ForestHaven wrote:
> Furthermore, the imperfect trees are often the ones having what we would
> call defects, such as weak crotches that eventually result in cavities,
> that likely benefit other organisms. I much prefer a mixed forest
> containing many imperfect specimens to the monotony of an "improved"
> stand, from both an aesthetic and forest health standpoint. I'm sure
> that almost any forester would disagree, but a forest ecologist might
> not.
This is true. I work for a public sewering utility (GASP!). I'm on the
Environmental Team. As part of an interceptor pipe project, we went
into an area that had become channelized over time due to increased
urban runoff (even though this was a wooded section). The banks were
severely eroded, substrate was poor and homogenous, and there was little
microhabitat diversity in the stream. As part of a plan to restore
meanders, add stabilization through bioengineering, and reintroduce
habitat diversity, we had several field walks during and after design.
On a pre-construction walk, an arborist that contracts to us was in our
group. As we were walking through a section that had been logged 30-50
years previous (it varied), and now had thick 30-50 year tree growth, we
were looking at an old roadbed. Our pipeline was to run down this old
roadbed. At one point, the alignment would have required razing a Tulip
Poplar (c. 5 ft dbh) and another similar-sized elder nut tree (can't
remember which), I asked for the alignment to change and shift to avoid
even the dripline of this pair. The arborist piped up "Oh you don't
want THOSE. That big one has a fault and the new alignment would take
out 15-20 30 year old trees" (mainly red maples). The Tulip Poplar had a
large cavity from a former branch drop. The branch was probably the
size of most trees! Anyway, I gently explained that I was not out there
to attend to future lumber needs but that my sole purpose was to look at
biodiversity and habitat complexity issues. Further, we had a discussion
on mast, refugia, genetics, etc. Needless to say, it went totally
against his classical forestry training and it took a several more
episodes of re-education until he started to shift his rationale on our
jobs. I'm not sure if it has any crossover into his other contracts,
but he now somewhat knows what to expect on ours.
--
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