Went to the farms again mostly to trim vines with my new cutter. You can see in my picture how the wisteria just climbs the trees. I also have Japanese honeysuckle, grape vines and some kind of thorny thing I cannot identify. We have some poison ivy. I try to avoid it, but I am currently immune. I say currently because I read that this can change. About 15% of the population is immune to poison ivy. I am and want to stay that way.
There was a little rain most of the morning. Finally a deluge pushed me out and I left at about 3pm. I could have hunkered down but I was afraid the rain would so muddy the road that I would get stuck.
My second picture shows my 2012 longleaf stand. I know I take lots of photos, but I am fascinated by the changes. It takes a fair amount of work to keep it “natural.” I spend a few hours each time I come down cutting out invading hardwoods and loblolly pines. I use my hand tools for that. I tried by cutter, but it just makes lots of noise and it not that much faster in this situation, although it is great against the vines in the 2003 loblolly in my first picture.
The next to last picture shows the 1996 loblolly. I plan to thin them again next year and the last picture is a feed plot that the hunt club guys planted.
It rained the whole time I was down on TNC’s Piney Grove Preserve near Waverly in south-east Virginia, but it didn’t rain hard most of the time and never hard enough to stop us from exploring the pine savannas. The preserve was established primarily to save the habitat of the last red cockaded woodpeckers in Virginia.
Bobby Clontz has the best job. He is the steward for 3200-acre preserve. He explained that when TNC got the land, there were only two families of red cockaded woodpecker on the land. They figured that when they protected the land, the population would quickly recover. It did not. In fact, they had to bring in a few birds from the Carolinas to Virginia. But they still were not thriving, until TNC started burning more frequently. Fire is the key to health of a southern pine ecosystem and so it is the key to health for the RCW.
There are now thirteen families of red cockaded woodpeckers on the property. They still need care, but what TNC is doing is clearly working. It is a constant learning experience. Nature is dynamic and land managers need to constantly be learning, doing and learning from doing.
The Piney Grove Preserve is still mostly loblolly. It was timberland until the TNC got it, and it was very thick and overstocked. Since TNC got the land, they have been thinning and burning, making the forest more open, as it would have been in the past.
I was interested in longleaf restoration. Longleaf have been almost extirpated from this part of Virginia, but were once common. TNC is reintroducing them gradually. For example, they have thinned one stand to 40 DBH, i.e. very open. The longleaf are planted under them. They are a little slow to break out, but they are growing. It will take a long time – decades – for the longleaf to come into their own, but the slow transition is more natural.
My first photo shows the longleaf coming in under the lobolly. Next is a burned area. It was burned in April. Look how fast it greens out. The third picture is the kind of cover you want. This is little blue stem grass. It grows in clumps, as you see. This is important because it allows water to run between and allows wildlife such as quail to maneuver on the ground and under cover. The last picture shows shortleaf pine sprouts. Shortleaf can burn to the ground and still grow back. This is different from longleaf that burns to the terminal bud and than regrows. Most pines will not grow back at all if burned or cut back to the ground.
It rained the whole time I was down on TNC’s Piney Grove Preserve near Waverly in south-east Virginia, but it didn’t rain hard most of the time and never hard enough to stop us from exploring the pine savannas. The preserve was established primarily to save the habitat of the last red cockaded woodpeckers in Virginia.
Bobby Clontz has the best job. He is the steward for 3200-acre preserve. He explained that when TNC got the land, there were only two families of red cockaded woodpecker on the land. They figured that when they protected the land, the population would quickly recover. It did not. In fact, they had to bring in a few birds from the Carolinas to Virginia. But they still were not thriving, until TNC started burning more frequently. Fire is the key to health of a southern pine ecosystem and so it is the key to health for the RCW.
The Piney Grove Preserve is still mostly loblolly. It was timberland until the TNC got it, and it was very thick and overstocked. Since TNC got the land, they have been thinning and burning, making the forest more open, as it would have been in the past.
I was interested in longleaf restoration. Longleaf have been almost extirpated from this part of Virginia, but were once common. TNC is reintroducing them gradually. For example, they have thinned one stand to 40 DBH, i.e. very open. The longleaf are planted under them. They are a little slow to break out, but they are growing. It will take a long time – decades – for the longleaf to come into their own, but the slow transition is more natural. My first photo shows the longleaf coming in under the lobolly. Next is a burned area. It was burned in April. Look how fast it greens out. The third picture is the kind of cover you want. This is little blue stem grass. It grows in clumps, as you see. This is important because it allows water to run between and allows wildlife such as quail to maneuver on the ground and under cover. The last picture shows shortleaf pine sprouts. They can burn to the ground and still grow back. Most pines will not.
I went to the Virginia Prescribed Fire Council meeting at Pocahontas State Forest. It was very interesting. Fire on the land is complex. I have a lot to learn, but we will do our first proscribed burn in January. I talked to the speaker from TNC. I will go next week to visit his pine woods in SE Virginia. I showed the pictures of my longleaf plantations, like a proud parent. My longleaf plantation lies almost perfectly on the northwest limit of original longleaf range, which runs through the middle of Brunswick County. I am really looking forward to setting it on fire.
A few interesting insights. 1. You cannot “restore” a previous ecosystem because you could not possibly understand all the relationships that existed, and even if you did, conditions have changed. So the idea is to create sustainable ecology, using the factors you can. Longleaf restoration will be like that. 2. In 1607, there were probably a million acres of longleaf in Virginia. Recently, there were only 200 trees. We are restoring longleaf and now we have around 10,000 acres in Virginia and growing. 3. It is wrong to talk about organisms “adapting” to their environments. All of it is co-evolution, a complex interaction of everything adapting to everything else, a massive feedback loop. I think this applies to our complex society too.
Went down to the farms yesterday with my new tool, pictured above. I have been trying to clean out vines that are climbing my 2003 loblolly. I also want to take down some of the runt trees and intrusive hardwoods. There are about 110 acres to clean. Working with my hand tools, even with the help of the boys I would finish this job never. With my new tool, my guess is that I can get the job done in about ten workdays.
The tool works wonderfully under the 2003 pines. I can cut almost as fast as a slow walk. The biggest problem is negotiating the uneven ground, that and keeping track of where I am going. I quickly learned that the best way to get at the runt trees was frontal attack, not the sideways you might use whacking weeds. The best way to get the vines is to go down and let the blade chew into the vines. Some of the vines, especially the wisteria, are pretty thick. You cannot cut the ones actually growing up the tree trucks for fear of harming the tree, but they usually follow the ground for a few feet and you can get at them by going around the tree. You don’t have to attack the whole vine. The weak link is on the ground.
My tool is less useful with the brambles on the longleaf patch. It does cut, but it is maybe not worth it. Brambles can be controlled simply by trampling them. They break off and die back. Of course, they come back, but it is as good as cutting. My technique is primitive but effective. I just lean a big piece of cardboard against the brambles and tread it down. Then I repeat. It takes a while, but it is not very hard work. The longleaf patch is only five acres, so with persistence it can be done. I like to do it. It is quiet and I get to be among the trees. I don’t need to wipe out brambles everywhere, just within about six feet from my longleaf. I have created paths along the longleaf. It really harms the trees if you don’t trample the brambles.
Anyway, I want to get the vine trimming done soon. The vines harm the trees by covering needles, but my bigger concern is fire. This is not a high probability, but it is a concern. A fire on the ground would not hurt my 2003 loblolly and might actually be good. But the vines form a ladder that would take the ground fire to the crowns. It is perfect kindling. Where the vines are thick, they are like a Maypole and they catch falling needles and dry sticks. Anyway, with my cool new tool I can make the cuts. And I think the boys will be eager to help if they can use. it.
We thinned 86 acres in 2010/11. We did our first clear cut harvest last year (June 2015). Some people hate clear cutting and it certainly is not appropriate everywhere. But if you want to grow pine trees, clear cutting is the only option. The little trees will not grow in the shade of the bigger ones, I have explained and illustrated below.
You need to look at clear cutting in both place and time. A clear cut forest is STILL a forest. It is in transition. We need old growth forests, young forests and middle aged ones. Each provides a particular sort of ecology.
My pictures show the land that we clear cut 14 months ago. You see how fast vegetation has grown it. It is now a wonderful place for wildlife. It is full of deer, rabbits, quail and our neighbors have seen a few bear. I am unenthusiastic about the bear. This part of the forest transition is very productive.
We planted around 20,000 seedlings in April, but the trees in the background are supplying even more. We will need to thin back. The land will be covered with trees in a few years. The last picture shows trees that are about thirty years old. This piece of land has been clear cut harvested three times according to my neighbor who is about my age and has seen three harvests.
Best forestry practices tell us to protect the water of Virginia by not cutting timber within stream management zones. We give at least 50 feet, usually more. Where several streams come together this can be a fair amount of land. Our Diamond Grove farm, for example, is 178 acres. Of that 68 acres are in SMZ. For my Milwaukee friends and relatives, the comparison is Humboldt Park, which is 70 acres, or the area of about 61 football fields, not a small amount of space.
These pictures are from the Freeman farm. It is interesting because you can see the natural succession. The big trees are planted loblolly pine. They are probably 50-70 years old. Somebody planted them, probably with the intention of harvesting, but never did. The pines are the biggest trees, but notice that there are no little pines. They will not grow in the shade of their parents. This SMZ is transforming into a hardwood forest. Eventually, in this part of Virginia, it will be a forest dominated by beech and maples, with understories of things like holly & hornbeams. But it takes time for these things to arrive. The loblolly will live a few more decades and form I kind of nursery for the hardwoods. Absent disturbance, the hardwood will soon be established. Well … soon in the ecological sense, maybe around 2050. The first and second photos just show the SMZ. It is becoming a deep forest. Picture #3 is flower I thought looked nice. Picture #4 shows the big loblolly looking up the last picture shows that these trees were planted. You can still see the rows.
Took advantage of the nice weather to go down to the farms and spent most of my time clearing brush and pulling down vines.
We are planning on burning under the longleaf pine in January. Longleaf are fire dependent. My pictures show the longleaf pine planted in 2012. You can see that the brush and grass is getting high, but the pines are getting up there too. The longleaf is a very rich ecosystem because it combines grass and forbs with trees, all moderated by fire.
My pines have grown remarkably. You can see the pines today. They are many sizes but the smallest are about my height. The first picture of me with the pine tree was taken on April 18, 2015. That was the biggest one at that time. The other one was taken last month. Note that the pine changes but I stay the same.
The boys and I went down to the farms to check on the pines and talk to the NRCS soil folks in Lawrenceville. They have programs to help with longleaf pine restoration. Brunswick County is the north and westernmost county to be eligible for longleaf conservation programs, since the edge of its natural range ran right through the middle of the county.
You can see how the longleaf grow in my pictures. The first picture is me standing next to one of the biggest ones that were planted in 2012. Notice the shape. It has few lower branches and kind of shoots straight up. This is an adaption to frequent fire. A fire on the ground will burn the lower parts of the tree, prune them, but leave the important terminal bud. They sometimes have arms like cactus or maybe Joshua Trees.
We burned this land in 2011, before planting the longleaf. We will burn again in January next year and after that every 2-3 years in order to recreate the ecology of Virginia around 1607. My next picture shows 20-year-old loblolly. You can see me, very small, in the middle for size reference. The last picture shows the growth on the cutover (clear cut in June-July last years and replanted in April this year.) You cannot see the little trees underneath. We will manage this with fire soon. You can see some of the wildflowers coming in. I cannot identify many of them. Something I need to learn. I have some native plants, such as butterfly weed, Joe-Pye weed and black eyed Susan, but there are also daisies and Queen Anne’s lace, which are very pretty but invasive.
Boydton used to be a bigger deal until the I-85 went through and made South Hill the big city. It is still the county seat, but there are only about 500 people living there. That is why I was a little surprised to learn that Microsoft was building its server farm, its cloud that will serve much of the East Coast right there in “suburban” Boydton.
I was in the area to visit the Virginia Department of Forestry office. This is the one that is responsible for Brunswick County and I was there to see what I could do with them to make our forests better. Government has a legitimate role to play in forestry. Forest perform lots of ecological services that help make our environment work, but they do it on a time-scale that is difficult for individual humans to appreciate or manage. State foresters can give good advice and they have programs that create incentives for long-term good land management.
SaveThe State of Virginia is trying to encourage restoration of longleaf pine ecosystems for example. Longleaf pine is relatively hard to grow and we are learning how to do it in Virginia while doing it. The Department of Forestry can help with things like release and prescribed burning. I signed up for some help burning under the 2012 generation longleaf on the Freeman property and burning the seedlings on the Brodnax place. We want to do it in January, when the fire will be cooler and the trees dormant. After the first time, we can do growing season burns. The DOF folks were especially interested in working on our land because we have a variety of ages and – more importantly – the places I want to burn are not near houses or roads.
Returning to the server farm, they chose Boydton because land was inexpensive and the site was close enough to power lines and good highway connection (HWY 58 & I-85). Server farms don’t really need to be very near the places they serve, but they do need lots of electric power to run the servers and the air conditioning to keep them cool. Microsoft will invest half a billion dollars in this facility. It will not create too many jobs, unfortunately. It just does not take too many people to run these things. But it will help the tax base.
My first picture shows the water tower at the Microsoft site. They evidently need it for cooling. Next is the site itself. Changing gears, picture #3 is the bulldozer and trencher they use for fires. The trencher forms the firebreak. The last picture is the forester and me. The odd part is that the bucolic looking forestry center is right up against the server farm. Save Save
