A Tale of 32 Trees (pt. 2)
About 18 months ago, I wrote about the 32 surviving trees from an ill-fated plantation of 200+ that my neighbors had attempted before I acquired that part of the property. At the time, I wrote about my efforts to offer as much support as possible to those resilient little saplings - cutting the grass around them, mulching, and offering some manual watering to help get them through the long, dry summer.
And I figured it’s about time for an update on those trees! So where do we stand?
Well, we’re down to 25.
And the ones still standing are hardly thriving
Why, you ask?
I think it’s partly the conditions, and partly the wildlife. The ground where they were planted is far from the shade, moisture, and dense mycelia of the current forest; and while these saplings are now beyond that super-tender sprouting stage that makes them such tasty treats for the deer, as they get taller, deer and elk alike use them to rub the itchy velvet off their seasonal antlers and tear away precious chunks of bark in the process.
Ouch
The bark on a tree is like our skin; it’s a critical barrier protecting the insides from the many things floating out there in the air waiting to invade and kill us. (As humans we may be less vulnerable than trees to consumption by bugs, but it’s still a non-zero chance … I’ve seen Creepshow).
So this is where I leap to the rescue, right? What do I plan to do to save and nurture these otherwise helpless future skyscrapers?
Absolutely nothing.
The more my conservation philosophy has steered towards non-interference, the more obvious it becomes that these trees aren’t taking hold because they were never supposed to be there. If nature had wanted a bunch of trees there, there would be trees already.
Now that's not to say that I wouldn't celebrate their survival of any one of them as a symbol of life’s persistence, but at this point, I just need to step back and let nature do what it's going to do… heartbreaking as that sometimes feels.
Still standing proudly, even in death
A few of them, however, are showing some real spirit. If they can beat the odds for another 8-10 years they just may live to be a part of this land’s bigger picture.
In fact, one of them that seems to be doing the very best is already making a place for himself among his big brothers-from-another-species.
Of course this one was planted by the tree line, where the soil has a better chance of supporting him long term
It helps me to know that any living thing out here, flora or fauna, that doesn't make it will simply settle into the ground for it’s components to be reused by the next generation of life. And if some of these trees do survive to maturity, they will slowly start cultivating the soil around them, and may eventually form the basis for their own forest structure. But forests take hundreds of years to cultivate themselves…
Mother nature showing off a bit
…and they can do so very well without my help, thank you very much.