Trees, Trees, Trees!

We fight a constant battle with trees in our part of the world.  This is a seedling American Elm tree peeking through the grass on our place.  The elm are spread by wind.

Here we see a small pecan tree.  Birds and a few other animals such as squirrels spread pecan trees.  Squirrels will gather the nuts and bury them for later consumption.  Time in the soil softens the hard outer shell and makes it easier for them to get at the meat.

This appears to be another pecan.  These are native varieties and the nuts are small.  There are a number of very large ones on our place.  Water washing across the land can also spread pecans.

This looks to be a Redbud Tree.  The small seeds of the Redbud are spread by birds.  The seeds need the scarification action of the acids in the bird's alimentary tract in order to germinate.  Otherwise, they are just a hard, round bee-bee of a seed that will sit for many years before germination.

We have a constant battle with trees.  Generally, in our part of Northeast Texas, if land is left fallow for a few years it will become overgrown with trees.  One of the most common colonizing trees we have to deal with is the Honey Locust.  I didn't take a photo of any yesterday when I was out scouting the pasture, mainly because this year's seedlings are already from 1 to 3 feet tall.  They are very obvious.

The ideal way to deal with the encroachment of trees is with fire.  It is the way the American Indians dealt with them.  It is the way nature deals with them.  Now, in this modern time it seems we have become "smarter" than either nature or the earliest Americans; we think fire is something to prevent.  Because we no longer use fire as a management tool, our forests are full of dead, fallen limbs and trees and our open grasslands are being invaded by colonizing trees.

We hear a lot about the need to retain our forests as a means of capturing and storing carbon.  They are part of the equation, but only one aspect of it.  Forests, just like any other concentration of vegetation, are constantly dying and renewing.  That process releases carbon through decay which is then re-captured through growth.  The same happens in grasslands.  The same happens in animals.  Read about the Carbon Cycle.

In our part of the world it is difficult to do a controlled burn of pasture due to the bottomland forests which surround us.  The fuel load in some of those forests is so large that the fires would burn for weeks and be extremely hot.  Ideally, fire should occur periodically -- even in those bottomland forests.  It would clear out much of the dead, fallen limbs on a regular basis and allow a natural succession of hardwoods to take place.  Instead, the woods are full of fallen timber which washes into the streams during heavy rains, causing damming to occur which leads to the streams escaping their banks and eroding new channels.  It also cause the water to back up and flood many acres that would otherwise quickly clear of water.

There is much talk of how agriculture has changed land use practices.  That is true, but only part of the story.  One of the greater issues is how man has changed the natural cycle of fire and renewal.  Now, about the only way to effectively control the colonizing trees in areas such as the open meadows of our land which are crucial for wildlife, is through chemical or, mechanical means.  Chemical means risk exposure of animals to substances that may have temporary harmful effects.  Their use can impact the diversity of species on a localized basis -- even if it doesn't directly harm them, their presence seems to discourage some from utilizing the land resources.  Mechanical means are typically only marginally effective and there is often re-growth.

If you read about the Carbon Cycle in the link above, you will find that it points to the burning of fossil fuels as the single biggest cause of excessive carbon in the atmosphere which many claim is the reason for global warming.  It also refers to land use practices -- particularly by agriculture.  Here is where I take some exception; I suspect the "viral" spread of urban and suburban areas with the concomitant use of concrete and asphalt is a bigger issue.  It not only changes reflectivity of the land, it changes water runoff patterns and contributes to flooding issues.  Folks are concerned about burning the rainforests of Brazil, but I'm more concerned about the spread of urban areas.  I hate the loss of biodiversity in those lost forests, but I know they will be replaced by plant life that is part of the natural carbon cycle.  Land taken for houses, highways and parking lots will likely remain in those uses as long as mankind occupies this planet.  We need to seriously re-think our cities and surrounding suburban areas.

Sigh, I suppose I got on my soapbox a bit this morning.