Reforestation for One

I lost a lot of the trees that buffer my pasture from my home when a storm came through 3 weeks ago. I lost at least 15 loblolly pines, most were uprooted although several snapped in the center. In the cleanup numerous smaller trees were removed by the machines needed in the cleanup. So here is what I did: I went to a forestry site and ordered longleaf pines. I am at the northern end of their range but there are 3-4 native longleafs existing here naturally and I have successfully transplanted one on 2003 which is thriving. They have a long taproot, making them less likely to get blown over.

Check out these seedlings! I was very pleased.

Online they gave me a price per thousand and I was going to pay it but they come in a box of 334 and they let me purchase one box.

Here is where I am hoping to start again. If anyone has done this before let me know because I have no training in forestry.

I've never done anything like this before so I can't be too much help...but I would suggest planting a few different kinds of trees, not all the longleaf pines. It's always good to have variety in the first place, but also you mentioned that you're at the northern end of the range for the longleaf pines and that makes me nervous that you might lose a lot of your whole new forest if you have a bad winter--especially when they're young they're not going to resist the cold as well as once they get bigger.

Good thought! One confounding factor there is that a horse browses through the area and ignores pines and eats whatever else she likes. There are quite a few volunteer loblollies I could dig up and plant different places but they are the ones that blew over in the first place. Maybe some other types would be feasible; there are invaders (leatherleaf mahonia, and some type of holly) that don't get browsed. But I planted a magnolia back there and it was gone within a few days. Fencing off the whole place isn't an option, either; I have just spent quite a bit repairing the existing fences and I don't want to exclude the pastured animal from the shade and protection of the forest.

You could always put cages around them while they're small--I see people around here do that to keep deer from browsing things and I imagine it would work for the horse too.

I wonder where I would get those cages and how much they would cost...I'll look into that, thanks for the idea! I have tried putting bird netting over the things which seems to discourage the deer but not the horse.

You could just make them out of chicken wire, that's pretty cheap.

I'd be more worried that Longleaf Pines are not going to do well in a situation with plenty of existing trees and shrubs, even if half of them have blown down. Longleaf needs full sun to do well. It also needs (particularly when young, in the 'grass' stage, roughly the first 6 years or so) to have two or three grass fires, to remove competing weeds, and also to control needle blight diseases. Young longleaf stands which don't get a fire or two in their first few years do not grow as well as those which do.

Resin

Thanks, Resin...

I am still going to try, but not rely solely on the longleafs to reforest my place. I know about the growth rate but I am not moving anywhere, and expect to see some to maturity.

(Photo of my transplant, 31/2 years later)

Forgive me in sounding odd here but...that really is a cool little tree, it has no branches. The tree (your transplant) looks like it is just needles coming from the trunk, it looks like a large duster...lol.

Herby,
Longleaf pines will eventually develop branches.
Here is a young longleaf forest just branching out. The area was replanted in East Alabama after clear cutting.
Aren't they beautiful?

That they are...I do not like most evergreens, just because I do not like the look of "Christmas Trees", but these look nothing like what I generally thought evergreens look like. I see why you wanted to plant this species.

Herby_Canopy and I share a common aversion to the currrent pruning style in some conifers ie. they look like someone put them in a pencil sharpener. Too unnaturally conical for my taste. However the other day I came across an Abies Koreana 'Silberlocke' that just blew me away.

http://www.richsfoxwillowpines.com/Web%20Albums/Foxwillow%20Pines%20Photos%20A/slides/Abies%20koreana%20Silberlocke.html

What you are endeavoring to do there passiflora is pretty special. I certainly wish you success. There are risks to a species monoculture, an event that we in Ohio and the midwest are just grappling with. I'm speaking of the Emerald Ash Borer. It's total devastation to ash (Fraxinus) trees. 100% fatality.

Out here in the Pacific Northwest rain forest,it's been my observation that trees with taproots (firs,some pines) are apt to snap off during high winds.Trees with shallow root formation(Western hemlock,Red cedar) will usually uproot.

snapple45, I'm not planning on having a monoculture. There are still scarlet oaks, post oaks, blackjack oaks, southern red oaks, eastern redcedar, dogwoods, loblolly pines, shortleaf pines, just to mention the ones that come to mind right away.

If I do get all 334 planted and if 30 reach maturity I will get more than I expected.

Diversity is a real good thing. In one square mile here we will lose 464 mature residential ash trees in about two years time. Can you imagine what this area will look like? How hot it will be in the summer? The sweep of the winds? The loss of bird cover? It's too ugly to contemplate. The drain on taxypayer money for removal is huge. There is the safety issue. A dead ash is on the ground within two years of death. (The wood dries out fast.) Homeowners suddenly faced with tree removal costs anywhere from $350 to the thousands, literally.

Diversity, diversity, divertsity. If only they had understood that in the 60's when they began to plant so many single stands of ash.

Around here everyone in the 70s was planting Bradford pears in lawns and road medians. Now they are and brittle and weak and having to be removed. What really worries me is Sudden Oak Death...I have large oaks (2 Post and 2 Southern Red) on each side of my house shading north, south, east and west. They are probably over 60 years old, native trees. If oaks around here start dying it will really be tragic.

Has SOD spread all the way to AL? I thought it was mainly a west coast thing (for now at least)

Sudden oak death, Phytophthora ramorum, has a big host list. It has been found as far away as Conneticut in plant material shipped from California. Infected plants (subsequently destroyed) have been found in 22 states and Canada. It is not a matter of "if" but "when". Contact your local State Department of Agriculture for the most up to date information and quarantines. This situation is changing too rapidly to list all the recent events here.

We have not had outbreaks here, but in 2004 it was found in a shipment of nursery stock in Alabama which was quarantined. I expect it is only a matter of time.


http://www.aces.edu/dept/extcomm/newspaper/march26a04.html

I can not believe a fungus is doing all this damage...amazing...

It would be a great thing if every gardener would get familiar with the symptoms of this disease and be on the look out when visiting a garden center. Retail nursery stock merchants are the first and last line of defense. The average 20 something big box store clerk unloading a fresh shipment of plants off a truck is not exactly the best candidate for halting the spread of this devastating pathogen.

Five months down the road, and I think I am having success:

Yes you are. The world is a better place because of it.

passiflora_pink - I had a similar experience with damage from a hurricane and loggers. I decided to reforest about 5 acres. I live on the Chesapeake Bay in southeastern Virginia where longleafs used to be the dominant pine. This spring, I planted 1,000 seedlings, including 125 longleaf pines. One person who encouraged me is from Alabama so you will probably be fine.

The forester who advised me said LLPs are tenacious survivors but terrible competitors. I kept weeds from growing around the seedlings with glyphosate and hand weeding (don't laugh - they are my special trees). I don't know how long it will take before they leave the grass stage. I think it depends on several factors. I read that they leave the grass stage when the branch collar is about 1 inch but don't know that from experience.

I wish you luck growing this lovely pine. When you see a stand of longleafs, it is a miraculous feeling.

Hi Resin: I think I can do that. I planted the Longleaf pines in two groves separate from other trees, hardwoods, that can't tolerate fire.

The forester said when they do controlled burns, humidity has to be within a specific range, no rain, and low winds. They often plan a burn, then have to abandon the plan because the weather changes. They burn large areas but my area is small so I should have more control. Thank you!

Pam

In my area the timber guys and the federal gov't do controlled burns. Sometimes a 1000 acres at a time. The pines love it. I ought to go take some pictures of what a burned off pine forest looks like compared to a overgrown one. End result is large pines with basicly grass without much else growing. Great for horse riding.

We have a park called Pickney Island which use to be a hunting plantation and was given the federal gov't for a park. The park service did no up keep and let it grow wild except for a few roads and some buildings. What they found out is they are better off keeping like the hunting guys did. They had open fields, ponds and managed the forest areas. End result there was much more wild life and plant life.

If your ever in the area it's worth a look. Towards the bottom there is a little piece on the controlled burns.
http://gorp.away.com/gorp/resource/us_nwr/sc_pinck.htm

I volunteer to work on the fire line at the controlled burns at Kitty Todd nature preserve in Holland, Ohio. It's really something to go back in a few months and see the benefits from a burn. Kitty Todd is managed by the Nature Conservancy. It takes practically a presidential order to get a burn approved.

Interesting story, Pam. I have already 4-5 longleaf pines on my property that are mature but no seedlings other than what I have planted. I have been here 10 years and have never seen seedlings. Maybe I need to burn the area...don't think the fire dept. would like it though.

Burn the pine cones and plant the seeds. That would work i would imagine.

Here's what can happen to a burn that, even though managed by professionals, gets out of control. The US Forest Service in Michigan wanted to burn habitat to help a bird called a Kirtland's Warbler;

"A tragic accident in 1980 would lead to an explanation for the warbler's stagnating numbers. As part of its habitat management strategy, the U.S. Forest Service started a prescribed burn in the area of Mack Lake. Winds whipped the fire out of control, and what had been intended as a 200-acre burn turned into a wildfire that consumed nearly 24,000 acres, destroyed 40 homes, and killed one Forest Service worker."


Ever since this incident, controlled or prescribed burns have been very, very "controlled" for obvious reasons. If you ever have the opportunity to work one it's quite an experience. No special knowledge is needed, but the advance education and training before every burn, regardless of whether you have participated before or not, is exceptionally thorough.

The population isn't dense where I live and natural fires burn up thousands of acres so it's not that big of a deal. Down the road about 50 miles a swamp lit on fire back in the spring. Drought conditions and it hadn't burned in years. End result was even if someone wanted to do something they couldn't. It simply burned for a month or two. Usually all that's done is they make a fire line at a road or just let the fire burn till it hits a river. If it hits farmland it's easy to stop it there as well, simply bring out the plows.

My longleaf pines are coming along...Compare to August 26 08's post...3 years, five months! These are growing faster than I expected. This is the same tree.

Glad they're doing well!

Nice! Did you manage to do any prescribed burns?

Resin

Burning the forest wouldn't be safe here as the forested area is too close to houses---not to mention my barn! No, that isn't an option but I am thinning competing vegetation by hand.