I have to get a new battery. My car would not start this morning and I had to call USAA to get a jump start. That made me late for the forest heath conference. I don’t regret that too much. I missed sessions on pesticide safety, a technical presentation for certification I am not seeking, on aquatic invasive that I do not deal with and on the progress of the spotted lanternfly in Pennsylvania. The last would be interesting for historical reasons, but since I arrived in time for the presentation on the spotted lanternfly in Virginia, I figured it was okay. Also, one of the big reasons I attend these conferences is to see forestry friends and meet new ones, and this I did. Agenda
Spotted lanternfly in Virginia Spotted Lanternfly in Virginia – David Gianino, Virginia Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services
The spotted lanternfly is a showy insect that showed up in Pennsylvania from China in 2014. It made it to Virginia in 2018, Fredrick County and Winchester. It probably arrived on a load of rocks. A big danger of the lanternfly is that it can stick egg masses on almost any flat surface, and to the untrained eye the egg masses look a lot like a mud splash. The lanternfly feeds on ailanthus and tends to follow that tree. If it limited itself to ailanthus, most of us would welcome the help. Unfortunately, they also preferentially go after magnolia, silver maples and zelkova, and will attack a variety of other trees and agricultural crops opportunistically.
Mr. Gianino described efforts to quarantine and eradicate lanternflies in Fredrick County and Winchester. Unfortunately, it has been more a holding action than a victory. The egg masses can stick to car and rail cars, so the efforts are aimed at rail and road networks. You can imagine the challenge. Winchester is a rail center and served by Interstate 81, which is why it is necessary to get the infestation under control there and probably how the lanternflies arrived in the first place.
If you see a lanternfly, report it and then kill it and any of its eggs or kin you find nearby. They even have an app to help and give a kind of contest feel. People can compete to find and kill the most of the pests. SQUISHR is available at the Apps Store.
Globalization of soils Can Soil Microbes Be Used as a Metric to Assess Urban Soil Health? – Stephanie Yarwood, University of Maryland
The next discussion concerned urban soils worldwide. We notice that lots of urban animals & plants have been globalized. Rats, pigeons, starlings, sparrows, dandelions, turfgrass & various sorts of ornamental trees and bushes are so common in cities worldwide that most city dwellers probably think that they are native to their home cities. What about soils? Is there a convergence of soils and soil microbes?
Yarwood and her colleagues studied soils in Baltimore, Helsinki, Budapest and Potchefstroom in South Africa. These cities were chosen for opportunistic reasons. The teams studied less altered soils from the nearby countryside and soils in various states of disturbance. They found that the soils were indeed converging.
Yarwood also talked about mycorrhizae. These are the symbiotic fungi that help plants get nutrients, protect the plants from toxins and pathogens, influence soil structure and the community of plants. Mycorrhizae functions are still imperfectly understood. What we do know is that they greatly enhance plant growth and sterile soils w/o them is not much use, not matter how rich. There are two major types. Ectomycorrhiza tend to work outside the roots systems. They are less common than endomycorrhiza or arbuscular mycorrhiza, that work more within the roots, but are common on lots of the trees we most value, such as pine, oak, hickory & beech.
Mycorrhiza networks are disturbed when soils are disturbed, so frequently disturbed urban soils might share characteristics with other disturbed urban soils.
Pollinators Pollinators – James Wilson, Ph.D., Virginia Tech – what’s with the bees? What can forest managers do that will most help bees? Mr. Wilson said, “T&B” thin and burn. The best thing you can do is provide a wide variety of flowering plants. Most of the plants we eat do NOT require bee pollination, since most of our food comes from grains, which are not bee pollinated.
Bees eat pollen, however. That is why they hang around corn fields. They are not pollinating, but they are gathering pollen. This is where bees are sometimes harmed by pesticides not aimed at them. Ironically, fewer bees are killed when in fields of GMO corn, where pesticides are less necessary.
There are around 4,500 types of bees in the USA, 536 in Virginia. Most are not honeybees. The honeybees we mostly know live in hives and are not native to North America. Not all bees are social, although most live in communities, few are as large as hone
bee communities and some bees are solitary. The more social the bees, the more generalists they are. Solitary bees often specialize on a particular plant or plant type. There was a lot of talk about bees disappearing and there are lots of reasons. When they talk about bee decline, they are usually talking about honeybees. A problem with honeybees is concentration and that is often in California. 73% of all portable hives in the USA are in California. This is based on the value. Beekeepers in Virginia can rent out a hive for about $40 a day. In California they can make $175. Hives are literally stacked up in California. The bees are often too close, facilitating the spread of disease and they sometimes just stressing the bees from all the moving.
A practical thing I learned from the talk was that lots of bees, especially the solitary bubble bees, use old stems as nests. Wilson cautioned that we should not cut down old standing stems. Don’t mow any more than you must. I also learned a trivial fact. Bubble bees sometimes shake down pollen by buzzing and vibrating. That is why they seem to be hanging around w/o flying.
Emerald ash borer update Establishment & Early Impact of Spathius galinae on EAB in the NE US – Jian Duan, Ph.D., USDA Agricultural Research
Eradication of emerald ash borer has failed. That was clear more than a decade ago. That means that the ash will never again be as widespread as it was once. There is some hope against the implacable emerald ash borer, however. Some ash trees are evidently resistant to the ash borer. Ash trees in China and the Russian Far East, home of the emerald ash borer, are fairly resistant. American woodpeckers are starting to eat them, and some local wasps are attacking them. Mr. Duan also talked about varying success of Asian wasps introduced to parasitoid on the larvae of the borers. I learned the parasitoid is different from parasite, in that it always kills the host. Good for ash borers.
All this means that some ash trees will survive and maybe expand their range again, even if they do not become so common as they used to be.
Oak decline Oak Decline; A Fight Against the Inevitable This was mostly a talk about individual oak trees and often in urban or suburban environments, interesting but maybe not as useful on the landscape level.
Planning for climate change Climate atlas Adaptation Planning and Climate Change – Leslie Grant and Patricia Leopold, United States Forest Service
Virginia is getting warmer and wetter. Trees take a long time to mature and forest ecosystem take longer than individual trees to develop. That means we need to plant today for the expected climate tomorrow. Scientist have estimated which trees and ecosystems will prosper and which will be challenged.
Loblolly, for example, will expand its range and be even more appropriate in Virginia. Poplar range is likely to shrink in the commonwealth. Fairfax County is thinking about the future and changing its tree planting plans and recommendations.
I have been adapting on my own land. The longleaf pine we are planting are at the northern edge of their natural range and genetically they come from farther south. I am also planting bald cypress in some of the damper places. The “Virginia” loblolly available from many private firms tends to be genetically from Georgia or South Carolina. In effect, southern genotypes have been moving north for generations. We can also expect, or at least hope for, epigenetic adaptation.
Fire in the forest & communicating about forestry The last two presentations of the day, on prescribed fire and on communications, were very much the sort of things I find interesting. The problem was that I have found these subjects interesting for many years and there was not much I had not heard many times. While I was glad to have confirmation, I don’t have much to add. Tomorrow is another session. Looking forward.
Lots of variety. Thursday I was planting trees. Yesterday, I did some WAE work for State and watched Espen band play. Today, I am writing up. Most of it is just personal, but I need to write up notes for State from the seminar I attended yesterday on “The US-Canada Permanent Joint Board on Defense at 80,” actual work.
Tree planting Got the last tree in the ground and there was even daylight left. I planted the last box today, 334 trees.
Well, not the last forever. I will fill in a few more longleaf if I can get a few more boxes. In a couple weeks, I also am getting 50 white oak, 50 swamp white oak and 300 shortleaf. This is mostly an experiment. I want to have some oak because I like oak. The shortleaf can grow with oaks or longleaf. Shortleaf are the most widespread of southern pines, but tends to be in mixed forests. Shortleaf can survive fires, but it is not like longleaf. Shortleaf can burn to the ground and re sprout. This is very uncommon for pines. They also can produce lateral sprout branches. In fact, that is one way to identify them. But shortleaf get no respect. They are not cool like longleaf nor as practical as loblolly. But I think it will be good to have at least a few hundred.
Of course, I have natural regeneration of oaks and shortleaf on the property already, but it is nice to plant some new ones.
My first picture is a selfie with the last of the longleaf. Next is the day’s end coming out of the woods. Last is a frog. I almost stepped on him. He is well camouflaged.
Still (sometimes) working at State Department I like to keep a few fingers in my old profession and I enjoyed listening to speakers and “networking.” I am not going to post the extensive notes. Suffice to say that Canada is heating up, both physically and metaphorically. The high north is heating up faster than the rest of the world and this is taking the Arctic out of the deep freeze. It could soon become an arena of great power conflict. The Russians are obviously playing up there, but the Chinese are probably more aggressive in the long run. Unfortunately, the homeland of North America will be less secure in future than it has been.
FDR originated The US-Canada Permanent Joint Board on Defense in 1940. He did it on his initiative, inviting then Canadian PM Mackenzie King to meet him on his train, where they hashed out a semi-alliance. This was pre-Nato days and even before the U.S. was in World War II, so was a bold move. Lots of people in those days thought that the Nazis would win the Battle of Britain and that Canada would be next on the Hitler’s list. The invasion probably would have come through Newfoundland or Labrador. These were really dark days. Roosevelt had essentially committed the USA to the defense of North America, as I wrote, it was a bold move even if it seems nature today.
The 80th anniversary of the agreement is coming up, so they had a nice birthday cake. I went over to the Congressional Research Service after that. CRS is the gold standard of political research. Their task is to inform Congress on key events and issues. The reports are generally available to the public I got to go along with State colleagues to meet a couple of the researchers who cover Canada.
Beer belongs I caught the Silver Line to meet Chrissy at Gordon Biersch at Tyson. That used to be a regular event for us when Chrissy worked nearby, but now is a rarer pleasure.
Espen sings The big event of the night was Espen playing with his band. I admit my bias, but I think they did very well. It was melodious music and not too loud (The band just before them produced a jaw-clenching cacophony.) Chrissy and I enjoyed watching Espen and his friends making music.
Unfortunately, I could not understand the lyrics, as the lead singer sings in Persian. I think they did well. The band is called Afarinesh. They just released their first album.
So, it was a busy day. As an old retired guy, I am unaccustomed to going through a whole day w/o a nap, but I made it from early to late.
Pictures are in reverse chronological order. First is Espen and his band. Next are Chrissy & I at Gordon Biersch. You see the Library of Congress in the middle picture. CRS is housed in LOC, although in the less impressive looking Madison Building across the street. The picture after that is cutting the birthday cake and the cake, and last is one of the panels at the Johns Hopkins Canada event.
What influences us? We often do not know because very profound influences come in small packages.
The picture above is a good example. I took that picture more than ten years ago (October 2009) at a conference on creating bobwhite quail habitat. I took the picture because I thought that open woods was just beautiful and I was learning that it was very productive for wildlife. It reminded me of the open ponderosa pine landscapes of the west.
I have referred to that picture many times and its influence on my choices has been significant. It informed decisions on thinning my the pines on Brodnax and Freeman. I sacrificed some timber value for wildlife and aesthetic reasons. Having that picture in mind helped me … well visualize the result.
In the ten years since that picture, I have learned a lot more about forest ecosystems and the forest-grassland savanna of the American South. Back in 2009, I had not yet planted my first longleaf pine and I really did not know much about that ecology. Now that I know more, my vision for the future is more longleaf than loblolly, with more complexity on the forest floor, but the picture still is similar.
I need that kind of inspiration, that visualization. I will never see the results of my efforts. I can only hope that my kids, or other future owners of the land I have come to love are willing to carry on.
St Paul defined faith as “the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.” I have often been inspired by those few words. My forestry work certainly is faith-based, but I am glad to have a glimpse of something like what I will not get to see.
I take great joy in my forestry for many reasons. It connects me. I feel part of something that I can both control and not. The paradox of human existence is summed up in the work in the woods, beyond my understanding but still within my grasp.
There is a more prosaic and practical thing that I love about forestry. A curse of old people, a group I now count myself, is to worry about becoming irrelevant, losing my memory and being unable to learn new things. The dog barks but the caravan moves on. I do feel mentally slower than I used to be, but maybe I just recall being cleverer than I was. Life is often remembered better than it was lived. My practical reason for loving forestry is that it proves that I have not lost it.
Old dog and new tricks I know a lot about southern ecosystems, fire ecology and the business of timbering. I do my own planning, contracting and land management. I know for sure that most of these are things I did not know when I was younger and smarter, i.e. all of it was newly learned after I was well into middle age. For example, when I was going to buy my first forest land, I asked the seller what kind of trees were growing there. He told me loblolly pine. I had heard the name, but I was unfamiliar with the species. I could not tell a loblolly pine from a longleaf pine, from a Virginia pine or even from the red pines I knew from Wisconsin. I still have trouble telling a loblolly pine from a pond pine, but I can identify them, get a fair estimate of their age and know a lot about their patterns of growth. I can even identify loblolly by their smell. All of this is old man knowledge.
I am not here to tell you that working in forestry keeps me young, but it does keep me more vigorous in mind and body than I would otherwise be.
Don’t give a f*ck Owning my forest has also given me a “don’t give a f*ck” attitude toward lots of other things in life. I have my woods and I care a lot – I care passionately about everything related to my woods. But that allows me to dismiss lots of other things. I know that it infuriates some people that I am not deeply offended by Trump, not concerned with social justice or not even very concerned with making more money. I just don’t really care, and I don’t really care if others are offended that I don’t really care. This is a new feeling for me. I used to be much more concerned with what other people thought of me. Don’t get me wrong, I like almost everybody, even people who don’t seem to like me. I try to be generous and have good manners. I try never to offend unintentionally or take offense easily, but I can pursue “deep” discussions on all sorts of sensitive subjects with a disinterest that I never felt before. (Please note that disinterest is not the same as uninterest.) I often think in terms of “this too will pass, but the trees will still be here. The world’s problems are not mine, except as a disinterested observer.
Should I care more? I have considered whether this is an abdication. As a recovering historian of ancient Rome, I have sometimes wondered whether the detachment provided by Stoic philosophy common among Roman aristocrats contributed to the decline of civic virtue. I want to participate in the life of my country, as well as the life of my forest, but I worry that I do not have the passion for politics that I once did. Political participation used to be fun. Now it is more like a duty.
Anyway, those are my old woods guy thoughts. I still like to write, even if I don’t think many people will read it. I hope that pleasure does not diminish.
My picture is an old one from my earlier life, one I still look back to with pleasure but now detachment. I met a guy in Bahia, Brazil. He was simply called “the Poet”. He lived in the woods, observed nature and wrote poetry about his observations. Seems a very happy man and a balanced one. He made an impression on me. I liked what he was doing. I am not a poet, but I do love to observe nature … and participate with it.
I got all the longleaf in the ground. There were only 334 total. I thought there were a few more, but I still almost didn’t finish. I spent too much time cutting brambles to get ready for the next planting, so the kids will not have to suffer too much. I also went over to the Brodnax place to talk with Adam Smith about the next burning there. We have make a fire line to the stream, which will provide the stop the rest of the way. See the picture. The water if very clean, so the SMZ is doing its job.
The other pictures are from Freeman. Science and experience tells me that the trees are okay, but it still scares me a lot to see all that scorch. Funny how trees next to each other can have such a different fire experience. I checked that really scorched one, the lower branches, more scorched. You can see in the last picture that the green bud core is intact. I figure if the lower ones are like that, the higher ones are too. But I will be more content in March when I can confirm the new growth.
I was surprised and delighted to find that I could get a box of Virginia longleaf, so I drove down to the Garland Grey nursery and then on to the Freeman place to plant them. We still will be getting 3000 more from Bodenhammer in North Carolina, but it was good to put another 344 (that was the number in the box) trees into the breach. I enjoy planting the trees, even if it takes me a long time.
We will see if the Virginia trees behave differently from their North Carolina cousins.
I also inspected the results of our fire. My 2012 longleaf are scorched. This would terrify me, but I experienced this last time too. They will be fine. I checked for the green leaders and they are there. Still and all, even though science & experience tells me all will be well, I wait anxiously for March to see it so. They are a pretty color at least, as you see in the picture. I have included a picture of those same trees after they were burned in 2017.
My other picture is one of my mistake shots. As the picture shows, I just yanked off my boots and was getting my phone. I think I will make compilation of the various times I have pushed the button wrong and got pictures of my shoes, hands or just the ground.
Forest Stewardship Plan for John Matel and Christine Johnson, Diamond Grove Tract Forest Stewardship Plan for John Matel and Christine Johnson, Diamond Grove Tract Introduction This Forest Stewardship Management Plan covers of approximately 178 acres of forestland in Brunswick Country, on Diamond Grove Road (SR 623) just north of Genito Creek, near Brodnax, Virginia. The tract map is included. The tract is mostly low hills. It includes approximately 110 acres of loblolly pine plantation planted in 2003. The loblolly pines were thinned pre- commercially in 2008 and biosolids were applied that same year. The tract also includes 2 acres of open field (grasses, forbs and flowers) first established in 2007 and maintained for pollinator/wildlife habitat, 6 acres covered by roads and 50 acres of steam management zones and/or areas frequently flooded. The land was cleared for agriculture at one time but has been mostly forest for at least 80 years. Overall wildlife habitat and forest health are maintained and improved by thinning, burning/mowing and planting feed and pollinator habitat in patches in the woods and along roads, and maintaining soft edges. Most of the roads are covered in grass and forbs, with a big component of lespedeza. No endangered species of plants or animals were noted on the tract. Forest Stewardship Management Plan Landowners: John Matel & Christine Johnson 8126 Quinn Terrace, Vienna, VA 22180 Telephone Forested acres: 170 Total acres: 178 Location: Brodnax, Virginia on Diamond Grove Road (SR 623) Prepared by: John Matel
This Forest Stewardship Management Plan is designed to guide and document management activities of the natural resources on the property for the next ten years, in harmony with the environment and will enhance and regenerate the ecologies on the land. The Goals for Managing this Property:
Produce forest products sustainably
Soil and water conservation
Encourage diverse and productive ecology
Restore oak/shortleaf pine ecology in upland section
Restore/establish bald cypress/tupelo ecology near creek
Improvement of wildlife habitat.
Experiment with patch burning for wildlife
Maintain soft edges near roads and stands
DESCRIPTIONS & RECOMMENDATIONS (Acreage approximate and do not sum to total)
Grove 1 Acres: 20 Forest Type: Loblolly pine planted 2003 Species Present: Loblolly & shortleaf pine, ailanthus, American sycamore, sweet gum, yellow poplar, eastern red cedar, hackberry, Virginia pine, mockernut hickory, white oak, chestnut oak, black oak, green ash, mulberry, sassafras, black cherry, persimmon, holly, black locust, blackgum, and red maple. Age: Loblolly planted 2003. Various volunteer trees seeded in at that time or later. Size: Medium, ready for first thinning Quality: Good, a little too dense. Trees/acre: Around 700 trees per acre Growth Rate: excellent. Recommendations: Thin in 2020 to 80 BA. Understory burn soon after thinning, repeat every 4-5 years. Thin again +8 years 50 BA, to allow more diverse ground cover. Continue burn regime. Harvest around 2038. Special notes: Much of the land consists of fairly steep, north facing slope. Prescribed fire can back down the slope to wet SMZ. Groves 2 – 6 These groves form one natural unit but are listed separately because they will be burned in different year to maintain the patch burn wildlife benefits. Acres: 73 (Grove 2 – 26; Grove 3 – 8; Grove 4 – 7; Grove 5 – 20; Grove 6 – 12) Forest Type: Loblolly pine planted 2003 Species Present: Loblolly & shortleaf pine, ailanthus, American sycamore, sweet gum, yellow poplar, eastern red cedar, hackberry, Virginia pine, mockernut hickory, white oak, chestnut oak, black oak, green ash, mulberry, sassafras, black cherry, persimmon, holly, black locust, black gum, and red maple. Age: Loblolly planted 2003. Various volunteer trees seeded in at that time or later. Size: Medium, ready for first thinning Quality: Good, a little too dense. Trees/acre: Around 700 trees per acre Growth Rate: excellent. Recommendations: Thin in 2020 to 80 BA. Understory burn soon after thinning, repeat every 4-5 years. Thin again +8 years 50 BA, to allow more diverse ground cover. Continue burn regime. Harvest around 2038. Special notes: This grove is situated on high ground, that slopes into SMZ on all sides. It is divided by a gravel and dirt road. This will facilitate prescribed fire. The groves contain pollinator meadows, which should be burned more often than the surrounding loblolly in order to maintain and enhance pollinator habitat. As a substitute, will mow the meadow every two years and burn on same schedule as forest. Groves 5 & 6 have significant infestations of invasive ailanthus, which require persistent management. Grove 7 Acres: 8 Species Present: Loblolly & shortleaf pine, ailanthus, American sycamore, sweet gum, yellow poplar, eastern red cedar, hackberry, Virginia pine, mockernut hickory, white oak, chestnut oak, black oak, green ash, mulberry, sassafras, black cherry, persimmon, holly, black locust, black gum, and red maple. Forest Type: Loblolly pine planted 2003 Age: Loblolly planted 2003. Various volunteer trees seeded in at that time or later. Size: Medium, ready for first thinning Quality: Good, a little too dense. Trees/acre: Around 700 trees per acre Growth Rate: excellent. Recommendations: Thin in 2020 to 80 BA. Thin again +8 years 50 BA, to allow more diverse ground cover. No fire regime on this grove. Harvest around 2038. Special notes: This grove is roughly triangular shaped, flat and damp. It is bordered by SMZ on one side, a forest road on another, but there are no natural or created barriers abutting the neighboring property. For this reason, we will not burn this grove. It can serve as a control case for other burned sections. Grove 8 Acres: 14 Forest Type: Loblolly pine planted 2003 Species Present: Loblolly & shortleaf pine, ailanthus, American sycamore, sweet gum, yellow poplar, eastern red cedar, hackberry, Virginia pine, mockernut hickory, white oak, chestnut oak, black oak, green ash, mulberry, sassafras, black cherry, persimmon, holly, black locust, black gum, and red maple. Age: Loblolly planted 2003. Various volunteer trees seeded in at that time or later. Size: Medium, ready for first thinning Quality: Good, a little too dense. Trees/acre: Around 700 trees per acre Growth Rate: excellent.
Recommendations: Thin in 2020 to 80 BA. Understory burn soon after thinning, repeat every 4-5 years. Thin again +8 years 50 BA, to allow more diverse ground cover. Continue burn regime. Harvest around 2038. Special notes: This grove has about 300 yards of frontage on SR 623. It is mostly flat and wet.
Grove A – Cypress and tupelo Acres: 7 Species Present: Loblolly, American sycamore, sweet gum, yellow poplar, eastern red cedar, hackberry, Virginia pine, holly, black locust, black gum, and red maple. Age: Loblolly planted 2003. Various volunteer trees seeded in at that time or later. Size: Medium, ready for harvest (see note) Quality: Poor – the ground is not good for growing loblolly. Trees/acre: Around 500 trees per acre Growth Rate: medium Recommendation: Harvest in 2020, replant with cypress & water tupelo (see notes below) Special notes: This area drains the local road (SR 623) and is subject of periodic flood from the waters of Genito Creek. It heavily colonized by invasive multiflora rose. It does not support a good stand of pine, and I do not think it well-suited to loblolly and consider adding it to the SMZ. My plan is that when the rest of the tract is thinned, we will clear this section, burn the section and spray, as required. In spring 2021, we will plant bald cypress and tupelo, both better adapted to the soggy alluvial soil and this ecology will provide considerable water quality and wildlife benefits. Tupelo (Nyssa aquatica) is especially good for pollinators. We will plant about 450 to the acre, alternating rows of tupelo with cypress to provide diversity. Grove B – SMZ Acres: 50 Forest Type: Mixed hardwoods and pine. Species Present: Loblolly pine, ailanthus, American beech, American sycamore, sweet gum, yellow poplar, eastern red cedar, hackberry, Virginia pine, mockernut hickory, pin oak, swamp white oak, , green ash, mulberry, sassafras, black cherry, persimmon, holly, black locust, blackgum, box elder and red maple. With an interesting variation, there are significant numbers of buckeye and catalpa, neither are native to this part of Virginia. I speculate that they were planted around some no longer extant homestead. I also noticed profusions of box elders, sometimes forming pure groves of short-lived trees. Age: Mature trees 40-80 years old, some older and many younger. This is a mature uneven-aged ecology. Size: Various sizes including significant saw timber. (10 to 18 inches in diameter) Quality: Good to excellent Trees/acre: Adequately stocked Growth Rate: Good to excellent Recommendations: This parcel is in place to protect water quality and to provide wildlife corridors. We will periodically examine the SMZs for invasive species and treat as appropriate. Beyond that, this area will be generally left to natural processes, with interventions only in the case of disturbance, such as fire or particularly violent storms. Special notes: Most of the SMZ is along Genito Creek, a red bottomed waterway that meanders. In some places it has created natural levies. Genito Creek was originally the boundary of the property, and you can still see the former streambed, sometimes with flowing water. But the mainstream now runs several hundred yards into the Diamond Grove tract, promiscuously cutting into banks and disciplined only by infrastructure around the bridge over Diamond Grove road. Our property is also on both sides of Diamond Grove Road at the bridge, as the road was moved around 1960. The old road bed, about 100 yards from the current road, forms the property boundary. Grove C Beauty zone Acres: 2 Species Present: Loblolly & shortleaf pine, ailanthus, American sycamore, sweet gum, yellow poplar, eastern red cedar, hackberry, Virginia pine, mockernut hickory, white oak, chestnut oak, black oak, green ash, mulberry, sassafras, black cherry, persimmon, holly, black locust, black gum, and red maple. Age: Some very large and old loblolly, oak and yellow popular probably 60-100 years old, but generally uneven aged stand. Size: Various ages and sizes. Quality: Good. Beautiful. Trees/acre: Around 400 trees per acre Growth Rate: mature Recommendations: Some old loblolly are probably reaching the end of their lives. If it seems appropriate to the loggers, we will remove a load of pine saw timber, facilitating the transition to a southern hardwood forest and retaining the attractive appearance along Diamond Grove Road. Grove D – Oak & shortleaf Acres: 2 Special notes: I am converting a small area on top of the hill to the white oak and shortleaf pine ecology, likely a natural upland community in our part of Brunswick County. This is within Grove 6 and up against the start of a SMZ and holds a prominent place on a hilltop. I will be easily seen as an example of what can be done. Grove E – Pollinator meadows Acres: 2 Forest Type: Not forested. Early succession, grass and forbs Species present: Little bluestem, splitbeard bluestem, purple top, bearded beggartick, lanceleaf corepsisis, Indian blanket, partridge pea, evening primrose, black eyes Susan, narrow sunflower, purple coneflower, eastern showy aster, rattlesnake master, Maximillian sunflower Age: Established 2008, reestablished and replanted 2017 Size: N/a Quality: excellent Trees/acre: N/a Growth Rate: excellent. Recommendations: Burn when we burn the surrounding woods. Mow once a year absent fire. Wildlife Recommendations Field Borders Field borders are established along woodland edges and major drainages. Field borders create vegetative transition zones between cover types. Such zones are much more attractive to wildlife than the abrupt change that often occurs, for example, between field and forest. We have done this and will continue. Daylighting Daylighting consists of cutting most, not all, trees in a specified area to encourage and accelerate the growing and non-shade tolerant plants. Existing shrubs, vines and herbaceous (non-woody) plants should be left undisturbed to the extent possible. Woodland edges should be daylighted to a depth of 40 feet, recognizing that remaining trees will quickly reach out to shade the opening. Field borders established by daylighting have the advantage of taking no acreage from existing open land. We are doing this with our thinning. Borders need not completely rim every field or fringe every wood line. Yet, they should be employed to the greatest extent possible. Good field borders provide food, cover, and security. Perhaps equally important, they provide a most favorable “edge,” a critical component in the habitat chosen by most wildlife. Open Fields (Pollinator habitat) Probably the best practice to enhance open fields for wildlife is the establishment of field borders. These have been described. Snags Snags, dead or deteriorating trees, are an important habitat component in forests for wildlife. The availability of snags on forest lands affects the abundance, diversity and species richness of cavity nesting birds and mammals. Two to four snags per acre should be maintained in the forest. Such trees provide forage, cover, perches, and nesting sites for wildlife species such as raccoons, bats, flying squirrels, snakes, owls, woodpeckers, bluebirds (near open areas), and wrens, to name but a few. When snags are lacking in a forest, they can be created by girdling trees of poor quality or health. Forest Openings This area benefits from the development of forest openings to encourage the development of low growing plants. There are opening on all tracts, pollinator meadows. Logging Roads Soil erosion can be prevented through the careful location and maintenance of logging roads. Broad base dips and drainage ditches should be placed 20 feet apart on steep slopes and 50 feet apart on medium slopes. Loading areas should be seeded in game food after harvest. When logging is complete, ruts and gullies should be filled and the road should be out-sloped slightly. Closing of roads to unauthorized traffic will prevent damage to newly sown grass or wildlife food. Skid trails, haul roads, and log decks should be seeded with a mix of orchard grass and clover.
Thoughts and experiences from another year in the woods -2019
Guardian or gardener
It just gets better. I have loved forests since before I can remember; this is my fifteenth year of having my own land & having my land, rather than just walking around on others, changed my outlook. Owing land lets me to make choices about the future of the land and it gives me the responsibility to make the right ones AND implement them on the land. It is easy to speculate about what would be good to do; it is another thing to do it. This is a lesson that comes from being responsible for land rather than just looking at it and demanding that others do something.
Preservation and Conservation
I read a book a while back called “Natural Rivals,” a joint life and times biography of Gifford Pinchot and John Muir. The conflict and cooperation of these two giants of environment is taken as the birth of the American environmental movement. The general idea is that Pinchot is the guy advocating wise use. He is the father of conservation. Muir is the spiritual ecologist, who sees transcendental value in nature. His legacy is preservation. Pinchot is identified with forestry and the multiple use National Forests. Muir is identified with National Parks. The two strains overlap in most places, but on the edges, there is serious disagreement about the place on humans in the natural community. The book says that the conflict was not felt as strongly by the men involved than we have subsequently read into it. I agree.
Most of the time, you need not choose and part of the genius of someone like Aldo Leopold was to melt the two together in a concept of land ethic, where you respect the land while regeneratively using some of what the land produces.
I try to live & practice a land ethic and not just read about it but reading about it is still important. I don’t need to rediscover what others have long since known. For example, I read Aldo Leopold’s “Sand Country Almanac” way back in 1972, but it was not until I had my own land that his wise words really made complete sense to me. It is the interaction over time that creates the meaning and the complexity the leads to the joy in serendipity. My study of ecology and forestry lets me make reasonable predictions about what will happen when I take actions. It would not be so much fun if I could predict exactly what would happen or if it was completely beyond me to make changes.
Living a land ethic
Leopold’s “land ethic” is both simple and profound. We all live in the natural world and should be mindful of the choices we make, both actions and inaction. Things we do that tend to improve the biotic communities on the land are good and those that harm them are bad.
The profound and ostensibly paradoxical part is that Leopold wrote that you cannot write a land ethic in a book. A land ethic must be written on the land. You leave your signature on the land you manage, and you learn from the land you are walking on. You learn from being involved. It is a melding of studying, thinking and doing. Together they are better than the sum of their parts.
Observe – participate – reflect – observe … It is circular and endless, but even when I write it in this order it is misleading, since they overlap and merge in the practice. I made a pilgrimage to the Leopold Center this year to renew the ideas and maybe come up with a few new ones to help me write a land ethic on my land.
I am looking back over the last year and forward to the next. I wrote contemporaneous notes and commentary. I have used them as reference, used pictures and linked to some of them. I am surprised how much I sometimes forget. It demonstrates the usefulness of writing when memories are fresh.
Stewardship Forests Freeman and Brodnax are now officially Stewardship Forests. DoF Adam Smith did the necessary paperwork. The program recognizes that we are managing to increase economic value, while protecting water and air quality, wildlife habitat, and natural beauty. This is how I want to do things anyway, treat my land according to a robust land ethic, but it is nice to be recognized. The official designation has a few concrete advantages. It is easier to participate in cost-share programs and it is required to get tax credits for riparian protection. This is a link to the Brodnax stewardship plan.
Landscape Management Plans
Virginia is a pioneer in the American Tree Farm System “Landscape Management Plan.” As President of the Virginia Tree Farm Foundation, I have been much involved with preparations for a study and pilot program that will be deployed in Virginia east of the Blue Ridge, and I will be involved with the implementation. I hope to be the first tree farm to sign onto a landscape management plan in Virginia, lead by example. More background on land management plans is here.
Landscape management plans (LMP) by the American Tree Farm System looks at this bigger picture and create plans by which landowners can know what to do with their land to make sure it is in harmony with the environment in general and with land of other owners in particular. This is the part I like the best. I can also appreciate the practical aspects of making it easier for landowners to plan and for the Tree Farm to update. LMPs have been deployed successfully in parts of Florida & Alabama. We hope to be statewide in Virginia within a couple years.
Changing emphasis for the American Tree Farm System
I observe that tree farm is migrating a little away from tree farming, and I want to help push in this direction in my leadership capacity in Virginia. The American Tree Farm System (ATFS) was founded in 1941. America and the world were very different in 1941. We were worried about running out of wood and tree farms would address that. We also had confidence in a more mechanical view of nature. Trees were a crop like other crops. Sure, there was a longer time between planting and harvest, but the principle of the farm applied. That is why they called it tree farming.
We have learned a lot more about ecology and natural relationships since then. I often repeat the phrase that trees are more than wood and forests are more than trees. I don’t think this would have had much resonance with tree farmers in 1941. Their reality was different. People like me can be much more inclusive in our view of the ecology because we stand on the shoulders of those who went before us. I am grateful for the boost, but we have to think differently now, not contradicting the old guys, but building on their legacy. Back in the old days, they needed to be very efficient in the attainment of one goal – produce more wood and forest products. We still need to be efficient. We still need to produce wood & forest products. We still need to make profit, since that is the cost of survival, but our goals have expanded to include tangible ecological services – protection of water, soil, beauty and habitat – as well as the intangible “doing the right thing” in nature and in the communities, human and natural, that depend on the health of the forest. Let me get my head out of that cloud and move onto more practical interactions.
Cutting paths
I got a Stihl cutter a few years back, but it became really useful this year when I got a three-pronged blade that can cut through brush, brambles and grass with equal alacrity. I am not sure if it came just in time or if it was an example of the tool determining the task, but I put it to work for hundreds of hours this year. My first task was to cut paths for the prescribed burn on Freeman, both to allow for more efficient fire-starting and to provide breaks to slow the fires so that they do not get too hot. I describe this a more below.
I spent more total hours with the cutter on Brodnax, however. I was looking for the longleaf planted in 2016. My experience on Freeman was that brambles and weed competition had killed many. My other concern was that these longleaf were planted in early April, too late in the season. W/o the cutter, I could not get into the tract because of the brush and brambles. With the cutter, I could make paths and then cut around the longleaf that I found. The cutter is especially good with brambles, nearly impervious to other methods. I can raise the tool and then bring it down on the brambles and they are effectively grubbed up. More on my plans for this tract below.
We started the year with a winter burn in early February. In partnership with NRCS and the Virginia Department of Forestry. We all need friends and good advice. Our Virginia forestry folks and the Federal employees at NRCS are perfect partners. We have mapped out a regime of patch burning on our land in Brodnax. This was the second of three planned patch burns and it was as perfect as we can hope in this world. We burned up the hill, against the wind and then backed the fire down to the creek. The fire burned the brush but left the soil intact. The brush was dry, but the soil was damp – as I said, perfect. The fire pruned the big trees but did not kill any of the large pines.
Prescribed fire, not controlled fire It is exciting to watch and sometimes frightening. We call it a prescribed fire and not a “controlled fire” because fire is never fully controlled. Our forest includes a lot of holly in the understory. Holly keeps its leaves all winter and I thought the green leaves would resist the fire, quite the opposite. The fire crept along the ground most of the time but virtually exploded when it hit a holly bush. They burn fast and hot, but it lasts only a short time and burns only the leaves. Our fire was not hot enough and did not persist long enough to burn stems, although it did top-kill most of the hardwood stems. When I inspected in the spring, I was delighted to see little oak trees coming up from the roots.
I attended a three-day seminar in fire in oak forests, held at State College, Pennsylvania. One of the speakers commented that fire is like an animal – maybe a keystone predator (my words) – and lamented that fire in upland oak forests is essentially extinct. Its extirpation is a blow to forest ecology and bringing it back will be useful. We are bringing it back.
Fire is a primal human tool, part of being human. Animals do many things that humans do. Chimps make and use simple tools. Birds communicate. Bees create synthetic materials to build impressive hives, and termites create cathedrals in clay, compete with air conditioning. Only humans control fire, even if control is never complete. Watching “your” fire climb your hills into your trees is a unique experience. The fire often passes quickly, but it seems to hold time still. A great experience.
Plantations of Brodnax
Also, on Brodnax, I worked with my longleaf and loblolly pine, both planted in 2016. The longleaf are struggling. I think they were planted too late in the season. The crew planted them when they planted the loblolly. Loblolly are more forgiving. It is best to plant longleaf in winter, when it is cold and usually wet. When they planted these, it was in April, and planting was followed by a dry spell. I think the logic was that they would be okay because they were containerized. I have been looking for the little pines and not found as many as I would have liked. We sprayed and burned in 2018. This should have cleared the ground for them, and it did, but incompletely. My options are to replant longleaf or put loblolly. I am choosing a third option, maybe. There are some large white oaks at the edge of the plantation. I will see if we get oak regeneration on nearby and if we do, I will nurture those oaks, leaving an oak-pine forest. When the oaks get a little taller, they will resist the fires too. It can be magnificent. I will never see it in fact, but I love the idea.
White oak initiative
Speaking of oaks, I am giving special treatment to existing root sprouts & sapling oaks on other parts of the property. The Brodnax place seems a good place for oaks, judging by common presence as volunteers. The cool fires seem to be good for the oaks and I found a bunch coming up after the burn. I identified some oak patches and went through to knock down the gum, poplar and sycamore. Thinking again of Aldo Leopold’s “Axe in Hand,” which I think of very often when I am moving in the woods, I am making what I hope are thoughtful choices about what will be on the land after I am gone. I thought of planting some oaks, and still may to get some genetic diversity, but I think the stand can develop well if I just nurture some of what is there.
Other oaks too I gathered a couple hundred acorns from a magnificent burr oak near the Capitol. I planted them in the blank places in the Brodnax longleaf are where the longleaf failed to survive. Unfortunately, there was significant blank space. We will see how this works. We also planted 30 acres in loblolly. I have been in there with my cutter, making paths so that I can see. We strayed in 2017, but there is a lot of hardwood competition, mostly gum & poplar. Poplar are not much affected by Arsenal, which was the big component of the spray used on pines. I have a wonderful new cutting head for my trimmer. I have been making paths into the plantation and will continue to do that, taking down the recalcitrant popular and gum. Taking into account hardwood competition, the loblolly are doing well expect in a few patches where they were overwhelmed by hardwood competition and/or bramble. These I can whack back with my cutting tool. I ordered a thousand pollen-controlled loblolly from ArborGen. I will plant them in February in these patches and see if they do better. They are containerized, so most should survive. If they do as well as advertised, they should catch up with the ones planted a few years ago, and if they succeed, I will plant those sorts in future. Genetics matter. I am just not sure how much on the ground on my land.
Freeman Freeman has been my big focus this year and will be next year too. We thinned the pine forests on Freeman last year to 50 basal area and made ¼ acre clearings in each acre. Last winter we planted 3,500 longleaf in some of the gaps, along with 200 bald cypress in any place where my feet were wet. We got the bald cypress from ArborGen and I think they come from Louisiana. We bought the longleaf from Bodenhamer Farms in North Carolina, so my trees are not “native” Virginians. They are transplants like I am, but I figure the trees don’t recognize the boundary set up by the English kings. This year, we will get another 8-9,000 longleaf.
We had a small problem with turpentine beetles. They killed a few trees. Virginia DoF came by and recommended Bifenthrin. I sprayed the beetle trees and those around. We then burned under them and I think we got the beetles.
The fire did not get very hot, in fact it did not burn much at all. We backed the fire down to the creek and did a good job on the grass, but it just fizzled out in the darker, damper woods – a practical lesson in fire behavior. And I think we got the bugs. Turpentine beetles are more a nuisance than threat. Even if I did nothing at all, they would probably have killed only a few trees, but since I had the time and inclination, it was worth it get it done.
Longleaf pine in Virginia
I am not the only guy in Virginia working to restore longleaf pine ecologies in the Commonwealth. Lots of people are working on it and there is a lot of passion associated with longleaf. The Longleaf Alliance held its first in Virginia “Longleaf Academy,” and I was flattered to get a special invitation to participate. I attended a longleaf academy in Georgia, so much of this was familiar, but it was Virginia and so more to our specifics. I also was glad for the chance to meet and/or renew relationships with Virginians sharing the vision. Bill Owens is the leading longleaf landowner in Virginia. He has planted hundreds of acres of longleaf in Sussex County and had decided to deed some of it over to the Nature Conservancy. I attended the hand-over ceremony, got the tour and attended the reception at the Petersburg Country Club. Guests included other landowners like me, officials from Virginia Department of Forestry, U.S. Forest Service, NRCS and – of course – TNC. The guest list of participants says a lot about how forest and land management is a community affair. Nobody is a island.
Succession and complex communities on Freeman Let me dive a little deeper into what is happening on Freeman. I was spending a lot of time there this year, observed more than before and got a chance to think about what was going on
Working on the land is all about relationships – relationship with the ecology, relationships with the people who work with you and relationships with yourself. What I do or what I cause to be done seems to manage the land. What is really happening is that I am moving around some of the big and most obvious parts, but what is going on around them is often more interesting, and it is a joy to discover the interactive and growing parts.
Wetlands and wildflowers
An interesting unintended but not unpleasant consequence of thinning and making clearings was to create wetlands, or at least damp ones, as the thinner or absent trees do not suck up as much of the rainfall. We cleared around four acres next to our 2012 longleaf plantation with the intention of planting this in longleaf, part of the overall longleaf restoration plan in cooperation with NRCS. The kids planted the longleaf last year. Between this new longleaf and the old ones, however, is a large area of damp land. I planted fifty bald cypresses and “discovered” a couple dozen that were planted in 2012. I knew they had been planted, but I did not know that they had survived, as they were hidden and shaded by the 22-year old loblolly. Now in the open, they may grow robustly. I went around with my cutter to give them more space, as the newly available sunlight caused lots of things beside them to grow. I am fond of these marshy areas.
Succession and the swerve
There are a lot more than bald cypress, however. If you create the conditions, they will come and all sorts of wildflowers, grasses and forbs have sprung up. The seeds and some of the roots were in the soil when conditions were less auspicious and ready to go when the vista opened. I cannot identify all the sorts of flowers. In late summer, however, the wet strip was dominated by joe-pye weed, loved by pollinators and beautiful to see. On the verge and within the pine plantations, I planted Southeast wildflower mix. I even planted some less common components of the southeastern pine forests, like prickly pear & rattlesnake master. I planted in patches, where I could provide better environments, keep an eye on progress and not lose the seeds by casting them too broadly or thinly. I hope and believe that they will spread by seed, rhizomes and runners. That is my plan at least, which may flexibly and opportunistically be accomplished with help of the relationships with the land and the biotic communities.
The longleaf patch – the crucible of the future forest
My 2012 longleaf patch is where I have spent much of my time on the farms. This has been true ever since it was planted. It is big enough to be significant, but small enough (at about five acres) that my efforts make an easily seen difference. I think of it in terms of a crucible. I learned practical skills, could experiment with longleaf, with fire and with being a conservationist on this small patch. I can extrapolate to the larger spaces.
Longleaf pines are more diverse genetically compared to loblolly. If you plant loblolly, they are all about the same height at the same age and conditions.
Some people think that this extreme variation among longleaf is an adaptation to fire. Longleaf are fire adapted, but not all ages are the same. They will usually die if the terminal bud is destroyed and are most vulnerable when they are about 6 feet high. The flames usually pass over the smaller ones and do not reach the terminal buds on the taller ones, so having various sizes means that some always survive. I don’t know that pine trees do all that much planning, but it could be true, although not by design.
All this variation and the need for fire makes longleaf harder to grow than Loblolly. You just do not know what to expect. But my longleaf are an experiment anyway, and lots of people are interested in the results. I get lots of support from NRCS and Virginia Department of Forestry. Longleaf once dominated Virginia roughly south of the James River and east of the piedmont, but they have not been growing in the Virginia piedmont for more than 100 years. My trees are not native Virginians. They are from North Carolina. Not sure how they will do, but I doubt that the trees recognize state borders.
Landscape painted by fire In “nature” open pinelands are maintained by fire and this is ultimately how I want to manage mine. But fire is a dangerous tool. I am not competent to use it as much as I think I should. In the meantime, I depend on chemical and mechanical tools.
I spent many days cutting with my brush tool and accomplished, making paths for us to more easily light and control the fires. In September, I had the forest north of the lines professionally sprayed. They used a helicopter to get it done. I will see how it differs on either side after recovery from the fires.
Fire and planting
In December we burned under the loblolly on Freeman and in the clearings. We also burned the longleaf patch. The fire top killed brambles, but did not burn them away, so it as hard going planting in some of the patches.
Burning is good, but it always scares me. I inspected my longleaf most carefully. Some of the needles are singed and will fall off. I checked for the buds on some of the lower branches, figuring that that was most likely to be killed and that higher ones would be better. I found that middle was still green and will be growing, so I assume the tops are good.
Longleaf is fire adapted. The needles singe, but when they heat up they release humidity that protects the terminal buds. The buds are what count. If the buds are alive, the tree will grow again.
Chrissy and I planted 3350 longleaf seedlings the week of December 9. It was a lot of effort but worth it because we got to handle and touch all the little trees. This adds to the 3350 we planted last season, the maybe 4000 in the longleaf patch and we will finish up with the kids planting a few thousand more early 2020. We will not be 100% done, however. I expect to be planting longleaf to fill in for the next few years. When we are done, we will not have a truly uneven aged stand, but it will have some variation of age class.
Planting trees with the dibble stick in indeed very hard work. As I write this, I feel the pain in my hands with each keystroke. The pain will soon pass, but the memory will abide. It was immensely gratifying to do the planting and to look back at the clearing with the little longleaf and that Chrissy was doing it with me added to the pleasure.
Why do it? I could hire a crew to plant, and I think it would cost me less than we spent in gas and hotels to do it ourselves. But that would miss the point of owning forest land. I don’t want a consultant because I want to do it myself. I don’t want to hire others to plant my trees, because I want to do it and I want Chrissy and the kids to be involved. The meaning and the joy come not from the result but from the process. It is cliché to say that it is the journey and not the destination, but it is true in this case. Sure, I will hire crews to do a lot of the hard work and I know that someday, sooner than I want, I will be unable to do the hard, physical work of burning, cutting and planting. But until that day, I want to experience to the fullest. When I look at my groves of longleaf, I will know that I am connected to them, not just by signing my name at the bottom of a contract, but by putting my signature on the land.
Diamond Grove The 178 acres at Diamond Grove was my first forest. I knew little about forestry in Virginia and pretty much nothing about buying rural land. I may have paid a little more than I should have, but not that much. I was lucky. I love this land, but this is the one I visit least these days. On some visit to the farms, I do not visit at all. This is because there was nothing for me to do besides look. The pines were established and growing well, but not yet ready to thin. I sometimes went and fought the invasive and the vines, but this work was mostly optional. Since we planned to thin in the next couple of years, knocking down the vines did not make much sense. It was like vacuuming the carpet before you pull it up. This situation will change early next year.
Thinning Our plan is to thin this winter (January or February 2020) to about 100 basal area. This is standard for a first thinning. Kirk McAden’s company will do the thinning. His forester suggested 100 BA or even 110. I will go with 100. If we thinned to much less, the trees would not self-prune and the competition would be stronger. For the next thinning, I will go with 50 BA, as on Freeman, but that is a while in the future.
Wet roots – bald cypress and tupelo I am going to completely clear about 5 acres near Genito Creek. This is damp land and I expect when the trees are gone it will become positively wet. Pines do not grow well on this land. What grows well is invasive multiflora rose. I have been fighting this multiflora rose battle for more than 10 years and I am losing the fight, so I mean to change the rules of the game. We can do good site preparation, burn and then plant bald cypress. I may mix in a few black tupelos. These species will thrive on the damp and do well even if it floods, as it has sometimes done. I visited a forest like this in the Congaree National Park in South Carolina. If we project global warming, these trees will be just where they belong by the time they mature. If conditions do not change, they will still be okay. Tupelo and bald cypress can grow in this part of Virginia. I have seen healthy bald cypress forests in Ohio and individual trees thriving as far north as Wisconsin. Tupelo grow naturally, if not commonly all the way north in Maine. Tupelos are a wonderful part of the ecology. Birds love the fruit and bees love the flowers. Maybe somebody can harvest these trees way in the future, but for my lifetime I figure I will just think of it as SMZ.
Summing 2019 is almost done. All I will do this year yet is carve a few paths through brambles for that the kids can more easily plant longleaf in January of next year. 2019 has been a good year in the woods, best year ever. 2020 will be better yet.
December & January make up the planting season for longleaf pine. We planted about 3000 in December of last year, another 3334 this December and will get another 3000 into the ground in January next year.
The kids planted most of the trees last December and will do again in January, but Chrissy and I planted the December 2019 tranche. It took a whole week plus one day. I picked up the trees from Bodenhammer in North Carolina on Friday, December 6. It is a long drive, and even though I got them early in the morning, I still had only the afternoon to start. Winter is the time of short days. The sun goes down a little before 5pm and it doesn’t get light again until 7am. We also had a couple days of cold rain. On the plus side, the rain makes the ground softer and so easier to punch the Dipple bar, but it also makes it harder to see, harder to get around and cold rain makes the work more miserable. I worked alone until Chrissy came down on Tuesday. It was great to have her, nearly doubled productivity, and I just liked having her with me.
Below are notes from the planting days.
December 6-9
On my way to pick up the first tranche of this year’s longleaf. I stopped off at Freeman to check out the fire results. It is odd. Some places burned a lot and others not at all. It seems like there is dry grass that should have burned easily next to burned areas.
Will get my longleaf from Aaron Bodenhamer & Louie Bodenhamer, BTW. We got all the longleaf you see in the photos are from them.
The fire top killed brambles, but did not burn them away, so it is going to be hard going planting in some of the patches. I am going to be planting all next week and I will push through, but I will use my cutter to make easier paths for the kids when they come to plant. I want them to have good memories. They can get used to the brambles gradually, as I did.
Burning is good, but it always scares me. I inspected my longleaf most carefully. Some of the needles are singed and will fall off. I checked for the buds on some of the lower branches, figuring that that was most likely to be killed and that higher ones would be better. I found that middle was still green and will be growing, so I assume the tops are good.
Longleaf is fire adapted. The needles singe, but when they heat up they release humidity that protects the terminal buds. The buds are what count. If the buds are alive, the tree will grow again
My grass stage longleaf also have green centers. I might lose a few, but I think most will be okay.
First picture is the green center of one of the longleaf branches. Next is the burn-over of the 2012 pines and after that some of the grass stage nearby. Penultimate shows the burning under 1996 loblolly and the grassy hills. I planted some clover on the fire line bare dirt. I know that is not “native” but it is pollinator habitat and generally a good plant for that purpose. I scattered some of the native seeds that I gathers onto the burned areas. I got a lot of rattlesnake master seeds and scattered them. The flowers are not showy, but the bees and butterflies love them. A lot of the native plants come in when you burn. If you burn it they will come. I will plant longleaf in the clearings among the loblolly. Have to push through those brambles.
First planting afternoon
My imagined (wished for) capacity to plant trees is very much greater than my real power. I picked up 3000 longleaf seedlings this morning and got to Freeman around 2pm. I planted steady until almost 5pm. I got around 250 planted.
My challenge, beside being old and slow, is that the fire burned the ground but did not knock down the brambles. It really slows me down when I hit the bramble patches, but even the dog fennel, also often still standing. is a problem. Complain, complain. The weather also is not going to cooperate tomorrow or Friday. But there is nothing to do but go one. I used my Marriott points to stay 5 nights and six days down here, so I can get a lot done, if not all.
I have scouted out the better, i.e. less full of bramble, places to plant. I am going to hit them first. I can take my cutter to the less pleasant places and make paths. Chrissy will come and help starting on Wednesday, so I may get er done despite the problems.
My first picture shows Aaron Bodenhamer. They grow the longleaf I use. Very friendly people. Next are the siblings of my pines on the Bodenhammer place. My few thousand trees are a drop in that bucket. We plant more than 2 billion trees every year in the U.S. South. Last are some of the pines I planted, in a fairy non-bramble section. If it all that clear, I would be much happier. I am planting them four step apart, but only where they are not directly under the loblolly. I am scattering a few in good places within the stand.
December 11
Chrissy has come down to help plant pine trees, so my productivity will double. Poor girl has blisters on her hands now, but will soldier on tomorrow anyway. I no longer get blisters. Tomorrow will be a good day, sunny but cool. Chrissy also brought the cutter. I wacked a bunch of brambles. I didn’t have to do a very complete job, just enough to make it easy to get through, so it was well worth the time.
First picture is Chrissy wearing the blaze (hunting season) with the dibble bars. Next is me at the end of the day, followed by sunset on the farms, way to early this time of year. We went for supper at Cracker Barrel. You feel very young when you eat at Cracker Barrel, since the average customer age must be more than that proverbial four score and seven.
December 12 Chrissy’s help is helping get the planting back on track. If it does not rain all day on Friday, we should be able to finish by Saturday evening – 3000 little longleaf pine in the ground.
December 15
We went into overtime (extra day) but Chrissy and I got the trees planted – 3000 longleaf. We planted in openings and in the clearings on the west side of the property. Google maps are great. I could track where I was in the woods. On the ground, it is hard to see where the clearing start and how to get from one to the others. The Google maps really helped. I think we got them all covered, but I need to get the ground truth. I am sure we missed some.
I constantly marvel at how things have improved. Some years ago I bought a Garmin to help navigate. It had primitive graphics and it was not very precise. And it was not cheap. Now we get a much better picture for free. We live in the best of times. This is just one example.
We planted four steps apart in the clearings and in under planting corridors. The kids will be along for the next planting. I am going to cut paths in some of the brambles so that the kids don’t suffer so much. The brambles were the worst, really slowed us down.
It was very nice today, around 50 and sunny, but Friday was miserable. It rained all day and into Saturday morning. The rain is the excuse for needing that extra day.
Other pictures are Chrissy and I at El Ranchero, a Mexican restaurant in Emporia. I really love being in my woods, but Emporia does not have a lot of things I like. As far as I could find, there is no place to get a good craft beer.
On my way to pick up the first tranche of this year’s longleaf. I stopped off at Freeman to check out the fire results. It is odd. Some places burned a lot and others not at all. It seems like there is dry grass that should have burned easily next to burned areas.
The fire top killed brambles, but did not burn them away, so it is going to be hard going planting in some of the patches. I am going to be planting all next week and I will push through, but I will use my cutter to make easier paths for the kids when they come to plant. I want them to have good memories. They can get used to the brambles gradually, as I did.
Burning is good, but it always scares me. I inspected my longleaf most carefully. Some of the needles are singed and will fall off. I checked for the buds on some of the lower branches, figuring that that was most likely to be killed and that higher ones would be better. I found that middle was still green and will be growing, so I assume the tops are good.
Longleaf is fire adapted. The needles singe, but when they heat up they release humidity that protects the terminal buds. The buds are what count. If the buds are alive, the tree will grow again
My grass stage longleaf also have green centers. I might lose a few, but I think most will be okay.
First picture is the green center of one of the longleaf branches. Next is the burn-over of the 2012 pines and after that some of the grass stage nearby. Penultimate shows the burning under 1996 loblolly and the grassy hills. I planted some clover on the fire line bare dirt. I know that is not “native” but it is pollinator habitat and generally a good plant for that purpose. I scatters some of the native seeds that I gathers onto the burned areas. I will plant longleaf in the clearings among the loblolly. Have to push through those brambles. My last picture are rude motorcycle guys. they parked their bikes blocking the pumps. They were hanging around inside the Pilot. I was “scandalized” but didn’t have the inclination or courage to confront them. There were other pumps available and I filled up there. Reminds me of the joke about the truck driver and the bike gang.
A truck driver is having his lunch when a biker gang comes in and starts to harass him. They take some of his food, spill his coffee. He just finishes, pays for his food and leaves. The lead biker says to the waitress, Not much of a man, is he?” The waitress replies, “Not much of a driver either. He just backed over a bunch of motorcycles.”
