Conservationists would say no, because you'd be disrupting the natural cycle of the forest floor.

Whe I lived in Ohio, I had a few acres of mature hardwood forest on my property, and I regularly used it to compost my yard waste and to harvest decomposed goodies, ferns, firewood and other stuff. The trees didn't seem to suffer.

Oh, you lucky girl, that forest floor is the place for all the humus you could ever want...plus probably the site of many flowering perennials...such as "trillium".

Sometimes such plants might not be suggested to be moved out of their domain.....we cant pick trillium from the wild in Ontario...its our Provincial Flower.

Did you notice by any chance the oak leaves which might have fallen in the past year....maybe earlier than that...were still in the leaf stage..not broken down.

The experts all say that oak leaves make for not the best leaf to go into a compost unless chopped up because they don't break down readily. They are very adept to be used as insulating material --as mulch, around plants that need insulating such as hydrangea that need to have their wood extend into spring for any chance of bloom.

The acidness of the forest floor though should be recognized as such...and not for putting around plants ...say..such as peony, iris, clematis ..et al
they prefer a more alkaline side to their soil.

I do the same on our property. If it is your land it is your call. When it is time to pay property taxes...

Blutranes

If you put leaves from your yard in the forest, you need make sure that you are not "mulching" the forest floor. Adding too many leaves beyond what the forest can consume, eventually smothers the underlying soil such that woodland plants cannot grow.

I think you could take some leaf litter from the forest, on occaision, as a little disturbance once in awhile can be good for the forest.

Conversely, too much disturbance will be detrimental if its continual. So if you disrupt the leaf litter cycle every year, year after year, eventually you could disrupt the forest's ecology.

Hmm. With the small volumes I use, I don't think it'd be too disruptive ... especially if I'm replacing the leaves I'm taking (albeit with ones that haven't yet decomposed).

There are plenty of intact oak leaves, but beneath that it gets more humus-y ... those trees have been shedding for decades.

Hadn't thought about the acidity ... could mix in some wood ash ... or maybe cure the stuff with something sweeter, like straw, before applying ...?

Like I said, do it all the time. I wouldn't worry about acidic problems, microbes handle more toxic materials than that. At least you don't have to worry about kudzu, but be careful nonetheless (poison ivy and such) is my thinking...

Blutranes

"There's a couple acres of forest on the same property as my garden and I hiked around it the other day."

so is this your own property?

If not, *somebody* else owns it, whether the owner is an individual, a corporate owner, or a government entity, & I wouldn't take anything from it without owner's knowledge & permission.

If it is your property, then if you composted, say, half of your "yard & garden" leaves this year, & took half of them to the forest, & brought back the same amount of matter from the forest that you took in, then next year you'd have the compost from your own leaves & you wouldn't have to disturb the forest further?

I use a spot in my woods as a compost pile, another spot as a brush pile, and another to pile up the extra leaves that I use as browns all year long for my compost pile, which makes some leaf mold eventually. It takes up a bit of room and no woodland plants grow there, but better than putting those things in a landfill, right?

I find harvesting leaf mold from the forest floor so difficult as to be impossible because the plants that grow there send roots through everything. It's a ton of work with little reward. Much easier to make a pile of compost.

I agree if it's not your own property you need to ask first; lots of plants that an owner might not want disturbed, at least in my area. Trilliums and pink lady slipper come immediately to mind, I'm sure your area has its own.

Sounds like composting might be both easier and more convenient.

Um, yes, I have the right to use the land. It's just trees and scrub, no rare stuff. But there might be roots to look out for.

Thanks for the ideas! I'll have to look under the leaves and check out what's there. With the ground freezing, that might have to wait until spring.