Coniferous forest

“ Secondly, there are forests of coniferous trees. In the Mediterranean region, even at comparatively low altitudes, forests occur of the maritime pine (Pinus maritima) and of the Aleppo pine (P. halepensis) ; and these forests are also related to maquis and garigues respectively in the same way as the evergreen oaks. The occurrence of forests of this type in the Mediterranean and in Arctic regions, whose dominant species belong to the same genus (Pinus) and to the same plant form, renders it difficult to regard “coniferous forests” as a natural ecological group. ”

“ The coniferous trees do not lend themselves at all to this system of treatment, and, among the broadleaf trees, the species vary in their ability to sprout. Some, like the chestnut and poplar, sprout profusely; others sprout very little.
How forests are protected: Forestry also tries to protect the forests from many destructive agencies. Wasteful lumbering and fire are the worst enemies of the forest. Fungi, insects, grazing, wind, snow and floods are the other enemies. ”

“ The wind, which pollinated the fertile flowers of coniferous forests long before nectar-gathering insects came upon the earth, is the harvester of their seeds. It scatters them far and wide; each seed has a wing that adapts it to long journeys in front of a gale.
The resinous sap that courses through the veins of coniferous wood seals up the bark, leaves, and cones against the invasion of enemies, and acts as an antiseptic dressing for wounds. Without these special adaptations to a life of [Pg 220] hardship, the conifers would never have held their own as they have done. ”

“ Man has ruthlessly destroyed for timber the coniferous forests of this country and much of the territory denuded by the axe is either devoted to agriculture or has been seized by broad-leaved species of trees, more tenacious of life and with seeds more quick and sure to germinate than those of the conifers. The time is not far distant, geologically speaking, when this ancient and declining family of trees will exist only as man fosters it by cultivation. ”

“ IN eastern North America about thirty species of coniferous trees make up at least two thirds of the existing forest, while the remainder comprises something like 250 hardwood or broad-leaved species. ”

“ Silviculture. Silvicultural practices are naturally but little developed. Protection against fire, grazing, overcutting has been the first requisite. The unregulated selection system with a diameter limit, which Brandis introduced, still prevails mostly, although beginnings of a compartment and group system in converting miscarried selection forest of Deodar, Pine and Sal have been made, or rather of an improved selection method, which seeks to secure reproduction in groups. Clearcutting with seed trees held over is practised in the coniferous mountain forest. ”

“ In the East the same tendency is illustrated by the better sections of the Adirondack spruce forests and the splendid pineries that once covered the Great Lake region. If we call to mind these extensive examples, we realize how the conifers ever strive to build a dense and impenetrable forest. That they are capable of a like growth in other parts of the world also, will be attested by those who have seen the spruce and fir forests of Germany and France. ”

“ It is obviously impossible that successions in desert lands, in polar barrens, or upon alpine stretches should terminate in forest stages. In these, grassland must be the ultimate condition, except in those extreme habitats, alpine and polar, where mosses and lichens represent the highest type of existing vegetation. Forests are ultimate for all successions in habitats belonging to a region generally wooded, while grassland represents the terminus of prairie and plains successions as well as of many arctic-alpine ones. ”

“ The more northerly portion of this wide-spread forest was not able to survive the change, its species were forced out of the region, finding more suitable conditions in lands farther to the south, where some, undoubtedly, had already established themselves. A large number of species, like the oaks and beeches and some of the conifers easily adapted themselves to a varied environment and spread widely around the north temperate zone. ”

“ Most of them preserve their foliage through the winter, and are commonly recognized by this evergreen habit. They are much more important to the forester than the other class. The conifers grow on the true forest soils. They range along mountain crests or are scattered over dry and semi-arid regions or along the sandy seashore, while the broadleaf species usually require a better soil and a more congenial climate. ”

“ In America the most widespread type of forest is the evergreen coniferous woodland of the north. ”

“ Some conifers hold their cones for a year before they send the seed, whirling, swirling, broadside to the wind, aviating pixy parachutes, airy armaments for the conquest of arid hills to new forest growth, though the process may take the trifling æon of a thousand years or so. At one season, when you come to the Forests, the air is full of the yellow pollen of the conifers, gold dust whose alchemy, could we but know it, would unlock the secrets of life. ”

“ In the Western forest conifers are conspicuously predominant; the individual species often reaches enormous and even unequalled dimensions, the forest is frequently interrupted by treeless areas, and the transitions from one type to another are often exceedingly abrupt. Both divisions are botanically and commercially rich in species.
The Eastern forest may conveniently be subdivided into three members:
1. The Northern forest, marked by great density and large volume of standing timber, and a comparative immunity, in its virgin condition, from fire. ”

“ There is no undergrowth as in our forests at home, but there are here and there gray rocks, large and small, covered with fresh green moss, or with gray, pink and yellow lichen. There were rustic benches all along, but the forest was quite deserted except for an occasional woodman with a fire and piles of neatly chopped wood, or some little boys drawing carts filled with bundles of sticks for winter use. ”

“ The consocies of grassland are determined by grasses, those of forests by trees, etc. From the different position of the facies in these two types of vegetation such areas are readily seen at all times in the forest, but they are often concealed in grassland by the tall-growing principal species of the various aspects. When definite consocies are present, they are often found to mingle where they touch, producing miniature transition areas, and, very rarely, they sometimes leave gaps in which no facies appears. ”

“ Forests which now seem entirely unrelated will be seen to possess the most intimate developmental connection, and the fuller insight into the life history gained in this way will have a direct bearing upon methods of conservation, etc. It will further show that the forester must know other vegetations as well, since grassland and thicket formations have an intimate influence upon the course of the succession, as well as upon the advance of a forest frontier. ”

“ Where the soil was sandy or stony, it might be a scrub rather than a forest, of gnarled, twisted, and stunted oaks, or possibly thickets of sloe, birch, rowan, hawthorn, brambles, and briers.
Every stream would be "wild water" leaping down waterfalls and cutting out irregular, little woody ravines. Here and there boulders and escarpments of rock would break through the forest soil, which would be mossy, thick with undergrowth, and entangled with rotting fallen trunks and branches, crossing at every conceivable angle. The higher hills were covered by a dreary, sombre pine forest. ”

“ Others, however, found suitable conditions of life only in certain localities, often widely apart, but with similar climatic features. Here we have a solution of the similarity of tree forms in forests so widely separated geographically as those of eastern North America and eastern Asia. In every other portion of the wide region into which the trees of this polar forest migrated a certain number of species failed to occupy the soil through some adverse conditions in climate or life relations. ”

“ Here the rainfall is abundant all the year round, with a summer maximum, and the temperature is high. There is thus no need to economise water, and where the soil permits there is a luxuriant type of forest, which recalls that of the tropics, although it is poorer. Where soil conditions are unfavourable we have pine woods, conifers throughout the eastern United States always taking advantage of conditions relatively unfavourable to the broad-leafed trees. ”

“ The winter months when the woody vegetation is practically fully exposed to the elements, are particularly severe in their effects. Leaf-fall, which is such a common sight as to arouse scarcely any interest, is the only device by which the great bulk of our forest trees survive, and only in the southern part of the region are there found such woody plants as the mountain laurel, rhododendron, American holly, and a few others which are evergreen but not cone-bearing ones, and are the only reminders of the truly evergreen forests of the tropics. ”

“ Even the forests of the temperate zones, in all favourable situations, exhibit a considerable variety of trees of distinct genera and families, and it is only when we approach the outskirts of forest vegetation, where either drought or winds or the severity of the winter is adverse to the existence of most trees, that we find extensive tracts monopolised by one or two species. ”

“ The exacting demands of our modern artificial civilization have drawn ceaselessly upon [Pg 89] these resources, and the assiduous ax and the fire that follows in its train have invaded even the most secluded regions. The resulting barren spaces, where they have not become cultivated land, have either reverted to the young white pine itself or have been transformed into oak barrens and open forests of broadleaf trees. Thus the aspect of the region has been altered, though many a limited spot may be found in which the tall majesty of the primeval forest still finds its full expression. ”

“ The more slender trees are, curiously enough, the taller; straight, clear shafts rise 100 to 150 feet, topped with foliage whose highest needles would look down on Trinity spire. Cedars, hemlocks, spruce and white fir mingle with these giants, but they do not compete with them in height; they fill in the spaces in the vast colonnades. Below is the carpet of deep golden green moss and glossy ferns, and the tangle of vines and bushes that cover the fallen trunks of the fathers of the forest. ”

“ The tropical forests, again, are characterized by a remarkable uniformity and sombreness which gives them an aspect quite unlike that of European woods. The vast cylindrical trunks of the great forest trees, rising like pillars from the midst of ferns and lesser growths, support a lofty roof of leaves. ”

“ Again, while the luxuriant forest of the tropics includes many different species of trees, the deciduous forests of cool temperate regions contain few species, and are often pure woods, that is, consist of one dominant species, forming beech woods or oak woods, and so on. The dense shade of the beech makes undergrowth difficult or impossible, but the other woods have a complicated undergrowth of many different kinds of plants, especially pronounced in spring before [132] the leaves appear on the trees. ”

“ Of the magnitude of its forest growth we have evidence not only in the abundant remains of trunk and leaf and fruit imbedded in the old lake sediments, but in the scattered remnants of its former grandeur seen in the gigantic conifers of California, and in the cypress, magnolias, sweet gums and sycamores, which are the pride of our Eastern forests. This fertile land also sustained a fauna corresponding in richness and interest to its flora ”

“ This science is the basis of all problems dealing with the growing of timber and is therefore a study of the utmost importance to forestry. Forest ecology is the study of the relations of trees and forests to their surroundings. By surroundings (or environment) we mean all the factors which influence their growth and reproduction, such as soil temperature, soil moisture, soil texture, rainfall, light, wind, air temperature, relative humidity, altitude, slope, exposure, and surface. Forests, we must remember, are not warehouses of standing logs ”

“ The northern countries are rich in conifers. Taking a section from Central Africa to North Europe, it will be found that south and north of the equator there is a large belt of dense hardwood forest; then comes the Sahara, then the coast of the Mediterranean with forests of cork oak; then Italy with oak, olive, chestnut, gradually giving place to ash, sycamore, beech, birch and certain species of pine; in Switzerland and Germany silver fir and spruce gain ground. ”

“ The deciduous forests of the United States are much finer than those of Europe, where the varieties are not so numerous and the trees are not so well-developed. Coniferous or evergreen forests are common in mountain regions and on sterile soils, extensive forests of this kind occurring in the lake-states, gulf-states and in the western mountains. The greatest of all forests are in the rainy tropics, as in the Amazon region, where the forests form jungles dripping with moisture, the trees being interlaced with vines and covered with air-plants. ”