High-grading involves harvesting the biggest and the best trees. This is attractive because it is most profitable, but it is also attractive because it is easy to confuse it with selective cutting. Over time, high-grading is usually significantly more disruptive than a clear cut. The biggest trees are not always the most mature. On the contrary, the may well be the healthiest and best trees. By removing them, you are taking away the best and leaving the worst.
But you will rarely be criticized for high grading, since you will leave a forest intact. In fact, you might garner praise from urban environmentalists unfamiliar with high-grading.
High-grading is unethical or ignorant, i.e. if you understand what you are doing you are behaving unethically, but not everyone understands. Some woodlands have been high-graded for years. You can imagine the well-intention landowner explaining that he cuts only the ones “ready to be harvested.” That is why we have to make a big deal about this. Most landowners want to do the right thing on their land. Not everyone knows what that means. See this link for reference.
Cities are the future of conservation. By 2050, about 80% of the world’s population will live in cities, and the danger is that they will be separated from nature with little appreciation for its complexity. If most people are going to be involved in nature, it will have to be urban nature.
I went over to the Nature Conservancy for a lecture on urban conservation. The first speaker, Pascal Mittermaier, global managing director, cities, talked about the need for green infrastructure in cities. Green infrastructure can be very cost effective and it provides the added benefit of brining nature to the cities. Natural areas can absorb and direct rain, cool the surroundings and protect homes. Building the drainage, running the air conditioning and providing the retaining walls would cost as much, require more maintenance and generally are less attractive. Green infrastructure is not used as much as it could be or should be because it tends to be slower acting and not as completely controlled.
The second speaker, Kahlil Kettering, conservation director for Maryland and DC, built on this talking about storm water. Storm water is a big deal. Forty-three percent of Washington is paved and impervious to rainwater. All this water just runs off, damaging local streams and putting pollution and sediment into the Anacostia and Potomac. Kettering talked about how parking lots can be reconfigured to handle the rainwater that fall on them. He showed a photo of a parking lot in Maryland that used to shed water and now absorbs all of it. These improvements cost money, some of which can be cost-shared from local, state and Federal funds, but it ends up with a much better result. The parking lots are much more attractive and people like to park their cars in the shade of the trees.
My first picture shows the Nature Conservancy headquarters in Arlington. It is conveniently located near the bike trail and the Balston Metro stop. The other three are the natural garden in back of the building. The plants are native to the Mid-Atlantic region and require little care.Save
Nothing lasts forever. Trees live a long time, but they too succumb. I noticed the many beautiful beech trees in Newport. I also noticed that they were not all in the best of condition. A quick research confirmed.
The beech trees were planted during the gilded age, about 120 years ago. The mansion builders, or at least their landscape architects, loved the beech trees and for good reason. They are truly beautiful and stately trees. Many are the European variety of beech. In their Central European forests home they live around 400 years. although they rarely do. In Newport, they do not make it so long. There are lots of reasons. One is that the beech trees have shallow roots and any kind of traffic on them causes them distress. Anyway, they are nearing the end of their generation.
Newport has a couple of options. They can try to save the old trees, or they can replace them. A combination of both makes sense. It is great to keep the magnificent old trees alive as long as possible. On the other hand, we do not want to create a geriatric ward of trees.
European beeches come in a couple varieties. The copper beech is popular because of its reddish leaves, but it doesn’t grow as big. There is an American beech, also a beautiful large tree. We have lots of them on the farm. The American an European beech look very similar. The European variety has somewhat more rounded leaves and tends to be stouter, while its American cousin is taller. European and American plants and animals are often similar because the continents were connected until the end of the last ice age about 10,000 years ago.
Beech have a very interesting ecology. They are shade tolerant and disturbance adverse, so you find them naturally only in places that have been left alone, no fire or other disruption, for a fair amount of time. In Europe, beech forests tend to predominate and thrive in places that were cleared by neolithic farmers. We are talking human induced changes from the stone age, that is how long these factors can persist. It is also interesting to note, however, that these are not adverse changes.
Wisconsin is the western edge of the beech range and it is very interesting in Milwaukee, which is both on the western and southern edge. Beech trees grow naturally only as far as the fog from Lake Michigan reaches. I know this makes sense only to those in Milwaukee, but let me explain. Beech trees grow in Grant Park, but they do not reach even very far away from Lake Drive. That is how narrow their range. If you go as far west as Howell Avenue, you will find no naturally regenerating beech trees. We are talking a natural range of of maybe only 1000 yards from Lake Michigan. Fascinating, IMO.
My pictures are some of the trees in Newport, except for the last, which is a big American beech I took in Ohio. I will attach an article re in the comments second. http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/25/science/25beeches.html
Some pictures from my tree farm visits – May 4, 2016. My new plantation is scary. We planted 46 acres: 15 longleaf & the rest loblolly. It is hard to find the little trees. But I remember how hard it was with the first forests in 2005. They are there (I hope). I found some. I also took some pictures of the 2012 longleaf and the loblolly plantations.
The first picture shows new growth on the 2012 longleaf. Next shows loblolly that will be twenty-years old this year. They were thinned in 2010/11 & we will thin again in 2017/18. Third picture is our new cut-over with loblolly in background. There are little trees in there, but they are hard to see. Finally is a picture of a loblolly among the longleaf. I cut it back a few months ago (I have to clip out the loblolly, since they will crowd out the longleaf.) Loblolly is one of the few pines that will sprout from stumps.
A few more pictures from the May 4, 2016 tree farm visit. The first is a picture of the beech-wood from the stream management zone (SMZ) We protect the water by not cutting near streams and wetlands. Since these places are uncut & generally moist, after a while you get beech-maple forests.
Beech will Not reproduce in full sunlight, so they only show up after trees have been on the land for a long time.
This is contrast to pine, which will not reproduce in their own shade. This you can see in my second picture. Notice the pines in the overstory and none in the understory.
Oaks are in between. They do not like to grow in the shade like the beech, but they also do not need or want full sun like the pines. Growing oaks requires “openings” of at least a few acres. Also oaks can stand some fire. Beech have thin bark and most fires will kills them. Southern pine are actually fire dependent in nature. So you need to have a different strategy for each ecosystem sustainability. If you want beech-maples, cut a few trees or none. If you want oaks, clear a patchworks and maybe allow some fire. If you want pine, you need to clear cut and burn. Each is appropriate in its own way.
Oaks enjoyed a much better environment a couple centuries ago, when land was cleared and sometimes forests filled in along property lines. It was sunny, but not too much. Ironically both preservation and exploitation are bad for oaks.
However, I planted a few among my longleaf. They can stand some burning and I think it will be a nice complementary landscape. I got twenty-five bur oak and interspersed them. They are the type of oaks Aldo Leopold talks about in the fire-dependent oak-opening ecosystems. The last picture is my crimson clover. I just think it is pretty.
Finally – the first picture is a little ravine near one of the roads. The road was going to wash into it, so I got 20 tons of rip-rap and made the boys put it in by hand. They still remember that day’s work with great fondness.
The next picture is our wires. Dominion Power in its generosity has an easement of eight acres of my land. We cannot grow trees but the hunt club plants wildlife plots. It is good for the animals.
The third picture is a lonely longleaf seedling that I could find, since there was nothing else growing near it. Hope it survives. I think it will. It has the advantage of being in a place of its own. It will stay in that “grass stage” for a couple years and then (we hope) shoot up like the ones you saw in the previous posts and in the final photo, which is my longleaf panorama. You can see they are taller than the grass now. The danger to them now is ice storms. Their long needles weight them down. This will be a hazard for the next five years. The really terrible ice storms are uncommon. We trust in the goodness of the Lord and the principles of probability to keep them safe.
Longleaf used to be the dominant ecosystem in much of the tidewater south and even into the piedmont. It was an extremely diverse and rich ecosystem, combining a forest and a grassland. Longleaf pine cannot compete well with other woody plants or even with lots of herbaceous plants. The seeds will germinate only on mineral soils and the seedlings are easily overtopped. However, they have one big and decisive advantage. Longleaf pine is as close to fireproof as a tree can be. Fire passes over the seedlings and the thick bark of the bigger ones protects them. That nature range of longleaf corresponds very closely to areas with regular small burns.
Longleaf went into decline because of overcutting (they are great timber trees), because of hogs and more than anything else because of fire suppression. The overcutting is obvious and I will explain more about the fire, but what about the hogs? Hogs were semi-feral in Virginia. People let their hogs roam and they had big hog round-ups. The hogs ate almost anything, but they were especially fond of longleaf pine seedling, which are especially rich in carbohydrates. They ate the seedling and rooted around to wreck those they did not eat. The hogs did damage but longleaf did not return after the hogs were mostly gone because fire was also mostly gone. Longleaf pine seeds germinate in fall, which is odd for a pine and they will germinate only on mineral soil, which requires a disturbance like fire to get rid of the duff. Longleaf is one of the few pine species that can grow in the shade, at least for a while, so longleaf forests could be uneven aged, with new pines growing in gaps caused by fires or other natural disturbances.
A longleaf pine stays in the grass stage (you can see in my picture) for at least a couple years and maybe more than seven. In that time, it does not grow up but it sets down a root system at least six feet deep. At this stage, it is immune to most fires that will kill hardwoods or loblolly. This is the secret to its success and lack of fire the explanation of its failure. The only time the longleaf is vulnerable to fire is when it is three to six feet high. It has grown beyond the safe and compact size, but still not tall enough to put its terminal buds are beyond the flame reach.
Once it gets to a decent size, longleaf can compete well, but fire is still needed to keep the rest of its ecology healthy and allow for the next generations, so a burn every 2-5 years works well. A good rotation is to burn after two growing seasons. Do it in the winter, so it is a cooler fire. After that, burn when they are more than six feet high and then every couple of years. A quicker fire is better, so a header fire is better than a backing fire. Loblolly grows much faster in the first two years and will out-compete longleaf absent fire. A loblolly is not fire resistant until it is around eight years old. Studies show that longleaf catch up with loblolly at about age seventeen and are a little bigger by age twenty-eight. Longleaf live longer and have a longer rotation. The oldest longleaf on record was 468 years old. Loblolly live only half as long and many are in decline even a little more than thirty years. Nevertheless, loblolly is better if you are interested only in timber income. The short rotations will usually make more money. Even though longleaf timber is better, mills are unwilling to pay a premium in most cases.
Observers used to think that longleaf pine preferred sandy and dry soils because that is where they found them. In fact, they can grow on a variety of soils. The reason they were found on the poor and sandy sites is because those were the places left after settlers and farmers cleared the better land for agriculture. Beyond that, longleaf CAN live on poor sites where others cannot do as well.
The first picture shows South Quay Sandhills Natural Area and one of the only remnant stands of indigenous Virginia longleaf. This is where the seeds come from for longleaf planting in Virginia. Virginia does not grow the seeds. They are sent down to North Carolina. They do it for Virginia, since they currently have more experience. The next picture shows the cones of the longleaf (big) and loblolly. It also shows the sands and weak soil. The reason the longleaf are still here is that the soils do not support agriculture or competitors. The trees in picture #1 are about eighty years old. They are so small because of those soil conditions, but they may be the progenitors of trees all over Virginia. Sometimes it is lucky to be poor.
Third is a burned over area planted with longleaf seedlings. You cannot see the seedlings, but this is the environment they need. The next picture is four years later. This is a bit of a problem. They missed the burning after two growing seasons and the competition has gotten out of hand. They cannot burn now because the longleaf are in the vulnerable stage. It can still be salvaged, but it is not good.
Went to the farms to see the new trees planted last week. Alex’s friend Colin came along to help. There are approximately 6525 longleaf pine seedlings and 13,050 loblolly. Although it is hard to see them now, as you (cannot) see in the pictures. The clover we planted last fall is coming up well. You also cannot see that on the big picture, but I expect all will be evident soon. If you look at the closeups, you can see the baby longleaf pine and the new clover.
Longleaf at this stage look like tufts of grass. They stay in the grass stage for a couple years, while their tap roots develop, and then they shoot up. It rained today, which will help secure the future.
It will look nicer in a few weeks and very much nice in a few years. e also went to visit the older farms. There was a big flood a couple weeks ago. It must have been very high water, since it left sand way up on the banks of the creek, as you see in my last picture.
I am very fond of my small longleaf plantation. I think they will be very beautiful shortly. They are beautiful now. They will be magnificent later. My pictures are from today. I took it from the area of short grass so that the little pines are evident and this time of the year the grass is brown, so you can see even better.
As I wrote elsewhere, I cut out scores of volunteer loblolly and I have been trying to keep down the other competition. These trees were planted in 2012. They are now passed their grass stage and will soon be relatively safe. I have to apply controlled fire soon. Longleaf are fire-dependent. I am both thrilled and terrified. Who doesn’t like to start fires? But I am afraid it could get out of hand. I will have to make sure I have good help.
Longleaf pines are native to southern Virginia. This is the northern edge of their natural range, but I figure with a little global warming by the time they are big the range will have moved. The biggest threat is ice storms. The long needles pick up ice and may cause the trees to bend.
I have been reading books about longleaf ecology. It is a savanna tree and a mature forest has lots of grass and forbs, making it a very rich ecosystem.
The first two pictures show the longleaf. The last two are the loblolly planted in 1996 and thinned 2010-11. They are doing very well too.
More on my February forest visits. I checked out the the new cut over and the thought about what to do next. I took advantage of the frozen ground and expected snow to frost plant a little more clover on the verges. We got a fair response from the clover the boys planted last fall, but the deer ate a lot of it. I think it will come back, but I tossed a bit more just case. I planted crimson clover and a hybrid called balanca.
I explored the area around the new gas pipeline. They claim that they are going to plant wildlife mix. If properly managed, they will have a long, narrow meadow, good for wildlife.
My main picture show how the loblolly quickly fill in to any open area. There are lots of little trees in the opening but notice that within the woods there are none at all. They will not grow in the shade of their own parents. The second picture are big loblolly. They will be ready for harvest in about five years. The third picture is the new gas pipeline. When the vegetation grows in, it will be nice and productive grass and forest edge. The last picture is a new cut-over. We will replant within the next couple weeks: 30 acres loblolly, 15 acres longleaf and an acre of bald cypress.
There are advantages to cold weather on the tree farms. An obvious advantage that you can walk on cold ground that would be impassible mud on most other occasions. February is the least attractive time on the farms, but it is useful because you can see the “bones” of the land.
I spent the morning pulling vines off trees and trying to figure out how to shore up my vulnerable stream banks near the roads. I spent the afternoon hacking down non-longleaf trees in my longleaf acres. It is mostly volunteer loblolly. I feel conflicted whacking loblolly that would be very desirable a short distance away. I must have done several hundred. I spent three hours on only five acres. I would have done more and will do more tomorrow, but the sun was going down and I was afraid I would not proper find my way out in the dark. Access is hard in some places because of brambles. You would think I could cut through them with my machete but you would be wrong. They seem to fight back because they are long and flexible. They are likely to wrap around and hit you in the back of your head. But I have worked out what I think is an ingenious solution, but I accept that others might call it a joke. I avoid brier patches when I can. When I cannot, I have a long piece of cardboard. I put the cardboard against the brambles and just walk them down. It is kind of like bridge. Once down, they stay down for a while.
My pictures show the frozen ground that I could walk across, plus one of my nice running streams. Virginia is still the south. Even in cold weather, streams rarely freeze solid.
My last set of February 2016 forestry notes. These are from one of the stream management zones. We do not cut timber in the stream management zones in order to protect the waters of the Commonwealth. And they are just pleasant places to be. I like the big beech trees and they like it in the ravines near the streams.
(BTW – “My” water flows from springs to Genito Creek. From there is goes into the Meherrin River and then into the Chowan River in North Carolina, which flows into Albemarle Sound and eventually washes up near Kitty Hawk, where the Wright Brothers flew. So it is important to keep it clean.) Beech trees have an interesting ecology. They can grow in deep shade and they like the moist soils. The loblolly are the pioneer tree that comes first; they won’t grow in the shade. The beech trees are the established tree that comes last; they won’t grow in the sun. The understory in Virginia has lots of holly. It is the only green leaves this time of year. I suppose that is why they are used in Christmas decorations.
When you see big beech, you know that the place has not been disturbed very much for at least fifty years and usually more. Beech have thin bark and usually will not survive a hot fire. If you look closely at the two trees in the first photo, you will see mostly healed over fire scars on one side. A fire got to the edge of the moist area maybe forty years ago and burned some of the bark before going out. It was not a hot fire and the trees survived that one.
The next photo shows some of the root system. Beech dominate about five acres with some red maples and red and white oaks. Farther down the hill, the beech give way to yellow poplars and sycamore. Up the hill features smaller rockier streams. In the flatter places you get more sun an sycamore.
My penultimate picture show my attempt a water management. I built a little pool with rocks. But water has a way of not working according to plan. It seems to be going its own way, unvexed by my plans for it. The tree in the foreground is a sycamore. My last picture is the canopy close. The trees have been in the ground for twelve growing seasons and now are thick enough to shade out competition. Some of the less successful trees are already dead or dying. We will thin them in 2018.
