Nurse Logs: Renewal and Regrowth
Nature is an eternal teacher. Lessons in biology, psychology, mathematics, geology and even art can be found during each walk in the woods. When you look and listen, nature has much to teach. During one of our last walks along the trails of Harmony Hill, we got a lesson in the healthy renewal, regrowth and regeneration of the forest.
One of the main goals in how we approach the land is to find a balance in the habitats and ecosystems at Harmony Hill, in which the land can maintain a healthy state that allows the native flora and fauna to flourish with minimal management from human hands. There are spaces on the land that require a little more thought and effort to reach that level, but there are spaces that will be there earlier. We are always looking for places that can show us what Harmony Hill will be without the heavy hand of man on the landscape. We found that in something many people would walk right by, paying little attention.
We have often spoken about the sights and sounds of the forest, bringing life and energy to spring and summer days. However, death is as much a part of the forest as that liveliness. This is not a morbid fascination, but a fact of life. For every plant and animal that lives on the landscape, there will come a time when it ceases to live. The tall and stately trees that fill the forest grow to reach the sunlight and provide shelter, food and structure for myriad species. Throughout their lives, the large trees we love to see as we walk the trails will be nesting sites for birds and squirrels, give vines natural ladders to climb, grant shade tolerant wildflowers a much-needed respite from the hot summer sun, as well as become part of a larger subterranean community through their extensive root systems.
An unclose look at a hole previously drilled by a Northern Flicker that is now a planter for a Loblolly Pine sapling. Photo courtesy Lisa Riente
When these same trees die, they don’t stop giving to the land. Quite the opposite, in fact. They continue to nourish and provide for fungi, insects, birds, reptiles, mammals and, most importantly, their fellow plant life at Harmony Hill. Rounding the corner of on one of our walks, we witnessed exactly that and it allows us to share the story of nurse logs, their importance to forests and how they fit into the well-oiled machine that is Mother Nature.
When a tree dies, whether it still stands in the woodland or if it dies from being uprooted by the wind, it begins to decay. As the wood fibers break down, fungi and bacteria start the work of returning the tree to the forest. Insects quickly move in to help consume and recycle the rotting tree and the fungi. As those insects arrive and increase in numbers, birds, reptiles and mammals come on the scene to take advantage of the bountiful prey items. The tree, once alive and growing, comes to life in an entirely different way. This time, the tree serves as a condominium and buffet for everything from microscopic bacteria to large Pileated Woodpeckers in search of beetle larvae. For many reasons, most woodpecker species thrive on dead wood. At Harmony Hill, we host Downy Woodpeckers, Hairy Woodpeckers, Red-headed Woodpeckers, Red-bellied Woodpeckers, Yellow-bellied Sapsuckers, Northern Flickers and Pileated Woodpeckers all, or at least a portion, of the year. Just as important as the decaying wood, these woodpeckers are an integral part of this story. Their engineering and excavating are clear in the photos, and the impact they have on the creation of new forests is obvious.
One of the insects that will utilize moist, decaying wood Is the Carpenter Ant (Camponotus pennsylvanicus). Both standing snags, also referred to as standing course woody debris, and fallen logs, referred to as downed course woody debris, see Carpenter Ants move in. One of our year-round woodpecker species, the Northern Flicker (Colaptes auratus) is a wonderful consumer of ants. They even actively forage for and eat the red imported Fire Ant (Solenopsis invicta). When Carpenter Ants move into snags at Harmony Hill, we often see Northern Flickers pecking and chiseling away wood to get to ants and their larvae. Even as a snag stands rotting above the forest floor at Harmony Hill, the makings of the next forest are taking shape. And the Northern Flicker is part of building what is to come for generations in the woods of Harmony Hill.
If a dead tree isn’t felled immediately by the wind, when it does eventually fall, it takes the final steps in returning to the forest and feeding the future. The journey from living giant to nurse log closes and each bacteria, fungi, insect, bird, reptile and mammal interaction shows purpose towards the balance we seek. The presence of the Carpenter Ants, initially seen as just an insect feeding on rotting wood, and a Northern Flicker making holes in the tree to find those ants, becomes critical to a new Loblolly Pine (Pinus taeda) sprouting to fill an empty place. The nurse log, now lying on the ground, begins to host other species, such as a perched Gray Squirrel (Sciurus carolinensis) working a pinecone like corn on the cob, searching for pine seeds to feed on. Rainfall now fills the holes drilled by the woodpeckers, as do leaves and dust, causing the wood to further decay. Those holes, as is plainly seen in the photos, become their own micro ecosystems, allowing seeds that have been dropped by squirrels and even other trees to arise from the tiny places hosting soil creation.
Nurse logs are natural mulch sites, holding water and delivering nutrients as they decompose. As animal traffic increases and more fungi, mycorrhizae and roots systems interlace throughout the carcass of the tree, more of the wood is broken down and more places become active hosts for more plants and trees to sprout. Even with many years of decomposition, the nurse logs are giving themselves back to the ground from which they grew. And with each stage of decay, the nurse log falls flatter to the forest floor and the cells of the tree slowly but surely become organic material for the soil below. Roots of Red Maple (Acer rubrum), Loblolly Pine and other trees stretch down into the earth and are fed by their rotting relative.
Death is not the end. It is merely a transition from one form to another. These nurse logs show us there is energy left to return to the earth and that there is still much left to give back to the environment that fed you. Life doesn’t truly end when cells cease splitting. And each inhabitant of the forests of Harmony Hill are a crucial part of the wooded areas of many years from now. There is no coincidence in the decomposition process of creating a nurse log. We see the value of each mushroom and critter that builds rich soil by simply living out their life cycle in and around a tree which dies on the landscape.
Just as “the butterfly effect” illustrates the potential for the flapping of a butterfly’s wings could impact the formation of weather patterns, we see the drumming of a woodpecker’s beak impacting the formation of tomorrow’s forests. Nature is an eternal teacher. When you look and listen, nature has much to teach. May we always be open to learn her lessons.