Leaf Pile City

That pile of leaves in your yard? It's a city.

Under one square foot of forest floor: up to 25,000 tiny animals.

Springtails, tinier than a grain of rice, can jump 50 times their length.

Woolly bear caterpillars can freeze under the leaves, then thaw and crawl away.

Bumblebee queens hibernate an inch or two underground, under the leaves.

And some of those leaves may not be leaves at all. They're cocoons, disguised as dead leaves.

Rake them all away, and a study found 45% fewer moths and butterflies.

So leave some leaves.