Tree Rings
We’ve got a small forest on the land here, and it’s a little over grown. Just a little, probably 2-3 times as many trees as the land can support. The arborist agreed, and pointed out the little trees that can go, and some of the medium sized ones that are split, twisted, or are missing tops. 10 years ago would have been a good time to thin this out.
I’ve been cleaning up the forest a little bit, cutting up the trees that fell this winter, clearing some deadwood, and have noticed that the smaller trees are really on the losing end of the growth lottery. This one is one of the more successful ones, as it was still mostly alive. It had 10 years of good growth, then 16 years of increasingly bad growth.
One of the dead ones that fell was more like 10 good years, 10 bad years, and 10 years of rings so tightly packed I could barely make them out. It died due to lack of light, or lack of root space. But mainly, it just didn’t grow fast enough.
I halfway suspect that all but the biggest trees here are all the same age, some are winners, and some just aren’t.
2 comments
Yay! Comments! Hi Eric!
Keep in mind… trees are sorta like people. They grow fast when their little, then slow down a lot. No doubt there’s some stifled growth in there too, but it would be expected that the youngest rings would be the thickest.
And be careful with that chainsaw! When we were in our old house, Frank and his dad would occasionally go postal on a few small trees and it always made me soooo nervous.
Oh and I really do know good grammar. But it’s late. 🙂