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A tale of two forests By Mark Bisset Dirt. You can tell a lot about a place with a handful of the stuff. I stood in front of a group of about 20 Grade 6 students with a handful of soil picked up off the trail we were standing upon. I tossed it in the breeze and, being mostly sand, it turned to dust and was carried away. We were out on a Simcoe County tract, one of the many pine plantations managed by the county under the Forest Standards Certification program which ensures logging is done in a sustainable fashion - and to keep large portions of real estate from blowing away in the wind. The plantations generate significant revenue for county taxpayers and at the same time provide soil stability and recreational opportunities. It’s a happy ending to a story that started in 1922. Clear-cutting and poor agricultural practices had created “waste lands”. Huge swathes of the area had turned to sand blow-outs once all the vegetation was stripped off. It was a common complaint to find sand in the sugar bowls in farm kitchens around here. This has largely been forgotten by the general public, but the reforestation of Simcoe County is one of the great stories of the local landscape.
A Conservancy volunteer examines the massive grandfather pine hours after it came down in 2006. In 2018, the trunk provides habitat, sustaining a diversity of life. But a man-made forest is very different than a natural forest. And while it does many good things, it is never likely to become the crucible of abundant life that a natural forest can be. Looking at the pine plantation, the students told me they noticed: the trees are in straight rows; the trees are mostly the same; and you can’t see too far along the forest floor for young saplings. We then drove to Grant’s Woods, one of the oldest-growth forests still standing in the area, stopping at the old grandfather pine, its trunk decaying on the ground now. Life is popping out all over as ferns sprout from it, insects move busily across its surface, and moss bursts out spectacularly here and there.
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I picked up another handful of soil. It was rich, dark and loamy. A quick look around and the students discovered multiple varieties of trees, shrubs and plants, a dense forest canopy and a significant contrast between this and the man-made forest. They understood the connection between the grandfather pine and the beautiful forest soil. Both types of forest serve a purpose, but the difference between a man-made plantation and a natural old-growth forest is vast. And it all starts with the dirt. Mark Bisset is the executive Director of The Couchiching Conservancy, a non-profit, charitable land trust that protects natural places for future generations. For more information on the Conservancy, go to www.couchichingconserv.ca or call 705-326-1620.
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Executive Director, Gillian Somerville Downs
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