Casey O’Neill is a farmer and owner of Happy Day Farms in Laytonville, Calif. The opinions expressed in this column are not those expressed by The Mendocino Voice.
We’re working in the woods on the back side of the ranch, clearing young firs that are encroaching on the venerable, ancient oaks. It feels good to free up the old grandmothers, opening up the understory and making space for them to breathe and gather in the future rays of sunlight that push energy down into their roots.
The oaks have already lost their leaves so the work is for their benefit in seasons to come — with more sunlight and less competition for water they will be more likely to thrive. Young firs grow fast and drink deep, and when dozens of saplings are growing close together they have a serious impact on the water table.
Conifers used to be thinned by fire to support the oaks that served as a critical food source for Native peoples before the arrival of colonizing settlers. Without the care and tending, and with the removal of beneficial fire, young conifer populations have exploded in conjunction with regrowth after logging of more stable, old growth forests. The result is forests overstocked with young trees, and the loss of critical oak woodland habitat as the oaks and madrones are overtaken and then overshadowed by the fast-growing firs.
On the back side of the ranch, there are some gigantic oaks and madrones that are slowly fading into the shadows, dying a heartbreaking death as they stretch and struggle to reach the sunlight that is now gobbled up by the firs. Our work is to expand the pockets of meadows, clearing the firs on the edges and opening up sunlight to the oaks. We fall trees smaller than 8-inch diameter at breast high; larger firs are girdled to provide standing habitat while removing most of the shade as they die and drop their needles. The work is supported by a Roots grant from Point Blue, for which we are deeply grateful.
Partnerships that provide funding to manage landscapes for forest health are beneficial to us all as more carbon is sequestered, while water tables are supported to provide enough for fish, wildlife and human uses. Working in the woods is meaningful, and is a key part of what a Green New Deal should look like. Part of this process is building stronger public-private partnerships between agencies, nonprofits, land managers and working folks to create benefits to landscape, community and economy.
We use the trunks in hugelkultur beds, sequestering the carbonaceous material in trenches layered with high nitrogen bedding and animal wastes and stuffed with the bushy branches and lime to raise the pH and help with decomposition. Then we put the soil back on top with compost and amendments to form new garden beds. We go heavy with chicken pellets to avoid nitrogen tie-up from the decomposing biomass, which will break down over the next few years, slowly releasing nutrients for deeper-rooted plants and serving as a sponge to hold water during the dry months.
Biochar is also a product of the process; the smaller material will go into the kiln to create a highly porous charcoal that we’ll mix with biologically active compost to inoculate it with microbes. Biochar has both positively and negatively charged ion/cation sites where ions can reside, meaning that biochar will bond loosely with nutrients and hold them until a stronger force like a mycorrhizal association with fungal hyphae pulls the nutrients into contact with root hairs where they are absorbed into growing plants. In short, biochar creates a microorganism village with its porous structure and abundant nutrient-holding capability. Once inoculated, it is the perfect addition to help build and support living soil for farming.
We three brothers were talking yesterday about the process of oak woodland restoration when Ben mentioned that we should be careful about removing support trees from the oaks in places where they have grown up together to avoid accidental loss to winter storms. This was a great reminder to proceed with caution, and to understand that there are often unintended consequences to our actions. I’m glad to learn more about working in the forests and to continue to understand how we can best support oak woodlands, sequester carbon, build new garden spaces and be part of a thriving landscape.
I’m glad for the shifting seasons, for the chance to do other work and not to feel the intensity of the high pressure farming months. It’s all about balance, finding the time to keep the crop rotations, harvest cycles and market schedule operating while working on the other projects I have in mind. The short days make for more relaxed evenings and earlier bedtimes, letting go of the long work schedules and the burnout of late summer one day at a time. As always, much love and great success to you on your journey!