This is the title of one of the chapters in Richard Leakey's book, and it gave me a great deal of insight into ecological habitats.
I don't remember if I have written about the rather great change in "my" woods since I began to take wood there about 4 years ago (when I got my chimney and stove, a year after I bought the house).
What I did, in short, was to clear a large tract of ground which was not completely shaded by trees, by removing, one by one, with a great deal of grunting and cursing, the tree tops, which were dumped into big piles in a wide swath parallel with the road.
Into this area the butterbur moved in great numbers. Some places there is ground elder (where there is more shade). And since the water table rose last winter, whatchamachall it, the prehistoric plant that cures bladder infections, has moved in.
Whether this is a good thing or not, can be discussed for hours. I cannot see any harm done.
If there are to be archaological diggings, the remaining trees will have to be felled and the roots "rooted out", which will be a much greater change. Watch out, butterbur, your hours are numbered!
Carol
Carol Jensen wrote:
Carol
Very interesting to see nature in action. As you say your action in
removing the timberis making a noticeable difference, but as long as the
new association of plants can then again stabilize I should think it
will not necessarily be "better" or "worse", only different, which is
the way all ecosystems continue to evolve over time.
I recently saw a very interesting essay about forest succession in NZ
where the natural setup starts from grasses and other herbs, and goes
through seveal stages of sun-loving plants with dry seeds until the area
becomes shady and then is replaced by the trees and ground covers which
have fleshy seeds and also need shade, at least to get started, and
finally one gets a multilayered forest which stablizes for a few years
and then begins to decay. If enough of the shading trees grow old and
fall the whole thing opens up and some or all of the sequence is
repeated. A totally dynamic situation and one which can be further
considerably modified of course by changes in climate, especially
temperature and rainfall.
In this country, while human interference by felling and burning has
destroyed a large part of our natural forest, man is not the only
destructive force, as in the North Island at least volcanic eruptions
have over historical time wiped out whole forests even more drastically,
with many areas for instance being completely buried under thick layers
of pumice. Pumice is on the whole not very fertile (it is very largely
silca) and where there were originaly splendid Podocarp forests on the
central plateau, in modern times much of the land could not naturally
sustain anything bigger than scrub. However it has been found that they
will very happily grow successive crops of Pinus radiata, and so much of
the area is now where we have out greatest and most productive
commercial plantings.
Moira
--
Tony & Moira Ryan,
Wainuiomata, North Island, NZ. Pictures of our garden at:-
http://mywebpages.comcast.net/cherie1/Garden/TonyandMoira/index.htm
and where there were originaly splendid Podocarp forests on the
Is this a radiating Pine, Moira? I don't have any Latin dictionary or even a botanical ditto, to look stuff up in. I use my memory and my Danish-English dictionary, which also gives the Latin.
Carol
