Around the Block: Forest

There are many kinds of forests in Minecraft. There are birch forests, dark forests, jungles, taigas, flower forests, wooded badlands, windswept forests – even crimson and warped forests in the Nether. But our whistle-stop tour around Minecraft’s biomes today takes us to the biome that started it all. The OG forest. And I promise you this – you’ll never want to leaf.

Officially, forests were added to the Overworld in the Halloween Update, way back in October 2010. You might not have noticed at the time, though, because forested areas kinda existed before that – created randomly by a terrain generator which at the time had no real concept of biomes.

You’ll generally recognise a forest because it’s full of trees – specifically you’ll see mostly oak and a few birch. There are also rose bushes, peonies, lilacs, poppies, dandelions and lily of the valley. Bees buzz around, there are sheep, chickens, pigs, cows, and wolves in the day, and creepers, skeletons, slime, spiders, zombies, endermen and witches at night.

Forests are one of the best biomes to set up home within, but you will need to be careful. You’ll never run out of building materials, but you will need to clear an area before you’re able to get started on any major building project. There are small lakes to fish in, but beware of those filled with lava which can spark devastating forest fires. You’ll need to be cautious at night, because the density of trees can obscure threats and make it easy to get lost. But the wolves you’ll find here, once tamed, will be trusty companions and help fight off any intruders.

Forests are the most commonly-found biome in Minecraft, perhaps because they’re the most common terrestrial biome on Earth too – covering about 31 percent of our planet’s surface, and containing about 80% of all of its plants.

There’s no universally accepted definition of “forest”, though almost all of the 800 different definitions in use around the world refer to trees in some way. Beyond that, it gets complicated fast – would you call an area a forest where trees were recently cut down and will be grown again in the future, even if there are no trees there now? Some countries do, and some don’t. 

Forests were added to the Earth in the Late Devonian patch...  er, wait – I mean archaeological era. The first trees were called Archaeopteris, and they grew up to ten metres tall, spreading throughout the world from the equators to near the poles. These proto-trees cast shade, for the first time, and dropped their leaves to the ground where they formed soil, creating the first forests.

Today, forest ecosystems are crucial to human society. Not only do they provide food and building materials, but they also purify water, convert the carbon dioxide we breathe out into the oxygen we breathe in, store carbon from the atmosphere, and regulate our climate. That’s why many people are worried about deforestation – where forests are removed permanently for wood, beef farming, or the production of soy or palm oil.

Luckily, that’s not a problem in Minecraft. Cut down as many trees as you want, and you’ll always find more. But if you do want to live sustainably, consider planting a few of the saplings that drop too. If nothing else, it means you won’t have to walk so far next time you need a tree.