The Derecho in May pummelled Camp Kawartha. Entire sections of the forests were flattened! We know that nature’s way is neither good nor bad, it just is, but to we humans, it is hard to see such damage and not be impacted by the loss of such beautiful trees.It’s just not the visual gaps, the missing trees in the forest, we also know that such events affect wildlife – they can be killed or displaced and that can throw the ecosystem out of balance even further.
There are a couple of approaches for forest recovery after a weather event like the Derecho. The first is the forest can be left to regenerate on its own, taking decades and decades to fully recover and re-establish itself. We did note before too long after the event the emergence of new growth. Small oaks popped up, some maple, and it was amazing to walk one of our trails every other day and see grasses and other plants emerging so quickly.
We did remove many of the fallen and damaged trees which was necessary to protect our guests, the forest, and the habitat that remains. Their removal was principally for safety purposes but also to reduce fire risk and to allow the new growth to have optimal growing opportunity.As the landscape slowly regenerates, where trees once dominated, and may do so again in 50 or 100 years, we know that unique, diverse grasses and shrubs will appear that weren’t found in that location before. Ecological succession may make parts of the forest very different from what we now know. And while losing portions of the forest is hard, we know that this succession is neither good nor bad, it is just nature’s way.
The second approach is to help the forest. Human intervention can help nature when done with thought and planning, and so we plan to plant seedlings, bushes, grasses, even develop pocket forests, and thereby diversify the makeup of the forest. This will encourage different birds, mammals, and insects to frequent the forest because their needs for food sources and habitat are being met.
Time heals all wounds, and the fierce forces of nature are nothing new for forests, but these can be mitigated by the equally powerful force of natural regeneration and human-inspired renewal.
