🚀 go-pugleaf

Todd M. Bolton wrote:
> 
> Joseph Zorzin wrote:
> 
> snips
> > The diameter growth rate of trees decreases as the tree matures, but
> > that's over a larger circumferance- so the amount of carbon fixed may be
> > the same- if the tree is healthy. However, many large trees are decaying
> > at the core- even while healthy on the outside.
> >
> 
> I realize we are getting a bit far off the title, but you have made the
> statement that "many large trees are decaying at the core" several times.  I
> am curious about how many you have found this to be true of in what
> situatoins, and if you have discovered a cause of the injuries that led to
> the fungal entrance?

Well, I've been a practicing forester for 24 years and have looked at
many thousands of trees. Trees are dying all the time for many reasons.
When a new forest starts up from an abandoned field or a heavy cutting,
there may be several thousand trees per acre. If you leave it alone for
100 years there may be only 75 trees per acre. They're dying like flies.
<G>

Injuries can come from insects, birds like sapsuckers and woodpeckers,
gunshots, logging equipment, broken branches, etc. A little wound can
allow infections to start and many years later it may turn into a large
hollow. Usually by the time trees are very large, most will have decay
in the core. But this susceptability to decay is species specific. Most
large red oak do not have decay (but there may be discoleration at the
core) and I've read that other species like redwood and cedar are also
very resistant. I'm most familiar with the species I see every day in
western Massachusetts, which is a northern Appalachian type of forest. I
mentioned the other day Alex Shigo who I think is the world authority on
this subject.

As a working forester, I spend a lot of time marking trees for harvest.
Most of the trees are hardwoods and most do have some amount of decay or
defect such as cracks, twisted grain, etc. I need to estimate the board
foot volume of each tree. I'll produce a spread sheet showing species,
sizes, quality, board foot estimates, etc. Timber buyers will look at
the spread sheet and I'll also walk them through the marked area. It's
important that I'm as accurate as possible on my board foot estimate. I
don't really know what's inside most trees. All I can do is guess and
try to be consistant so that the buyers can correlate what I say with
what they'll get when they do the cutting.

The people who really know what's in the trees are the mill sawyers.
They spend all day sawing up logs and the more they can predict the
patterns of decay the better job they do sawing up the log. All forester
should spend sometime doing mill sawing or at least cutting the trees
themselves, because at least then they'll see what the bottom of the
bottom log looks like.

I usually make a point of watching the loggers and looking at the
stumps, which can tell a lot about the decay in the tree.

But, a short answer to your question is that most damage to the trees in
my area is caused by BAD logging in the past. Logging equipment can
easily rip the bark off the trees and run over exposed roots. This
damage results in millions of dollars of damage over the long term. This
damage is far more destructive to forests than erosion, and habitat
damage. The ground vegetation and the fauna seem to adjust fine to the
most violent and hideous logging. But the dollar value of the future
forests can be damage to the extent of 90%.

(I added bionet.agroforestry to the list)
-- 
http://forestmeister.com
"The ONLY forester's web page in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts".