Trees, Trees, Trees
Puddock Hill Journal #64: A brief survey of our efforts to promote trees.
This picture recently crossed my social media feed with someone commenting in support of planting trees:
I don’t know anything about the aerodynamics around wind turbines. It could very well be that mature trees in their vicinity would affect their efficiency. More poignantly, this picture is a reminder of the callousness with which we treat animals other than ourselves and how much suffering results from the decisions we make. Clearly these sheep are in desperate need of shade and their discomfort would benefit from being grazed in an area that better accounted for their welfare. If we can’t move the trees to them, we should move them to a place where trees grow.
I spend a lot of time thinking about trees. In many cases, being a better backyard steward involves planting more trees, which often give structure to the landscape, transform soil for the better, and support the native ecology in myriad ways.
At Puddock Hill we’ve planted a few specimen trees in lawn areas, but more important we’ve been using trees to rewild the property’s edges, to rehabilitate the wet woods, to limit stormwater runoff, and one day to shade out invasive plants.
We also plant trees to help fight and mitigate climate change by storing carbon and providing cooling shade.
In the time we’ve owned the property, we’ve likely planted more than four hundred trees. (No, I don’t know the exact number; yes, I probably should have kept count.) We’ve planted and encouraged trees four ways: by planting whips (that is, saplings so young they have no branches besides their stick trunks), by planting more mature nursery trees, by transplanting volunteer trees that nature dropped in the “wrong” place, and by leaving young trees to grow where nature put them when appropriate.
Many of these trees did not survive—more than half, in fact. Some may yet die before reaching maturity. Others, however, seem to be doing quite well. The success we’ve had with a few of the earliest specimens astonishes me.
For example, about ten years ago, before we dedicated Puddock Hill fully to backyard stewardship, we planted this native willow oak (Quercus phellos) at the edge of the barn meadow:
It was about seven or eight feet tall when it went into the ground. Now I estimate this tree to be forty feet tall or more.
Around that time, we also planted several native river birches in the wet woods. They have grown at various rates. Here’s the biggest:
By my estimate, this one is at least thirty feet tall.
Let’s look at the role of some tree species at Puddock Hill:
Hickories
When we lived in Westchester County, NY, I fell in love with the unique bark of mature shagbark hickories (Carya ovata). Three years ago, we planted some whips of these trees in the east woods. They are slow growers but seem to be getting more vigorous.
No mature shagbarks grow at Puddock Hill, so far as I know, but we have a couple of old bitternut hickories (Carya cordiformis) on the north side of the property line, casting marvelous shade.
Two years ago, a pair of hickory saplings sprung up on the dry west side of the wet meadow. We tried to dig one up to transplant, but after a single summer its tap root was so stubbornly burrowed in that we decided to leave both trees. Here’s what one of those looks like today, about seven feet tall:
Meanwhile, another hickory established itself near the property line west of the barn. I marked it with a stake so we wouldn’t inadvertently cut it down.
Native hickories, which are members of the walnut family, support small mammals with their nuts and host many native moth species, including the striking luna and regal moths.
Oaks
A pair of ancient native oaks (one white, one red) grace our lawn by the house. A younger white oak (Quercus alba) volunteered in the lawn about ten years ago and is now about twenty feet tall. By the barn, we have yet another white oak volunteer, a bit taller and perhaps a few years older.
Many mature oaks grow about the place, notably a pin oak (Quercus palustris) off the driveway, maybe eighty feet tall. On the drier northern side of the wet woods, a pin oak sprung up and I not only left it, I complemented it with several other oak species, most of which are now seven or eight feet tall.
We have planted a number of oak species in support of efforts to rewild, especially along the road and in the east woods. Unfortunately, most of the oaks I planted by the property line above the big pond are struggling, and several have died.
Why plant oaks, besides for beauty and shade? Entomologist Douglas Tallamy, one of the inspirations for Backyard Stewardship, has noted that oak species support more biodiversity than any other trees in our region.
Bald cypresses
There are several very tall bald cypress (Taxodium distichum) trees at Puddock Hill, one along the driveway near where the stream crosses, others near the big pond, all sending up their magical knees. Here’s the one by the driveway, at least sixty feet tall:
We planted a group of bald cypresses in the wettest part of the wet meadow and another fifteen below the big pond in the wettest area along the deer fence, where we hope they will one day help combat the phragmites invasion and block one of the only views of the main road.
These trees are larval host to the baldcypress sphinx (Isoparce cupressi) moth.
Sycamores
The giant old sycamore by the front door (Platanus spp., though I can’t be sure its the pure native Platanus occidentalis) sold us the house with its striking exfoliating trunk:
There are other, much younger sycamores about. Three years ago, we planted fifteen along the stream south of the big pond, where a couple have already grown to about fifteen feet tall. Like the bald cypresses, I hope their shade will one day help check invasives.
Although these trees do not directly support insects, so far as I can discern, USDA says, “As American sycamores age, they may develop hollow trunks which provide shelter for a number of wildlife species… Cavity nesting birds include the barred owl, eastern screech-owl, great crested flycatcher, and chimney swift. Wood ducks use American sycamores as nest trees.”
I may not live long enough to see those sycamores grow cavities that provide homes for wildlife, but it gratifies me to think they may do so one day.
There are many other trees on Puddock Hill’s sixteen acres, of course. Some exotic, others native. The deer fence has helped some native saplings assert themselves, particularly sassafras, and we have planted other species such as American holly, redbud, Virginia fringe tree, tuliptree (of which there are already many large established ones), river birches, and American beeches.
I can’t do anything about the poor sheep herd huddling in the shade of a wind turbine, but through these efforts I expect to add substantial shade for the wild things (and not-so-wild people) at Puddock Hill in coming years.
An old native great laurel (Rhododendron maximum) flowers behind the barn:
Fragrant sumac (Rhus aromatica) grows lush in the planting bed by the barn:
This painted turtle (hiding from my camera) may have come ashore by the big pond to lay some eggs:
The hydrangeas by the house are putting on a show this year:
