WHAT FORESTS TEACH US
Ecologist Paige E. Copenhaver-Parry, a professor at George Fox University writes, “The data that we collect tell us something about the future of the forests in which we work, but, as so often occurs when we carefully read nature, God’s ‘second book,’ the data also teach us beautiful lessons about the patterns that God has so thoughtfully woven throughout all of his creation.”
She continues with, ‘What Forests Teach Us about Community.’
“The patterns we see in seedlings have taught us that independence is a myth, and that the community in which an organism finds itself has much to do with its ability to grow and thrive. Similar to the scattered seeds in Jesus’ Parable of the Sower recorded in Matthew 13, the location in which a seed lands does indeed determine a great deal of its ability to germinate, grow, and survive to become a tree. We’ve learned that the more a seedling is crowded by shrubs, ferns, and other understory plants, the less likely it is to survive to its second spring, but that seedlings that germinate on logs provided by their deceased ancestors have a better chance. These logs help hold moisture where shallow seedling roots can access it and provide vital nutrients that were for so long bound up in the tissues of large, old trees. We’ve also learned that climate – air and soil temperature, precipitation, and soil moisture – has little to do with the germination and survival of seedlings that grow beneath the canopy. The most important determinant of seedling success appears to be the density of the canopy above it, which is provided by larger trees that have survived the journey to the top of the forest. While we’re still working to quantify the processes by which overstory trees in our forests benefit seedlings on the forest floor, we know that they greatly influence the amount of light a seedling receives. Too much light, and a seedling will wither and die; too little light, and a seedling will be unable to grow. Ultimately, we’ve learned that for a seedling to survive, it requires just the right amount of help from larger, more mature trees in the stand, as well as a boost from the fallen trees that have come before it.”
“Some seed fell on good ground and yielded a crop: some a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty. He who has ears to hear, let him hear!” Jesus