Forest 'Management'

On a Few Acres, Striving for Organic and Natural Wildness

click to enlarge photos

reforestation, forest management, and the opposite of monoculture

first, the reality of the costs of wind power..,from Jim Rickards

“Siemens Energy, one of the largest wind turbine producers in the world, has withdrawn earnings guidance and expects continued weak earnings because it now appears that the wind turbine components wear out much faster than originally expected. Siemens will have to repair or replace many of the failing components at its own expense. Its stock price has fallen 36% in recent days as a result. This failure rate combined with the capacity problems mean that the cost of supplying electricity to the U.S. via wind power may be closer to $20 trillion.” tanstafl - there ain’t no such thing as a free lunch - wind power isn’t free; it’s expensive, not just to install, but to maintain those gigantic moving parts

..and a comment from Doomberg “You’re Next” July 4th

“We close by preempting the notion that Bitcoin—or any other so-called decentralized currency—will somehow solve this [totalitarian government] problem. During Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s dictatorial crackdown on the truckers protesting his Covid-19 policies in early 2022, financial institutions were ordered to blacklist several cryptocurrency wallets tied to citizens who had merely donated to the movement. The banks obeyed, proving where the real power lies in our society…. At the same time, the war on cash has made banking access requisite to everyday life. One simply cannot function in modern society without access to banking, and politicians have proven themselves unable to resist the temptation to exploit this awesome power.” I don’t agree that we’re powerless. We can use BTC and other cryptocurrencies directly, eliminating the bank middlemen. As much as possible, instead of using a bank check or credit card, we would do well to find vendors, services, and individuals who will accept Bitcoin directly. It will take time, but it will become easier to use Bitcoin as it becomes more accepted. In the long run, banks will be doomed once more and more people realize that they don’t need banks and their paltry 0.01% interest on ‘savings’.

our little paradise

My wife says we’ve been blessed with such a paradise that God must have led us to it, and I agree with her. There’s enough level area for our house and garden, and enough wooded area to supply firewood just from the trees that go down in storms. The wooded slope steepens down toward the Sandy River, from which we can hear the roar of the rapids when there’s a breeze from the north. There are no streetlights so the night is dark and we can view the stars. We’re at the end of a long gravel driveway off a country road so it’s very quiet at night. We’re close enough to the Mt Hood NF to have deer, elk, bears, cougars, coyotes, and lots more visitors. The soil is good and we have a nice southern exposure for a garden and we can take advantage of solar power. Our well water is pure and sweet. We have so many good things growing here, like hazelnuts, beechnuts, walnuts, raspberries, blackberries, and strawberries, beside our apple, pear, Asian pear, fig, and cherry trees, and our grape vines and hardy kiwis. Yes, this is a paradise, but not quite heaven - unfortunately, Adam and Eve left us a legacy of thorns and thistles, among other things…

controlling the jungle, or trying to…

Even just a few acres can become quite a jungle if it isn’t carefully managed to encourage the good growth and discourage the unwanted species.

Of course what is wanted and what is not will depend on the individual.

I personally like to see native wildness, perhaps because I’ve always loved getting out in the wild. Therefore I don’t try to make everything look manicured or particularly planned, groomed, or orderly.

However, I quickly learned that just letting things go completely wild does create some problems, to say the least. So my forest management boils down to continually removing plants that I consider a nuisance and helping along the plants I consider beautiful, mostly trees and wildflowers that remind me of the mountains where I love to hike, including the violets, trilliums, bleeding hearts, wild iris, and native pink Mt Hood rhododendrons.

reforestation project

There’s about an acre of former pasture from when we had some sheep. I’ve been slowly planting native trees to transform it into a mixed forest. I also have been planting trees in the more open woodsy areas in order to have more evergreens. Some were planted when we first came 23 years ago and are huge now. The trees are randomly placed; not in orderly rows like a commercial tree farm. It’s hard work breaking up the years of sod for each little tree seedling, and then keeping the sod from encroaching and choking it out before it can get bigger. The new seedlings, most of which I’ve gathered during hikes (it’s legal if they are taken way off the trail and if they’re only 6” high and only a few are taken on any one trip) need to be watered by hand at least during the first summer or two.

baby spruce that I brought back from a hike in Alaska

Some don’t make it and have to be replaced. The moles or gophers sometimes push them up out of the ground, the rabbits and deer eat the new growth, and some die after being transplanted, for no known reason. But persistence will pay off - it’s for my grandchildren to enjoy.

a robust growing season

This season the new growth is phenomenal. It’s definitely the most robust growth we’ve seen in our 23 years here. It’s a jungle. You have to have sharp eyes to distinguish what’s what when everything is so green.

there’s a path in there somewhere  

I’m starting to thin the ferns early this year so my baby tree seedlings get enough light. Also doing a lot of trimming where some species are crowding others too much.

Some of the Bracken ferns are 8’ high.  Here’s a selfie while standing next to a big one.

…that’s all for now - today is our 60th anniversary and all the kids and some of the grandkids are arriving and staying for a few days - next week I hope to continue, with pictures of our tree plantings, both tiny starts and those growing up after having been planted over the years, and a discussion about managing the ‘forest’ by deciding what to keep and what to cull, because some wild plants are not nice, and wouldn’t you know, those are the ones that tend to take over the minute you get lazy

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