The Trees That Didn’t Make It

We have started thousands of trees in this forest project, but many (most!) of them have died. Over a ten year period, I estimate that more than half of our intentionally planted trees don't survive more than a couple of years.

What happens to them? And more importantly, does it matter?

From our surveys, the following are the biggest tree killers,

• Mice - Gnawing the bark at the base

• Deer - Stripping bark, eating new leaves and scraping antlers on stems

• Drought -  Especially during the first spring when roots are underdeveloped; watering doesn’t scale and creates the wrong expectations 🙂

• Diseases - Like Chalara (Ash dieback) kill vulnerable or weak trees.

• Poor site selection - Planting trees in places too hot, cold, wet, or with unsuitable soil pH

• Competition - From aggressive plants like brambles or reeds

The traditional three big trees of this part of Europe (Normandie) were Elm, Ash and Oak. Of these, only oaks remain in the region as forest giants.

An Oak Sapling

A Short History of Elms 

I began planting trees here nearly 40 years ago. By then, Dutch elm disease (a fungus carried by beetles) had already wiped out the region’s mature elms. The disease hit in the late 1960s and was devastating.

When I started planting here in the late 1980's, they were already gone. The stumps stood as silent evidence, and they are still in place in the Caperdu lane.

However, the roots of these giant elms remain active and put up root runners. We therefore have a good number of modest sized elms, which grow for a maximum of about thirty-five years, which is just long enough for them to set seed, though I'm not aware of any germinations. The root runners are active, can be transplanted and will grow to about 15cm diameter, until the disease eventually gets them. These trunks provide very solid posts; elm is a tough wood.

A Short History of Ash 

For a time, ash made up nearly half the trees I planted. It was a species which transplanted easily and grew quickly. It grew fast and transplanted well. But since around 2006, Chalara has swept through, killing most of the younger trees and leaving the older ones looking sickly.

Some trees have more resistance, and maybe some further resistance will emerge, but we have very few young healthy ashtrees.

Recent news suggests that some ash trees may have more resilience than anticipated. One third dead, one third sick, and one third may survive apparently, which fits in with my observations.

A Short History of Oaks 

With the loss of elm and ash, oak has become the dominant large tree here. We’re lucky to have many. A mature oak (over 1 meter in diameter, roughly 300 years old) qualifies as “ancient,” and we have about sixty of them.

Given the right conditions, almost all healthy acorns will germinate. In a warm wet autumn, the Caperdu lane is filled with acorns already germinating. Our favoured method of planting is a simple 'chop and drop' technique. Open up a hole with adze or trenching tool, deep enough to thwart the mice, drop the acorn (or other seed) and push the soil back with your boot. A single ranger can plant a hundred acorns in an hour.

Transplanting

Some trees, including oak, have root systems which never fully recover from being transplanted. For example, a two year old germinated oak has already grown an irreplaceable tap root. It may grow if transplanted, but the tap root will be absent and the tree will be permanently weakened. It may last many years but it will never be well rooted, and when a storm comes, it falls.

Cuttings

Some trees will grow easily from a simple cutting pushed into damp earth. This is usually in the autumn when they have lost their leaves. Notably willow, sallow and poplar cuttings root easily. We regard these partly as sacrificial. The deer feed on some. Some don't root. And some grow on to become adult, if relatively (30 year) short-lived trees. 

Conclusion

We scale our investment in protecting individual trees with the cost & effort needed to plant them. Our acorn plantings are ‘fire and forget’ whereas purchased saplings (Trees around 1 meter high) receive tree guards. Unlike many reforestation projects, our planting is not a 1 time event, but rather a sustained process over many years. This has made us resilient to individual tree losses and enabled us to learn from mistakes or misfortune.

Despite the losses, each tree has played a role - feeding wildlife, shaping the soil, or simply teaching us what doesn’t work.