Feeding the Forest

[jackganssle]

Folks,

Probably a really dumb question...

We live on a pretty heavily wooded lot, mostly a mix of hardwoods. So we're in the middle of leaf season now! The leaves come down and we collect them and haul them off.

But is removing all of this biomass bad for the trees? I mean, the trees grow the leaves using stuff from the ground, water and air. Do we need to do something to keep the ground healthy so the trees will be healthy, too?

Thanks,
Jack

[bill m]

Is there a reason for removing the leaves? Yes, over time by removing the leaves and clutter from the forest floor you will be removing the source of nutrients for the trees.

[Magicman]

There are no dumb questions.   ;)

I use the lawnmower to mulch mine.  After several passes, they just disappear into the grass.



All of these will be mulched as they fall.  This one is in an open area.  There are many others.

[Phorester]

I think it depends on what tree species you have there.  Converting a natural forest to a wooded house lot is definitely detrimental to the trees.  However the biggest problem for the trees will be the soil compaction from lawn mowing, etc.  In my opinion the problem with removing the leaf letter every year is not taking away the leaves, it's the soil compaction that comes from raking, gathering, and hauling them out from under the trees. My mother lives on a 3/4 acre lot with 20-24 inch diameter white oaks roughly spaced 40 - 50 feet apart. The house was built about 60 years ago, so these trees have been subjected to a lawn environment for that long.  They are still there and doing okay.  Not good, but okay. There have been about 6 die since we moved there 40 years ago. Died from root damage from construction activities and soil compaction.  However, my professional observations over the last 35 years show that white oaks seem to survive as yard trees better than any other tree species in our area.

But if you can leave as much of your lot in natural forest as possible, leaving the leaves and not running mowers all over it,  the trees will be much better off.

[Pilot1]

Remember about 20 or 25 years ago there was a lot of hysteria in the media about Germany's Black Forest dying? 

Some of the problem was attributed to air pollution, and I never heard what they finally decided what the problem was.  The Black Forest is still there today.  But what the public didn't hear much about was traditional practices, which involved cleaning up the forest floor, using the twigs and everything else for animal bedding and other uses.  they left the forest floor look like a park.  When German foresters visited the Mt. Hood NF in the 90's, they didn't like the looks--our forests were messy, the forest floor hadn't been cleaned up.  They had been removing the organic matter for hundreds of years.  And they wondered why they had problems.

The mantra for gardening and organic waste disposal today is composting.  You hear all kinds of great things about composting.

There is a lesson there, in Germany and in composting.

Leave the leaves there, mulch them if you can.  Nutrients will be more abundant, you lawn will look better and the organic matter that becomes part of the soil will alleviate to some extent the effects of compaction.