If this tree was cut down, how the heck was it able to cover the wound with new bark to heal? Well, the answer here is through community!
In a healthy mature forest ecosystem like this, all these trees, shrubs and plants are connected to one another through their roots by various mycorrhizal fungi which creates communities of different species that all share resources and nutrients with one another when they’re in need. Energy in this system flows from sources of high energy to sinks of low energy so that when one tree is photosynthesizing well and producing excess sugars, those sugars will flow down through its roots to the fungi who distribute that to those in the community so that they all can thrive.
Trees like this that got cut down is referred to as a living stump because it was old enough to be well connected to everything else here, acting as an important hub or node for the fungi to transfer these nutrients. When it was felled it became an energy sink, so all these other trees here were able to send it the energy it needed to continue to grow layers of cambium to seal off the wound and continue to live, even though it isn’t able to contribute to the rest of the forest in the same way.
It’s an incredible example of how interconnected these forest ecosystems have evolved to be with communities of different species helping each other out. Yet, complexities like this are only able to exist amongst a healthy diversity of different species at different ages, like that which has been maintained here at Wildwood, which is a community led demonstration ecoforest on Vancouver Island where this oldgrowth forest ecosystem of Coastal Douglas Firs has been managed for almost 80 years. This project shows that it is totally possible to manage our forests for not just timber, but other values while maintaining the ecological complexity that makes them so unique, we just need to shift our perspective on these forests from resources to the intricate interconnected ecosystems that they are.
