Saved some forest again!

[upnorthandpersonal]

I run a little project to buy up forest in the area to prevent it from being logged, and to turn it into natural forest again. The situation with COVID actually meant that quite some property comes up for sale, so we take advantage of that. Going from tree farm to natural forest takes time and a lot of work, but it's something I enjoy doing. This last one we got we were just in time (the mild start of the winter means usually extended logging time). I was too late for this one earlier this autumn:



Hopefully we'll find the finances in 2021 to do more of this.

 

[Steve_S]

KUDOS TO YOU !
One of the saddest sights I ever saw was out on the West Coast of Canada in BC... Yeah, that "Beautiful British Columbia". A Mountain that was completely clear cut where all the soil washed down off it to the base. Looked like "Wrinkled Socks" at the ankles. Worse even, it was not just one mountain but several. Now Loggers must replan by law BUT they still do a really half assed job which results in huge patches where the soil has just eroded away quickly.

Most people can look at a photo and say "ohh wow how terrible is that" but when they actually see it in Real Life up front & personal, it turns ones stomach... the shock factor ... I know that you completely understand what I am describing...

I hope in your replanting efforts you are using mixed plantings with all normal types of trees for the region. Diversity & variety is far better for all wildlife and for overall resiliency over time. On my property which has not been logged or touched for a couple of hundred years, we have at least a dozen different species of trees, all of which are usual for the region. Down the road somewhat, there are replants which are strictly mono-cropped Pines or even White Cedar, others are strictly Tamarack (Larch) which is not native here. Very little wildlife in these "farmed" replants.

 

[upnorthandpersonal]

Over here loggers also are required to replant, but of course they all become mono-culture... That's why taking a tree farm and repairing it to an actual forest takes so much time and effort: you have to start by cutting trees to get rid of the mono-culture and making sure new saplings grow up that are of a different type. Of course, native species only, and making sure the original mono-culture doesn't take over again. You also want to encourage undergrowth, and get rid of too densely planted sections (used as a wind break for example). Clearing some areas completely to encourage ferns, berries, and things like Juniper - and also mushrooms. It's a lot of manual labor since you don't want to destroy the fragile soil with heavy equipment, also destroying already present saplings and berries.

 

[Steve_S]

So Right...
I really wish these "groups" rushing to replant forests got this but they don't get it....
Up until 10-15 years ago, forestry companies did not have to replant and then laws were dropped on them making it mandatory. Ohhh the ruckus they raised. TOUGH NUGGETS ! but they monocrop ...

Last summer I was out at one of these Replanting Areas which is not for forestry but for recovery work and guess what, only two species of PINE and when I asked what the heck they are doing, their response was, well this is what the forestry folks do... AND THEN to top that off, the guy says, it's also the only saplings we can get. Funny, there is a sapling farm about 100km from me, acres & acres of saplings, wide variety too... Not all Native though, they also service the landscaping companies too, so there's stuff like Russian Olive etc there.

A neighbour (ok a few km's away) has a "Food Forest" which they started about 20 years ago... Holy Cow the stuff growing in there is astonishing and the wildlife is everywhere. Now there are non local trees and plants mixed in there too but nothing that can be classed as "invasive". I would do that too but I won't live long enough to see it produce anything...

 

[upnorthandpersonal]

It's not even very difficult to find saplings for native trees here since we have quite few - that's the easy part, I grow many myself. The hard part is managing the terrain long enough to make sure these get a chance to grow up, in part protecting it from wildlife because they really enjoy these new plants in an otherwise mono-culture area of spruce and pine. And of course, it's labor intensive to get it there, but the results are worth it. I tried explaining this when #teamtrees was collecting money to plant a few million trees... I could have done a heck of a lot more with the money they collected than just plant 22 million trees.

A lot of the forest I'm working on right now I won't live to enjoy, but it's put into a 'protective habitat' status, so it will remain like this for future generations once I'm long gone. I hope my kids will one day enjoy the results.

 

[HRTKD]

Some of the most lush areas of the mountains that I hunt in are the ones that have been logged.

 

[upnorthandpersonal]

If a terrain gets logged, and then just left on it's own, yes, these will (often) turn out pretty ok over the course of 70 years or more. The issue is that tree farms deliberately seed the same trees (mono-culture), often in a pattern and very dense, with the intent of harvesting once the trees are grown. These tend to not attract wildlife and have very little undergrowth and diversity.

 

[HRTKD]

When I want to find elk, I head to the new growth areas. They are very dense and the elk love that. I don't know if these areas are being manually reseeded or not. Having walked through areas that have been recently logged, it doesn't look like any manual seeding is taking place, but I could be wrong.

 

[upnorthandpersonal]

There are a couple ways it's done, but depends on region - and indeed it's not always manually reseeded everywhere. Letting it recover on its own is usually ok, if there are other species nearby so you don't get a mono-culture again just because other species are essentially wiped out in the area.

 

[HRTKD]

There were a lot of very large forest fires in Colorado in 2020. In part, what prevented an even larger conflagration was the clear cut areas. What finally put them out was a snowstorm that dropped 15" of snow. I was out there at the time of that storm.

 

[upnorthandpersonal]

In certain regions the forest relies on fires to renew and refresh, even some seeds need fire to start growing. Human management of these fires (prevention) leads to big problems. It depends on the region and the particular forest. Here in Finland, forest fires are not part of the natural cycle. In fact, many forests in the north need over a hundred years to grow to anything substantial due to the cold and very short growth season.

 

[HRTKD]

The growth cycle in the Rocky Mountains is a lot shorter I think. Where I hunt, it's mostly Lodgepole Pine. They grow quick. There are a variety of pine species in the area. The big trees are Ponderosa Pine, which are slow growers.

 

[upnorthandpersonal]

I'll give an example. This is a picture of an old growth forest here:



So is this:




This is a tree farm:




Too dense, no undergrowth, mono-culture, no life.

Disclaimer, these pictures are not mine - I can't get to my own right now. But they should give the idea.

Edit: just to make clear, I'm not suggesting we can't use trees and the forest for lumber; I use it myself, I own a log house, I support sustainable use of the forest and the resources it provides. It's just a pet project of mine to turn some of this forest back into natural forest. One does not exclude the other.

 

[Steve_S]

Photo #2 there, as someone who loves woodworking, I see some BURL there that could provide amazing pieces... PITA to work with but if you have a bit of luck and a lot of patience, the possibilities are outstanding.

 

[Picasso]

What happens around me (Trinity County, CA) Sierra Pacific Industries buys up anything that comes for sale, Does a hack and squirt job on everything that is not a fir or pine. 100+ year old oaks all killed. I have no neibours for 8 miles now, just patches of clear cut and hybrid pines.

 

[MattiFin]

In certain regions the forest relies on fires to renew and refresh, even some seeds need fire to start growing. Human management of these fires (prevention) leads to big problems. It depends on the region and the particular forest. Here in Finland, forest fires are not part of the natural cycle. In fact, many forests in the north need over a hundred years to grow to anything substantial due to the cold and very short growth season.

Forest fires have been part of the natural cycle still 200 years ago but ”thanks to” logging and fire suppression very small areas end up burning nowadays. You can still see signs of the huge forest fires before 1800 in many parts of the Finland.

For pine forests the normal burn cycle has been only something like 40-60 years

https://julkaisut.metsa.fi/assets/pdf/lp/Asarja/a176.pdf