23
Had a talk with a retired logger about 'waste' trees...
He told me leaving oaks with heart rot standing is better for the soil than cutting them down for firewood. That got me thinking about how we're always trying to clean up yards when maybe we should let more decay happen naturally. Has anyone else shifted their view on leaving compromised trees after a conversation like that?
3 comments
Log in to join the discussion
Log In3 Comments
nelson.wren1d ago
Oh come on, that's a recipe for disaster leaving rotten oaks standing. You think a decaying tree full of heart rot is some kind of soil miracle, but wait until a storm sends that thing crashing through your roof or into a power line. That logger probably just doesn't want to admit he's too old and tired to cut firewood anymore, not that he's some forest guru. All that talk about "natural decay" sounds nice until you're cleaning up a split trunk that took out your fence and half your garden. Human safety and property should come way before some vague idea about soil health.
7
felixm291d ago
Reminds me of the time my neighbor kept a dead maple standing because he thought the woodpeckers liked it. Looked real nice for about six months, real picturesque (you know, like a painting). Then a nor'easter came through and that thing snapped clean in half, landed right on his brand new shed he'd just finished building. Took out the whole roof and crushed his riding mower inside. He spent the rest of the fall hauling logs instead of raking leaves. Sometimes the pretty idea just doesn't hold up against a good storm.
1
Three sheds and two roofs from one conversation about soil health? That's a lot. Sounds like the real lesson is about where you leave the tree, not whether you leave it at all.
1