Is Your Forest Resilient, Strong, and
Sustainable? Look at Its Ecology
Is your forest healthy - vibrant, growing, and
resilient? Most discussions on forest health deal with
the presence or absence of destructive insects or
diseases in trees. Technically, this results in a
black-and-white answer; it lets you know which symptoms
to look for. It also gives you criteria that can be
applied to everything from a single tree through a full
forest of trees, including a single species plantation.
However, there are two problems with this approach to
forest health.
First, once you spot the presence of a
serious disease or pest, such as gypsy moth or root rot,
there is not much that a private forest landowner can do
about it. Second, infestations of diseases or insects
normally hit trees and forests that are already under
stress due to poor health or lack of nutrients. While
this insect/disease pathology is interesting and needed
information, a more general sense of your forest's
health might give you the ability to react to
deficiencies before stress and disease take their toll.
Try this comparison. If you were the mayor of a town and
asked if your community were healthy, the public health
department would respond that there was no tuberculosis,
smallpox, or diphtheria. That is nice to know but it
does not tell you how well the community is doing. Is it
vibrant and growing and resilient? Are people moving out
or are they raising families here? Are all types of
people accepted and valued here or does one group try to
dominate? Will this community still be here in 100
years?
As manager of your forest community, you may have
asked those same questions - how do you tell whether
your forest community is doing well? At least one person
is trying to address this perspective. Steve Apfelbaum,
a research and consulting ecologist, works on plant
communities throughout the United States; he does
research, design, engineering, restoration, and data
analysis on various communities - prairie, savanna,
wetland, and forest. At the Tri-State Forest Stewardship
Seminar at Sinsinawa, Wisconsin, he summarized his
thoughts on how to judge whether your forest is healthy.
Since he is an ecologist, his focus is on bio-diversity.
Therefore, this method probably cannot be applied to a
single tree or to a single species plantation; but for
any of you that grow trees in forests, read on. Mr.
Apfelbaum focuses on thirteen indicators of whether a
forest community will survive long-term:|
1. Multiple Age Classes - are seedlings, saplings,
shrubs, mature trees, downed trees, and understory plant present?
2. Stable, Intact Ground Community - is there any
evidence of gully or rill erosion?
3. Biodiversity - is there native vegetation blooming in
spring, summer, and fall?
4. Minimal Overland Runoff - are there stable and
vegetated streambanks?
5. Compatible Wildlife - is there minimal wildlife
browse damage?
6. Spatial Heterogeneity - are the stands patchy and
non-uniform; is there diversity at all levels?
7. Equitable Dominance - is the dominance at all levels
distributed equally among the species present?
8. Spatial Isolation - is the forest part of a larger
forested landscape; or is it a fragmented island without
connections?
9. Absence of Exotic Species - is diversity increasing
or being maintained? ...or is it declining with one or
two species dominating a level?
10. Sustainable Forestry Practice - is high-value timber
present? ...are reproductive individuals present? are
snags and downed logs present?
11. Sustainable Recreation Values - are wildlife,
wildflowers, and native plants valued?
12. Stewardship Focus of Owner - are there management
plans for the entire community? ...is there an ethical
intent to transfer stewardship to the next generation?
13. Restoration Strategy - are problem areas addressed
with plans being implemented and neighbors being
involved?
Whether you agree with everything in the above list, at
least these items will give you something to consider
and a new way to look at your forest stands. |