Green Horizons

Manage What You Have First

By: EUGENE L. BRUNK

I've talked a lot about planting trees in my professional life, and it's usually a good thing. In fact, I've found it is much easier to get a person to plant a tree than it is to convince them that trees will need management along the way. Harder still, has been trying to convince folks that they can get the most "bang for their buck or time" by taking care of trees they already have, regardless of the source.

Taking care of what we already have growing is not a glamorous part of forestry, but it is probably the most productive, be it out in the woods, or out on the town. Photos of kids planting trees makes for better news copy than photos of work crews caring for trees. When I was a young forester, just starting to work with private landowners, I was sent to inspect a proposed Soil Bank project that was to be done by a lawyer who had bought an old farm and was going to "improve" it by planting 30,000 walnut seedlings in a 30-acre, fescue grass field. I knew this was too many walnut seedlings to plant per acre, but the program parameters called for 1,000 seedlings per acre.

When I looked at the proposed planting, I also looked at the rest of the farm, and was astounded to discover thousands of naturally-established walnut trees ranging in size from seedling to saplings to even small poles and a few large trees. The potential for immediate improvement was great, and I tried my best to encourage the lawyer to put his efforts into the existing trees, but to no avail. He insisted on going ahead with the planting. I did everything I could to disqualify his proposal, but all the Soil Bank requirements were in place, so I had to approve the project. After he finished, I inspected the job, and they had done an excellent job of planting. I still encouraged him to manage what he had out there and he said he would (eventually) but really needed to make sure this planting "worked." I later found out he needed the government payment to pay off a mortgage payment on the property.

About 15 years later, I ran across this lawyer at a Walnut Council field tour, and he made a point of telling me that I had been right. The planting had failed because there was very little follow-up on weed or fescue control or anything else. The Soil Bank Program didn't have a very long time period for maintaining a tree planting, and no re-inspection requirements after the first year or two. He said he had started managing the existing regeneration within the past 5 years, and lamented losing ten years of accelerated growth, and apologized for not listening to me. His pursuit of a government payment got in the way of making a proper long-term management decision that would have paid off much better than a failed plantation.

What does this story have to do with urban tree care? I believe it can be used as an analogy to things we see happening in urban and suburban settings throughout the state. How often do we see trees left unpruned because it's easy to put off, with a promise to "get to it later?" Or, how about the homeowners association that wants to clear out all that "brush" (natural regeneration) in the common part of the subdivision so they can plant some really nice trees to make it look more "natural?" The same thing may be true of the individual homeowner who sees some funny looking leaf on a woody plant right in the middle of a place where they want to establish their favorite redbud tree. So, he/she pulls out the naturally-occurring redbud seedling and replaces it with a potted redbud seedling (seed source unknown) from the local "parking lot lawn and garden center", then has a difficult time nurturing it through the first year - just to get it to live.

There are probably many more examples out there concerning the value of managing what you already have growing; many of which are probably better than those I've mentioned. Being aware of the opportunities to manage existing vegetation, and following through with required treatments, can lead to a home site that is comfortable and appealing, an urban forest that exemplifies community pride and appeal, or even a rural forest that is as productive as it can be for recreation, watershed protection, wood production, and wildlife habitat enhancement.

Good stewardship of any asset requires that you first take care of the basis handed you before trying to add to those assets. Trees are no exception.