Mother Tree Failure

A friend sent me a picture that she had come across while surfing around the internet, it was of a Mother Tree, one of those large trees that had perished and fallen to the forest floor only to become nourishment for the next generation of trees. It had been a very large and grand tree at one time only to lay wasting away on the forest floor. Soon it was populated by seedlings, then saplings, then full sized trees that had sprouted from seeds and were well on their way to becoming a forest of their own. There must of been ten or more trees that were growing from the single fallen ‘Mother’.

We have a few Mother Trees scattered throughout our forest but none that compare to my friend’s picture. We also have a few failures along with the ones that are growing well.

This one was an old growth tree that had been cut more than 100 years ago and left as a high stump. The seedling that had sprouted and began growing took over the far side of the stump and grew roots well into the soil.

Not to far away from the successful tree, a tenuous bond had formed with two similar trees. This tree had also taken root on an existing stump but the roots did not grow deep into the earth and has incrementally began tipping as each year comes and goes with more weight at the top of the tree.

At this moment, the tree is still secure, but will need to be cut before too many more years pass because this fence line is right next to the county road and we do not want the tree to fall during ravaging storms, middle of the night, when the main herd is hanging around, or when there is a lot of traffic on the road.