A tree falls in the forest.
Whether it makes a sound is irrelevant.
What matters is that it’s life is not over.
Over the course of this semester, we have spent a lot of
time studying the conservation and exploitation of the Adirondack forests. We have witnessed the birth, death, and
rebirth of logging in the park as well as the birth, death, and rebirth of the
region’s vast forests. It seems fitting,
therefore, to end this blogging project with the life that exists after the
death of a giant in the context of the countless forest disputes that have
ruled the Adirondacks.
We have heard from loggers disparaging dead wood in forests
mourning the waste of profits (Schneider 231) and have witnessed struggles of
private companies against the state to salvage dead wood on public land (See my
earlier post, “Big Blow-up”) and increase leniency in logging regulations on
private land (See my earlier post, “Junk Forests?”). Loggers cite the dangers of dead woods in
forests in light of the forest fires that ravaged the park at the turn of the
century. Throughout these disputes, no
one seems to acknowledge the ecological importance of dead wood in the forest
ecosystem… so I will tell you:
A tree often meets its death when it can no longer maintain
defenses against persistent fungi, which invade its vascular structure and begins
feasting. These decomposers make
available nutrients for other hungry opportunists such as mosses, slugs, and
insects which in turn attract predators such as birds. These birds hollow out the trees and create
homes for themselves in the soft wood. Eventually,
these residents will move on and new animals will move in—squirrels anyone? These standing dead trees can maintain life
for decades before falling to the forest floor where they begin serving a new
suite of forest community members. On the
floor, decomposition sinks the tree into the ground where it moistens and
becomes a nursery for mosses and new tree saplings that will eventually take
its parent’s place in the canopy (Krautwurst 2004).
Thankfully, the Wild Center in Tupper Lake recognizes the importance of tree after-life, where they are building a feature
into their new “Wild Walk” which allows visitors to witness the diversity of life
and decomposition processes behind the death of a forest giant. The exhibit, designed by Chip Reay, will
contain a path leading into an [artificially] large “snag”—the word for a
standing dead tree—with a spiral staircase exposing the visitor to different processes
within this living-dead structure (Otter 2014).
In perhaps no other ecosystem is the role of death so critical in the
advancement and survival of the whole. Dead
trees in the forest are not a waste of profit or an aesthetic disappointment,
but an essential component to a healthy and expanding Adirondack Forest.
Thanks to Ellie for her peer review!
References:
Otter—an update for
members. Summer 2014.
Wildcenter.org. “Building Wild
Walk.”
Krautwurst, Terry. “The
Life in Dead Trees.” September 2014. Mother Earth News. URL: < http://www.motherearthnews.com/nature-and-environment/the-life-in-dead-trees-zmaz04aszsel.aspx?PageId=1>.
Schneider, Paul. The Adirondacks—a History of America’s First
Wilderness. First Owl Books: New
York (1998).
Trees really are incredible, both dead and alive. They reinvigorate their surrounding ecosystem with nutrients through death and decay. However, the forests of the east coast lack a special component only found on the west coast. Gaby once pointed out to me how she has never seen nurse logs in the forests of the Adirondacks, but they are incredibly prevalent in the Pacific Northwest. These logs are not just felled trees that eventually decompose. Whether it is the humidity or the incessant rain, felled trees in the Pacific Northwest are quickly enveloped in moss soon after falling. Nurse logs take much longer to decompose, and therefore provide an optimal habitat for saplings and shrubs to take root. This is a fascinating phenomena that is critical to western forests, just as dead trees are critical to the eastern forests. Thank you for raising this point, Emily.
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