Category: Forest Community

The Forest and The Trees

While perusing the UGA Extension website,  I came across the following:

Georgia forests, located in the heart of the nation’s “wood basket,” cover some 24.8 million acres…Forests now cover 67 percent of the land area statewide. 

In a land where cities continue to grow towards each other, maintaining – increasing, even – the amount of forest is a positive sign, right?

How do you define a forest?  Most of us will agree that trees are a necessary component.  But are they the only necessary component?

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I see too many pine plantations that are little more than wood fiber croplands; it is a crop that grows over decades rather than months.  In such situations, timber managers make no provisions for anything except maximizing wood fiber.  Often, they will do their best to eradicate anything in the field that isn’t planted pine.  After using chemicals, followed by bedding or scalping the soil with tractors, they plant seedlings so close together that in less than a decade the pine tops touch; this closure of the tree canopy makes it difficult for anything to grow beneath the pines.  Green needles above, and a brown needle carpet below – all available resources go to the crop.

Am I saying this is wrong?  No; if your top priority is to growFBM_rich spp mix pines, then this is an efficient way to do it, so long as disease and beetles are kept at bay.  But I don’t really think of a crop field of trees as a true pine forest.  I’ve seen living pine forests, their boughs swaying in the breeze, with scores of plant species carpeting the ground beneath.  Yes, and the air filled with bird song, the rustle of squirrels and rabbits, the crash of running deer.  As an example, look at the photo to the right: I couldn’t count the number of different species shown in this understory, but I know I liked what I saw.  Broomsedge, ragweed, partridge pea, goldenrod, wiregrass – all these and more provide seeds for birds, nesting cover, flowers for pollinators, and fuel for the fires that keep the habitat open and vibrant.  The pines in this stand weren’t slacking, either.  The well-thinned pines in open stands will be healthier, more resistant to insect infestation, and will increase diameter faster than more crowded stands.

Some who own their tree farms live far away from them. Others are listening to the timber buyer’s top offer.  They have no use for bird song, and gain no pleasure in the land apart from a balance sheet rich in digits.  But for the bird watcher, the hunter, and the curious naturalist, decades of enjoyment in their woodland is more than worth the price of a reduced payout.  Proper management of a forest results in a living community of flora and fauna, peace and recreation for landowners – and yes, a source of income.

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For More Information:

Know Your Forest: Thinning

To Thin or Not To Thin

Thinning for Profit, Health, and Wildlife

Basal Area: A Measure Made for Management

Manicured vs. Unruly

Autumn is my favorite season, but I’ve come to appreciate spring.  From my office – an old house turned into a biologist’s workspace – I can step out and feel the breeze which rustles the boughs of red cedars, holly, dogwood and pine.  The wildlife management area that I work from was originally put together by a wealthy individual as a bobwhite quail preserve.  Right around the living quarters of the place, it looks positively park-like.  Or rather, the front is park-like, with dogwoods, oaks, stately pines and various shrubs on a close-mown lawn.  On the back side, one finds tall pines, waving brown broomsedge, and a profusion of forbs and grasses – very natural for the area.  Quite a contrast, between manicured nature and its freer aspect!

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The tame side is managed with a riding mower; when ice or wind scatters limbs across the lawn or pavement, a front-loader comes around to collect them and neaten up the place.  Here one finds close-cropped grass and what forbs that manage to raise their flowers no more than a couple of inches (bluets being a common one).

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The wild side is managed less intensively, yet (to me) more agreeably.  Every other March, a low fire licks across the pine needles, fallen limbs and broomsedge.  Within a few weeks, green colors the blackened ground, and by Fall the golden grasses wave in the wind again.  I can kneel and with outstretched hands touch a dozen different species coexisting in the noonday sun.  And it is here and not the lawn where I hear bobwhites and see the leavings of rabbits and other critters.

I have friends who are fastidious when it comes to well-manicured, carpet-like lawns.  For some, the yard-carpet is a point of pride, while others mow only because of neighborhood peer pressure.  Some people water, fertilize, and herbicide their yards in exacting regimens in much the same way as a chef mixes his artisan masterpiece, all to reach the ultimate goal: a short, thick carpet comprised of a single species of grass and nothing else.  I never bought into the yard-as-hobby.  I have several grasses and a score of different forbs within my bawn.  For the most part, survival in that unwatered sand earns a spot, although mowing is deemed necessary to discourage venomous intruders.

I grant that there are times and places when it is in our interest to lay a heavy hand on the land.  But the artificiality of close-cropped turf and sharp-cornered hedges pleases me not half so much as the rustle of rabbits and fox squirrels hidden behind a broomsedge curtain.

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