We often walk through a woodland with our eyes tilted upward, marvelling at the cathedral-like canopy of oaks and pines. Yet, the most sophisticated drama of the natural world unfolds beneath our boots, in the dark, damp layers of the leaf litter. This is the “under-story,” a frantic and meticulous recycling facility where the debris of the past is transformed into the fuel of the future. Here, the boundary between life and death is porous; a fallen log is not a tragedy, but a sudden explosion of opportunity. It becomes a fortress for beetles, a sponge for moisture, and a laboratory for thousands of species of fungi that weave the…