Feature Article June 3, 2004
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Is Tree Planting Always Good?
Sometimes people think of tree planting as a fundamental of land stewardship, but is tree planting always good stewardship?
If we look at the results of the tree planting of the 1920s and 30s it does not seem so. We have a lot of areas covered in straight rows of conifers often pines that dont make real forests even after 70 or 80 years. Under these old pine plantations the land is sterile and not at all diverse. It is made up of mostly pine needles and acidified soil rather than a full set of forest floor plants or of shrubs or of birds or mammals.
A little thinning or planting in patterns that followed the topography could have helped. Other species could have produced patches within and along the edges of the pines. Planting species currently native to the area also could have increased the chance that other native species might have infiltrated the pines.
Unfortunately a lot of planted species were not native to the planting sites. We have Jack Pine in old farmland, Red Pine where it no longer existed and exotics brought in from other lands. Scots Pine is not native here and has never resulted in a real forest in North America. In Europe, Scots Pine does form part of real forests but the Scots Pine stock that was imported here was genetically inferior and is not very good even as individual trees.
It will certainly never make a forest.
Similarly, importing European Larch and distributing it for volunteers to plant is unwise. We would be better off our native Larch (tamarack) and planting it in its preferred habitat, not the habitat preferred by it European relative.
Often, groups distributing trees for planting need to be more careful about what they distribute. The volunteers who do the planting depend on the suppliers to distinguish species and provide what is appropriate.
Shrubs are often more appropriate than trees for some habitats, and it is important that shrubs provided to volunteers are appropriate. High Bush Cranberry often is supplied but unfortunately the European species often is supplied instead of the native species. It is critical that tree planting programs not contribute to the spread of exotic invaders that will put our native species at risk. European Buckthorn, for example, has demonstrated how invasive some shrubs can be.
For many habitat patches, trees are not the best vegetation. We should plan our planting programs to produce a mosaic of diverse types of vegetation that is modeled after the patchwork of vegetation types that typifies that sort of landscape.
We should also recognize that all those patches of differing vegetation will not be static in time. Plant types change as they cause changes in their environment and vegetation of an area will constantly change over time. Our planting programs should aim for that result, not for a static vegetation type.
Planting trees everywhere just because it is easy is not always good stewardship.
