Death is only the beginning...

The grocery store's entrance is lined with pumpkins and the neighbors across the streets have "cobwebs" covering their shrubs.  Even the plastic flamingos at our next door neighbors' house are in the Halloween spirit as they're black and white instead of pink. 

In a couple of weeks we hope to have skeletons, zombies, and ghosts knocking on our door...and ok probably a princess or two.  The combination of the fact that's it's a month with death front and center plus the fact that I just wrapped up dancing in a Bollywood musical (bonus points to anyone who knows which Bollywood musical the title of this blog comes from) is the perfect stage for the drama that's been unfolding in our park.  This song sets the stage for a discussion about how we judge things, "I'm neither dead nor alive."

 

There's no disputing the beauty of a majestic heritage pecan growing strongly but does that beauty and value go away when it dies?   Should it be seen as suddenly detracting from a park's beauty and worthy of spending money to remove?  The past few years of drought have not been easy on our park and since 2011 we've had almost 30 trees die and that's why we've been spending so much time mulching the remaining trees (in less than a year we've moved 230 cubic yards of mulch) and making plans to plant new ones.  But the question still remains what to do with all of the dead trees.

Understanding that there are some liability concerns with standing dead trees, the Friends have had support from the Parks and Recreation Department to leave as much of the tree as possible.  The remaining stumps or snags serve as a reminder of how many trees we used to have and provide valuable ecological services.

This article concisely highlights benefits of leaving dead wood in an ecosystem.  We should leave dead wood in the park because:

·         it provides perching, foraging, and nesting for birds

·         fungi and mushrooms flourish on and around logs, breaking down the organic matter to release important nutrients back into the forest ecosystem

·         Mammals, amphibians, reptiles, and invertebrates seek refuge in natural cavities and dens

·         spiders, beetles, worms, and microbes move and feed within the decaying matter

·         Decaying logs retain moisture and nutrients that aid in new plant growth

·         Logs also store energy and fix nitrogen

·         lessens soil erosion

I'd also make the case that there's  inherent beauty in these logs as they transform.  Click here to see an album of photos that I took a couple of weeks ago.  And here are a few of my personal favorites:

Buda

 

Blistering Beauty

 

Lady of the Park

 

Vortex

 

 

In addition to all the good for the environment they encourage us to wander off the beaten trail, remember what was and look more closely at the beautifully detailed world around us.

A few weeks ago we noticed that a couple more dead trees had Notice of Removal signs stuck to them so we promptly emailed the Park's manager to ask that they consider leaving them and the manager of East Austin parks and a forester assigned to our park agreed, "Jimmy is fine with snags at this location, and so am I. About 10’ tall. ~Keith O'Herrin"  We rejoiced and then went back to focusing on other park projects like organizing National Public Lands Day. 

Then on October 2, we took our dogs for an evening stroll and didn't see the trees from the distance.  My pace and heart rate quickened as we got closer but this was the site that greeted us. 

 

A lot of emotions, emails and phone calls later here is the response from the Parks and Recreation Department's Urban Forester,

                "I have updated information regarding the removal of the snag(s). In my interest of a quick response while I was out of town last week, I provided you with inaccurate information. The “art logs” I mentioned were in reference to a different high-use location, not Boggy Creek.

           Upon investigation, it turns out that in an effort to reduce some of Forestry’s back-logged work, the Boggy Creek work was handed over to a contractor. The hand-written notes on the original work order included a note to leave the snags, but those hand-written notes were not included when the digital work was handed over. So the contractor, without knowing better, removed the snag(s). This was an oversight on our part and I regret that the snags were removed. Again, I apologize. I can imagine the horror you must have felt when you saw that the snags had been removed.

                I hope you believe me when I say that Forestry is very interested in leaving snags and coarse     biomass in place because of their ecosystem services and wildlife benefits. This instance was an oversight that I will work to prevent in the future....~Angela Hanson."

We appreciate the thoughtful response and that the Department is listening to our concerns.  We are going to work with multiple departments to encourage the default to be to leave as much dead wood as safe in parks instead of the default being to remove everything.

Stay tuned.