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[medsouz]

After going into a cave it appears my miners brought some with them into my base, it is spreading everywhere and now little shrubs is growing in it. Is this a bad thing?

[stabbymcstabstab]

its just grass like on the surface it grows on any dirt tile that supports it. its ok to just be careful of trees i had really bad problems with those and my hallways

[Teneb]

Unless you wish to collect sand/clay, it is not. Cave fungi grow in any soil tile that is marked as underground. It can be used to feed grazing animals, as if it was regular grass.

[medsouz]

Alright, thanks. What about caves? Should I avoid those because when I found this one I sealed it up with a wall to avoid monsters.

[NecroRebel]

Caves can be dangerous, but they usually aren't too bad. Treat them like you treat the surface, as they're roughly equivalent both in terms of danger level and resource availability. The deeper the cavern, the more dangerous they become, but all in all even the 3rd, deepest cavern layer is only as dangerous as a savage landscape above ground. A line of weapon traps before your entrance will keep out any minor nuisances, and the major ones you get a specific notification for and can easily seal your cavern gates or dispatch soldiers.

[Mushroo]

Cave fungus is GREAT because....

1. You can move your animals underground to graze, where they'll be safer
2. You can plant-gather underground plants
3. You can build a TREE FARM and have lots of wood!

As soon as I get the cave fungus, I usually clear an entire level of silt/loam/clay/sand as my underground "nature preserve."

If you are worried about trees in your hallways simply contruct a floor...

[medsouz]

I have another question but don't want to make another thread for it, is it possible to sent a squad of soldiers to a burrow instantly? I tried to do it with alerts but apparently that just sends civilians to my guard posts.

[NecroRebel]

You could send soldiers to a particular place by stationing them there using the (s)quads menu's (m)ove function. Also, you could make a new alert, set the schedule for a squad for that alert to defending a particular burrow all the time for the whole squad, and then assign the squad to that new alert level. Soldiers usually hang out in burrows that they're set to defend.

[Friendstrange]

Floor fungus isnt bad, neither is cave moss.

The only problem of having underground flora growing in your fortress is all the goddam underground trees popping up in undesirable places. Godam its like an invasion and you cant cut the things quickly enough.
Also, clogged watterways and all the drained caverns turning into an impassable jungle in less than a couple of years unless you do some heavy road building just to make the caverns passable.

[nil]

The best way to deal with unwanted trees in a given spot is to build a (non-dirt) road.  Dwarves will even gather clay (and, I imagine, sand) from tiles where you've built one.

[RAKninja]

You could send soldiers to a particular place by stationing them there using the (s)quads menu's (m)ove function. Also, you could make a new alert, set the schedule for a squad for that alert to defending a particular burrow all the time for the whole squad, and then assign the squad to that new alert level. Soldiers usually hang out in burrows that they're set to defend.

yea, you want the squad's orders for the alert to be "defend burrow".  the burrow listing in the actual alert menu is for your civilians, to restrict them all to the listed burrows when they are active on that alert.

unlike general burrow restrictions, when on this alert, your civilians will do whatever they can to not leave the burrow.  this can lead to a lot of job cancellation spam, especially as your soldiers die.

while it is fully possible to semi automate your military like this, i mainly use the alert system to control my civilians during sieges, and i use the (s)quads menu to give my military more direct control.

the squad menu also tells you which squad has a member closest to your cursor.  this is invaluable when a forgotton beast starts climbing your mineshaft to your miner's dorms because you didnt wall off the third cavern layer of all places......hypothetically.

[VonCede]

Unless you wish to collect sand/clay, it is not.

Sand and clay can be collected from carved stairs. And fungus don't grow on them.

[Greiger]

You can also build dirt roads to clear grass and brush.  They aren't an actual building, all they do is just furrow the ground and remove any plantlife in the ares.  Allowing dwarves to collect clay from the tiles or build a farm without saplings and shrubs getting in the way. 

It's a bit maintenance-y if you are using it for sand or clay collection zones, since you have to redo it every season or so, but it's another option for folks who replace soil stairs with constructed stone at the first opportunity.

[Kay12]

Grass at least dies quite easily. After designating two large forested areas to be harvested to fuel the smelters of Isengard, it didn't take long for two sandy paths creep out of my fortress and into the forests as dwarves went in to chop and haulers came right behind. A nice little touch of detail, that path formation.