The forests

Filmed during the Pack-Finley Expedition to the Pacific Northwest, 1927. North American forests and the ecology of the beaver are featured in this film. In the first sequence, the life of a redwood forest is depicted through the eyes of two flickers (woodpeckers), who are shown feeding on insects in a tree stump. Footage of a logging operation is shown; trees are felled, and logs are removed by cranes to a mill station. This sequence ends dramatically with footage of a forest fire and the parched aftermath. The focus of the next section of the film is the ecology of the North American beaver. There are fine close-ups showing the beaver's paddle tail and webbed feet. The beaver is filmed swimming, collecting building materials, and constructing a dam. Huge dams composed of sticks and conical mounds of mud are seen. The captions discuss the more efficient dam building of the beaver in contrast to that of man.