Listener supported WNYC Studios.

Did you ever notice the lichen growing on the surface of trees while you're on a hike?

They're actually more important than you might think.

If we lost some of the lichens in our forests, the casual observer might not notice,

but the forest would notice.

It's Thursday, January 9th, and you're listening to Science Friday.

I'm sci-fri producer D. Peter Schmidt.

Today, we're listening back to a live event, Ira Flato,

taped near the end of last year in Portland, Oregon,

a place where Likens are everywhere.

Let's listen.

This is Science Friday. I'm Ira Flato,

live with OPP from the World Forestry Center in Portland, Oregon.

Thank you. You know, we can decide wherever we want to go to.

We take the show on the road.

And when we come to a place like Portland,

we have to think, what can we find there that is unique, that we can't find

anywhere else in the country. And who are the local experts who can help us see the world

in a different way? So you look around at the towering trees and you say to yourself, hmm,

why don't we go into the woods?

And that's what we did.

And we went into the woods, and we decided to explore the very often overlooked world of lichens.

...