and can cities such as London and Berlin by classified as forests? There are hundreds of definitions of what constitutes a forest involving things like the number of trees, the height of trees, the land use, legal standings and ecological function. According to the United Nations&#8217; Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[102,104,116,10,15,26,34,202,78],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-23587","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-dutch","category-english","category-german","category-language","category-latin","category-middle-english","category-old-french","category-proto-west-germanic","category-words-and-phrases"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23587","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=23587"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23587\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":23593,"href":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23587\/revisions\/23593"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=23587"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=23587"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=23587"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}