INDICATORS – the signs trees show when they are healthy, and the signs they exhibit when they are not going to make it.

When a tree is thriving in its environment, it is known as a stronger dominant. In the method of forestry we practice, called Natural Selection Ecoforetry, founded by Orville Camp, stronger dominant trees are left to keep growing and contributing their seed to the forest gene pool.

• The FIRST INDICATOR, if they are Douglas fir, of good health, is they have wide lateral growth cracks running down their bark, with lighter brown wood showing out of the cracks Since bark is dead, it does not grow, so as a tree gets bigger, the bark has to crack to accommodate the new growth underneath it. The living layer of tree showing out through the cracks is a taffy brown color. Whereas the outside bark is gray. So if a tree is growing well, these growth cracks are really noticeable.
• The SECOND INDICATOR of a stronger dominant leave tree is the columnar shape of the trunk. Just like a pillar on a southern plantation mansion, the tree is just as big around, all the way up. This means the tree is growing towards the sky, as well as growing outward, with each yearly layer of growth cells.
• The THIRD INDICATOR is stronger dominants will have more than 20% of their stem sporting live branches.

TREES THAT WE CAN TAKE, IN NATURAL SELECTION FORESTRY

The trees we permit ourselves to harvest are referred to as weaker member trees. The reverse of the above indicators above apply, such as:

• INDICATOR ONE. Weaker member trees have gray wood in the growth cracks or no growth cracks at all in the bark.
• INDICATOR TWO. The shape of the weaker member tree is cone shaped, meaning the tree is no longer growing up, but just putting on a growth ring around it’s circumference every year. So they just get bigger and bigger around towards the ground, but don’t grow upward.
• INDICATOR THREE. Less than 20% of the weaker member tree’s stem is covered in branches. This means the neighbor trees are growing up over the tree, shading it. Thus the branches of needles, can’t get sunlight to make food (photosynthesis) and die, and the branch falls off. This continues up the trunk until just the top branches remain, earning the tree the name, “pinhead”. Eventually the top dies too, and so the tree.
• INDICATOR FOUR. Weaker member trees will be smaller in diameter than the same age, stronger dominant trees around them. If you could take a cross cut of both weaker and stronger trees, the growth rings would have the same count, but the weaker ones on the outside edge would be close together, indicating that the tree’s growth is slowing way down.
• INDICATOR FIVE. A weaker member the same age as a stronger dominant neighbor, will be shorter. The stronger dominant trees around it may have even closed over the top of it, cutting off the weaker member’s sun.

It should be noted, that a certain per cent of weaker members are left on each acre, instead of cutting them down to become the wildlife trees known as snags. The wildlife trees of a forest, with no human intervention, come from this weaker member tree element, so some of them on each acre, each time you are harvesting, is essential. And once a tree is dead, do not cut it down. Leave it for the wildlife.

Scientific Findings about weaker and stronger member trees.

In 1996 we talked with Angus Brodie, a graduate student working for scientist Dr. Andy Carey at the US Forest Service PNW Research Station. He shared these findings from his studies with us. The roots of different trees naturally graft on to one another, underground, at a young age. As they grow up, the weaker member trees suppressed in the shade of the stronger dominant trees can often live-on in spite of being selected out. This is because their roots are grafted into the roots of the stronger dominants and are literally being fed by them. If you cut the suppressed tree it has a positive affect on the dominant tree because suddenly they don’t have this tree draining them of sustenance.

If you cut the dominant tree, going by the theory it will release the weaker tree, it will negatively affect the smaller tree. The weaker tree will not spring ahead, but die, because it has lost its host and it has never really created a root system of its own to support itself. Angus told us that trying to create an uneven age forest by taking out trees of all sizes will take longer because of the grafting happening at the young age. And lastly, he confirmed that in his studies he’s found it basic thought that stronger dominant trees have genes adapted to the site.