Over the summer and fall, we’ve collected stories from our Facebook and email friends about their favorite forests. Your submissions were inspiring, and we’re pleased to announce that Don Higgins wins a Dogwood 15th Anniversary T-shirt for his post about the Cedar Creek Canyon forest on Petit Jean Mountain in Arkansas.

Here’s what Don had to say:

“My favorite forest is the virgin streambottom forest of Cedar Creek Canyon on Petit Jean Mountain in Arkansas. Always cool and damp, locally rare trees like the Ozark chinquapin and vernal witchhazel can still be found here. The gentle scent of the witchhazel is an intoxicating treat in late winter. Like the forest primeval, here one can imagine an earlier forest, 300 million years ago, whose decline formed the sandstones and shales of this steep-walled canyon, here seen mirrored in a waterfall’s pool.”

The contest may be over, but it’s always time to talk about your favorite forest. Visit us on Facebook and add yours today!

P.S. There were many great entries from around the world. Here are a few more of our favorites:

My favorite forests are the forests of the Berkshire Mountains in Connecticut and Massachusetts. My parents owned a vacation place in the Berkshires with some pine forests and hardwood forests. My home in Connecticut also had a strip of forest in back which ran all the way behind my neighbors’ back yards to the end of the block.

The place that stands out the most for me was a time when we were backpacking in the Allegheny State Park in PA. The woods aren’t especially wild, but that time it was late summer and there had been recent rains. The ground was covered, including the trail, with mushrooms, everywhere. It was like a fairyland, and it made it special for us both.

My favorite forest is a nearby wildlife center. Although small it has an up and down winding path that at one and the same time provides a challenging walk and rich varieties of trees, shrubs, grasses, and flowers ever changing with the seasons. Always different, yet always the same, this small “forest” delights the eyes, energizes the body, and feeds the soul.

My favorite is the San Juan National Forest, where you can be absorbed into cool mountain air, shady spruce towering over a mossy forest floor, and wildflower meadows filled with wild strawberries!

My story revolves around the redwood forests north of Arcata, CA in Prairie Creek Redwoods State Park. My daughter moved to Arcata & I went to visit. It was my first interaction with the redwoods. I walked into the forest & was simply mesmerized by the presence of the big trees. I felt they were a family with grandparents, parents, children.  I had never had that feeling before in a forest. I also felt strongly that I was a part of that family. It was my most spiritual experience up to that point in my life. To just walk amongst them, or sit & absorb their peacefulness, was magical. I have had fantasies of somehow protecting the redwoods from never being logged again.