Trees

Aahhhh, the foggy forest primeval

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The day we first looked at our property, this is not what I saw. I saw a lot of treeless areas, and not very happy looking trees where there were any. I took one look and said, nope.

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The land had been "selectively" logged a couple of years before, to improve the health of the forest, but it looked pretty sad. There were great bare patches, forlorn looking wispy trees and bulldozer tracks criss-crossing to piles of half-burned trees and slash.

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But...nothing better turned up, and I thought, wait a minute, I like trees a lot, but I also like the sun, and maybe this opened up forest is just the thing. So here we are.

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On further inspection, I learned that there are still some nice foresty areas on the property, with larger trees, native vegetation and nice little thickety mossy pockets. So here is the best of both worlds, really, sun and forest in one parcel.

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I never saw the before picture, but I learned that it was crowded with Lodgepole pines and not enough light made it in to grow healthy trees. Prior to the recent logging, it had been logged 100 or more years before, and the huge stumps from that event are still here. The recent removal of the Lodgepoles was no doubt necessary to make things better, although it didn't look very good at first.

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Now, finally, baby trees are filling in the bare spots. And the skinny, light starved trees that the loggers left behind are filling out and taking advantage of all the new space.

Someday, there will be a forest in there again.
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We're in charge of making the forest healthy and "productive" since we own it now and have the forest land designation, which considerably lowers our taxes. We've burned all the remaining piles and cleaned up a lot of slash, to discourage beetle attacks. And we try to get rid of dying trees quickly for the same reason.

There are a couple of things I wish I hadn't done, that have done some damage.

One, I planted grass seed, which competes with the trees. A big no no. But I do love a meadow.

Two, I had Firesmart come out to trim the trees up (it's a free service provided by the county to protect your house from fire). The trees look terrible without their lower branches! But more importantly, I think they're harmed by not having their root area shaded, and by the wounds made in their trunks, which invite insects and disease in. Some of the trees that were trimmed(mangled) have succumbed to beetles, and a couple looked so ridiculous that we cut them down for Christmas trees. Thank goodness they didn't do all the trees.

Not to ignore fire safety though. I think the safest thing is to have an area around the house that doesn't have any trees, or anything else flammable, and to keep any landscaping well watered. Not that we do that, but that's another story. At the very least we need to cut down the Douglas firs near the house, which are extremely flammable.

One positive thing we've done for the trees is to keep the knapweed invasion at bay. Nothing can grow where knapweed takes over.

And one thing we need to do in the future is thin out the excess Lodgepoles coming up and favor the Ponderosas over both them and the Douglas firs.

Whew! So much responsibility.

This is a list of tree species that I've found, starting with the most abundant.


Douglas Fir
Christmas tree! And that wonderful smell.
The needles on D. firs go all the way around the stem, like a bottlebrush.

A baby Doug fir growing with Bearberry

Lodgepole pine

The weed tree, to some, to others, very useful for making poles and log houses.

Groups of two needles per bunch - these used to be the dominant species before logging, now most of them are little.

Ponderosa pine

Love this tree!

Groups of 3 needles per bunch - we have all sizes of these but many young ones are coming up now that there's more sun.

The telltale puzzle piece bark - we have a few large Ponderosas still, good for hugging.

The differences between the pines: Lodgepole on left and Ponderosa on right.

Grand Fir

It is.

Needles lie flat in a row - we have quite a few of these beautiful trees, mostly young ones.

Our pet G. fir, in the lawn so it gets summer water; far too close to the house for fire safety, but isn't it lovely?

Western red cedar

We only have two of these, that I've found. This one is a baby near the house that I water in the summer to keep it alive.

Hemlock

The tip top of the tree and some of the branches bend over - our only one, and my favorite tree, probably because it's the only one.

Small needles

It's growing out of a massive decayed tree lying on the ground, which Rusty is standing on. I wonder if it was another Hemlock?

Western Larch - We planted about 50 of these one summer, only 3 or 4 survived. Burned to a crisp! We have a few wild ones too.

I'll have to add a Western Larch photo later, because I missed my chance to photograph them this year. They put on such a beautiful show with their golden needles in October. But now they are bare, so nothing to see.

And last but not least, the mysterious...

Western White Pine! Not a one here, but our neighbors found one on their property. By what the old-timers around here say, this tree was everywhere up in these here parts. Then they all got logged and completely decimated by White pine blister rust. Now we are encouraged to replant with a new improved variety. After the Larch experience, I'm not so sure it will work, but I guess we have to try.

That's the story on the conifers. In the spring maybe I'll go looking for some deciduous trees in the neighborhood. I've seen a Mountain ash, and some Aspens up the road...