Reforest - active vs. passive

For the last several years I've been actively trying to reforest some hayfields - around 20 acres.  My state has an amazing program for cheap native tree seedlings, I've planted maybe 250 trees in the last 3 years.

As many threads here discuss (https://permies.com/t/123718/plant-LOT-trees-efficiently-reforest) the planting is the easy part, keeping them alive is the challenge.  I've built and put up more tree cages than I can count (fencing the whole area isn't feasible) but between the deer and watering and mulching it is a very labor intensive process.

I'm not picky about species - I always plant natives and try to match them to their desired locations.

My neighbor moved to this property about 35 years ago, and a portion of the property between us he ignored since then.  It was predictably colonized initially by things like sumac, then eastern red cedar, and eventually oaks and other species started to pop through to eventually take over.

I love the process, but I'm questioning whether the active approach is in any way superior.  If I don't care about the intermediate aesthetics or access, is there any reason why me guessing which species should grow in a particular location or configuration would be more successful in the long run than just walking away (with occasional forays to remove invasive species)?  

I'm also a little influenced by recently reading The Hidden Life of Trees which may have some shaky science, but makes some reasonable arguments about the advantages of a hands off approach.

I'm sure there isn't a definitive answer, but I'm relatively new to this, and curious to hear what the experience has been for others with similar goals.

There is some pretty interesting reading on this topic it turns out, including this article:

https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20210524-the-reason-wild-forests-beat-plantations

Proponents are arguing for natural regeneration to be taken more seriously in national and international efforts to mitigate the climate and biodiversity crises. Recent research has shown that natural regeneration can potentially absorb 40 times more carbon than plantations, and provide a home for more species. It is also significantly cheaper than tree planting, with different studies in Brazil showing costs reduced by 38%, or even up to 76%.

A wise man once told me "don't just do something, stand there!"  Maybe I should do just that.

This part of the world will revert to forest very quickly if left alone. The problem, something you touched on, is invasives. Bradford pear, autumn/Russian olive, japanese honeysuckle, tree of heaven, royal paulownia, multiflora rose, the list goes on.  Trying to control them on a 20 acre parcel would be a full time job.  Pines, tulip poplar, sycamores, black cherry, and a few others seem to compete fairly well and can establish a high canopy to make way for the oaks, hickories and beeches. But it is probably a slower process.

There is a method (the name evades me) of reforesting that involves planting trees at extremely high densities, maybe one every foot, so that they form a mini canopy and suppress competition.  The cost and labor of this method on a large scale could be prohibitive.

I say eat the deer to reduce pressure.

Found it…



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l5jtg2q1gnU

I've thought a lot about this question in the past few years. It takes a lot of water and energy to establish trees here bareroot or from pots

One concern I would have, in addition to invasives, is that some locations may have lost their tree seed bank due to deforestation and general degradation. My property doesn't have that problem, but many would. Douglas fir is the only tree planted in timber monocrops here, and in some areas it's all that would be available to reseed on its own.

Many trees were removed from the system artificially, by human intervention. For example, Oregon Ash should be present on my property according to history and ecology, but is not, currently, because of historical deforestation (other species managed to survive, though)

Thanks very much for your replies.

I did study the Miyawaki method a few years ago, and there is an individual near me - Marcin Jakubowski - who has applied this on a similar scale to what I am considering.

https://www.opensourceecology.org/open-source-ecology-afforestt-workshop/

I traded a few emails with him a few years ago, and although it was relatively new, it sounded like it was working well.  His basic suggestion to me was to do intensive planting on contour with native species.

I suggest doing 1 meter wide keylines every 50 feet using the Miyawaki method, or even 1 cubic meter pockets. Once the fertility starts in the worked area, mycelium and worms will do the rest of the work to the dead zones.

I had gotten caught up in my OCD need to "do something" by digging lots of holes, but I think this hybrid approach makes sense.

There are still plenty of oak / hickory / walnut trees around here to reseed, so the Marcin / Miyawaki method seems like a reasonable way to make the best use of available water and let the trees fight it out to see which one really belongs in a given spot.

Check back with me in 30 years to see how it is going

I manage about an acre by hand with N-fixers like autumn olive and black locust, and have quite a few bradford/callery pears coming up that I graft over to edible pears.  With more acreage, that's going to be harder to do by hand.  Can you put up a cheap deer fence with paracord, tree posts, zip ties, and deer netting?  I used those (along with with welded wire) to up a cheap fence over about 1000 ft.  So far, I've been able to trim up the black locust and do chop/drop with the autumn olive fairly easily, using a push mower a few times/year to keep the thorns down and promote clover.

You might be able to minimize mowing by planting your fruit/nut producing in lines (perhaps on contour), and then brush mowing around them, leaving corridors between your tree lines that can be allowed to come up with what's in the seed bank.  You could rake up the clippings as mulch around your trees.

Or you could just let it go wild for a few years, and then see what came up, mowing strategically to preserve the trees you want, and then adding your fruit/nut trees where they make sense.

I've been going the active route on five acres of grass hay field. It took a few years of killing trees to sort of figure out what worked and what didn't in terms of mulch, watering frequency, and how to deal with the grass and rodents

What worked good:
- 1 or 2 year old bareroot transplants planted in the fall
- double or triple layer cardboard in 3 foot square around tree
- wood chip or straw mulch 6+ inches deep on top of cardboard
- 12 inch tall rodent guards
- 6 hours of sprinkler overnight once per week in July/Aug
- place large logs to create afternoon shadow at base of tree
- kill grass a year in advance with piles of branches, pieces of lumber, or even pieces of steel roofing

What didn't work so good:
- spring planting (not enough time to get established before 100+ degrees in summer)
- spring planting softwood juvenile seedlings (too small to survive in the real world, easily chewed by insects)
- not watering at all or watering just once or twice in the summer (some survivors but mostly dead)
- not using rodent guards (lots of bark chewed in winter)
- mulching using dry grass raked up from area around tree (not thick/heavy enough to smother grass or conserve soil moisture)

Volunteer trees do show up, but the grass competition is very high, so they grow very very slowly, and then a lot of times they disappear over the winter because the voles eat them. However, it does seem like the voles don't care much for chewing the bark of chokecherry, serviceberry, oak, and siberian elm, so I generally don't put rodent guards on those.

So far my active efforts have born far more result in a shorter timespan than my passive non-efforts, but I'm certain that the passive route would get there eventually.

Thanks Josh and Abe for your replies, very helpful.

I've learned a lot of the same lessons as you, Abe, and employed a lot of the same strategies.  The area I'm working on isn't irrigated, so I bought a bladder for my truck and haul it in to hand-water.  I initially planted on the edges of the field where there was some timber and worked my way in, but I'm switching over to planting on contours with some poor-man's swales (e.g. logs laid across the hill) to try and ease the watering burden.

I also started experimenting with some deer fencing and am getting ready to try a few other tricks - some foul smelling sprays and motion activated lights - to try and change their habits.  Not super hopeful for either but worth a shot.

I saw you offer honey locust seedlings Abe - those are one species that thrives on this area and I'm extremely prejudiced against them and their wicked thorns.  I'll gladly give you all of mine!

Cheers!