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> "planting 15,000 trees, and mowing regularly." I guess the idea behind the mowing is that you want to prevent the weeds from choking out the saplings? Other

• ngpio 13y ago
  15000 trees over 140 aces is approximately 1 tree per 20x20ft square. That doesn't resemble my own idea of 'forest', but it's not stretching the definition that far.
  • jlgreco 13y ago
    That seems roughly right for large-ish oak trees, the sort of forest I spent my childhood running around in. Of course there are hundreds of different sorts of forests.
    • hablahaha 13y ago
      Oaks are so beautiful and grow so quickly. Definitely my favorite tree. Hardwood trees will grow to have wider canopies so that plot size definitely makes sense.
  • logn 13y ago
    When the trees mature, their canopy will fill that space. http://www.supersodtrees.com/trees/maple/ http://www.supersodtrees.com/trees/maple/
• jerf 13y ago
  In this area, if you just let some land go that started as grassland, in the first couple of years it will be mostly weeds, then for the next several years it will become overrun by shrubs, such as [1]. At the height of this phase, the land is essentially uncrossable on foot, covered with 10-15 foot tall sharp, spiky plants that are not very hard compared to most wood, but certainly much harder than your skin. Over the next couple of decades, the trees will start getting a foothold, starting with the faster growing trees, which crowd out all the nasty shrubs but still produce a dense group of small little trees just barely spaced out enough for an adult to get through, then eventually stabilizing on oaks and the other very tall, hard trees, culminating in what one traditionally considers a "forest", something you can walk through because it's mostly very large, mature trees spaced dozens of feet apart. This will take a century or two to progress to the final stable state, depending on how tenacious the smaller trees are. But if you want to jump straight to that and avoid the middle bit, it takes some maintenance. I assume the promise is a combination of a promise to do that maintenance, and probably to maintain some trails through it. I could have sworn I learned a term in school for this sort of "biome progression" to what I thought was the "terminal biome" (the final, stable biome that results) but Google does not agree. Anyone who remembers their biology better than I, I'd be much obliged for the term. [1]: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elaeagnus_angustifolia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elaeagnus_angustifolia
  • maxerickson 13y ago
    I guess you are talking about succession.
  • o_s_m 13y ago
    Given a few years, softwoods (pines - fast growing) will grow, then hardwoods (oak/hickory - slow growing) will begin to appear in abundance. Hardwoods are more valuable, but softwoods grow quickly and have less market value. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Secondary_forest https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Secondary_forest https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Old-growth_forest https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Old-growth_forest I think the term you were looking for was a "climax community."
    • jerf 13y ago
      Bingo. I see Google says the idea has fallen out of favor, though even when I was taught it I was taught that the oak trees will still fall, creating clearings, which then march back through the same progression, so even then it was only notionally "climax".
      • o_s_m 13y ago
        I hope the company is interested in harvesting the hardwoods, which will allow for more biodiversity, less ecological disruption, and a more aesthetically pleasing environment. Hiking through a constantly harvested pine tree forest is not very enjoyable. In any case, letting nature do its thing, somewhat, is better than having delapidated houses strewn all over the place.
  • HeyLaughingBoy 13y ago
    What you describe is almost identical to what is outside my window behind the house. This area used to be a large dairy farm and is now mostly proportioned into 10-acre lots. I assume that before it was subdivided, it was mostly cattle pasture and some mature trees. Now, the area behind my house slopes rapidly from tall grass (we leave it in a natural state) to short thorny shrubs to a grove of mature oaks and mostly young elm trees. The older ones have fallen to Dutch Elm disease. In the years I've lived here I have been amazed at how rapidly trees grow. The bottom of our pasture was mostly tall grass and a few tiny saplings. They are now approaching 10 feet tall and need to be bush hogged because they are interfering with the growth of grass. At the same time, the undergrowth in the area we have left untouched (the rest is horse pasture) is amazing. There are wild apple trees, enough wild grapes that I made a 5-gallon batch of wine a few years ago, raspberry bushes and stuff I can't even name. tl;dr - I'm seeing that in my backyard right now.