Bravo Rowan, well explained. Thanks for sharing your observations in this way. I have a interestingly shaped Picea abies = Spruce stump that lived as part of the other trees around that I noticed and then collected and polished in 1979 hanging as a picture like ornament on the wall in my house.here in Tassie. The wood structure of the callus wood is curly and twisted like a burl. Many guests have been fascinated of this and our children already learned of that observation. Now our son Holger manages his family farm & forest estate and for me it is such a reward to see that the grandkids get experience of practical science and skills as they grow up. Best regards from the West Tamar region in Tassie.
Every video I learn. This one is excellent and has convinced I that 450 stems per hectare of redwoods thinning down to 250 is the way to go. Tried hard to buy my Bamba this week. Try again in three months. When are your tours opening up?
What is the benefit of keeping a stump? We need to remove a dead fir tree beside our house, but really don’t need to remove the stump (an extra cost) because it’s not in public view. If there is a possibility of new growth with an active root system, then we’d remove the stump.
Perhaps obviously, or perhaps not, as soon as you cut the sacrificial tree down you more or less double the root area of the tree that has been left standing, so it is perhaps not entirely surprising that the rate of growth of the retained tree increaeses, above that could be accounted for by the reductionin competition. In effect the retained tree more or less doubles its root spread without having to invest resources in growing the roots.
Yes, good point, this could help with the rate of crown expansion on the retained trees but then it will eventually reach an equilibrium between the canopy area and the effective root system.
So why are you certain that it is a root system connection instead of a fungal network? The proximity of the two stems? The use of isotape tracers for monitoring transfer of Carbon and Nitrogen in lab experiments seems a strong case for transfer through myycorhiza networks. Could it be both? Just getting introduced to all these concepts as a fresh forstery student so appreciate any further explanation or references you could give.
Australian foresters and ecologists have known and understood the role of fungal networks for decades (it is not new). This is because we have very low fertility soils and the symbiotic relationships between fungi and roots are common. Of course it is possible to find transfer of sugars and nutrients through fungal networks (that's their role). That is not questioned. But, the volume of water required to sustain a root system could only be moved through roots. And, we know trees graft (apples!) so why do people want to believe it is not possible? Beat me.
Thinning mostly works because of the extra light availability. Better access to soil water and nutrients helps, of course, and so much the better if a tree can commandeer the root system of a felled neighbour. I have only rarely seen this happen, but I guess it is more common in some woodland types than others. Great video.
@@bmwoutlander as do Western Red Cedar in the Geelong Water Reserve in VIC. In fact when I practiced regrowth stand thinning in SW Germany, I observed how quite often clumps of trees benefited from each other in higher timber production as they were connected and utilised the outer light better day after day. So when it comes to selective harvest thinning of mature size trees to take the 3 to 4 trees as a group rather than to just on or two. The ProSilva restorative forest management is based on observation and regular revisit / mustering the forest every 5 years or so.
Good to see someone is countering the Wohlleben nonsense with real science.
Bravo Rowan, well explained.
Thanks for sharing your observations in this way.
I have a interestingly shaped Picea abies = Spruce stump that lived as part of the other trees around that I noticed and then collected and polished in 1979 hanging as a picture like ornament on the wall in my house.here in Tassie. The wood structure of the callus wood is curly and twisted like a burl. Many guests have been fascinated of this and our children already learned of that observation.
Now our son Holger manages his family farm & forest estate and for me it is such a reward to see that the grandkids get experience of practical science and skills as they grow up.
Best regards from the West Tamar region in Tassie.
Every video I learn. This one is excellent and has convinced I that 450 stems per hectare of redwoods thinning down to 250 is the way to go. Tried hard to buy my Bamba this week. Try again in three months. When are your tours opening up?
What is the benefit of keeping a stump? We need to remove a dead fir tree beside our house, but really don’t need to remove the stump (an extra cost) because it’s not in public view. If there is a possibility of new growth with an active root system, then we’d remove the stump.
Perhaps obviously, or perhaps not, as soon as you cut the sacrificial tree down you more or less double the root area of the tree that has been left standing, so it is perhaps not entirely surprising that the rate of growth of the retained tree increaeses, above that could be accounted for by the reductionin competition. In effect the retained tree more or less doubles its root spread without having to invest resources in growing the roots.
Yes, good point, this could help with the rate of crown expansion on the retained trees but then it will eventually reach an equilibrium between the canopy area and the effective root system.
So why are you certain that it is a root system connection instead of a fungal network? The proximity of the two stems? The use of isotape tracers for monitoring transfer of Carbon and Nitrogen in lab experiments seems a strong case for transfer through myycorhiza networks. Could it be both? Just getting introduced to all these concepts as a fresh forstery student so appreciate any further explanation or references you could give.
Australian foresters and ecologists have known and understood the role of fungal networks for decades (it is not new). This is because we have very low fertility soils and the symbiotic relationships between fungi and roots are common. Of course it is possible to find transfer of sugars and nutrients through fungal networks (that's their role). That is not questioned. But, the volume of water required to sustain a root system could only be moved through roots. And, we know trees graft (apples!) so why do people want to believe it is not possible? Beat me.
That's cool. Are there any species that do not do this?
Well, I guess there are many that don't do it, or they haven't been seen to do it.
Guessing coast redwoods do?
Very interesting. No wonder thinning works.
Thinning mostly works because of the extra light availability. Better access to soil water and nutrients helps, of course, and so much the better if a tree can commandeer the root system of a felled neighbour. I have only rarely seen this happen, but I guess it is more common in some woodland types than others. Great video.
@@bmwoutlander as do Western Red Cedar in the Geelong Water Reserve in VIC.
In fact when I practiced regrowth stand thinning in SW Germany, I observed how quite often clumps of trees benefited from each other in higher timber production as they were connected and utilised the outer light better day after day.
So when it comes to selective harvest thinning of mature size trees to take the 3 to 4 trees as a group rather than to just on or two.
The ProSilva restorative forest management is based on observation and regular revisit / mustering the forest every 5 years or so.