With timing, observation and careful hands, you can discover the joy of woodland gardening and small-scale forest restoration of lands long since altered by humans. By “altered” I mean that most (not all) of the forests you’ve seen—lands cleared, grazed, cultivated, with topsoils washed away, and left to re-grow—are really “recovering” rather than mature, native forests.

That being said, complete restoration is a monumental and maybe impossible task considering the continent-wide impacts humans have had since colonization and industrialization. Not to despair, though. If you love plants and wildlife, you can learn to assess and restore some of the natural dynamics a forest naturally had before we and our exotic pest followers arrived. Over time, you can see through that blurry green wall of woods and discover the land-use history, structure, composition and function. As a result, you can increase your forests’ native plant stock, improve habitat for area wildlife, kick out the invaders, and gather some great landscaping plants as a reward.

While ecologists have continental-level ecological restoration on the burner, you can begin restoring the forested native plants and wildlife habitats here at home—bring them back out of the woodwork, so to speak. It’s a lifetime task that requires a bit of research before beginning. Here are a few of many excellent resources to use as a start:

• A Field Guide to the Trees and Shrubs of the Southern Appalachians (Robert Swanson)
• Newcomb’s Wildflower Guide (Lawrence Newcomb)
• The New England Wild Flower Society Guide to Growing and Propagating Wildflowers of the United States and Canada (William Cullina) Also look for his book on propagating woody plants.
• Sibley’s Field Guide to Birds of Eastern North America (David Sibley)
• Birds of Eastern North America CD (Peterson’s Nature Guides). Leave it in your car CD player, and you’ll be amazed at what you learn while driving.

Classification of Natural Communities of North Carolina, 3rd Approximation. (Michael Schafele and Alan Weakley, www.ncnhp.org/Pages/publications.html) This is my favorite!

In addition to conducting some preliminary research, you should understand that you don’t need to ‘manage’ all of your forest. Some areas will benefit from help but don’t require it, others are severly damaged and need some attention, and some just need to be left alone. Eastern forests have been evolving for a few million years, and they’re still going—they created the topsoil we depend on. Our forest tinkering today is largely a reflection of the damage we’ve done in only 300 short years.

Start your journey into woodland gardening by getting outdoors with the field books; get to know the canopy and understory trees, shrubs, wildflowers, and ferns and the wildlife that is using them. Note how many birds are breeding or migrating through your woods from April to July (listen to that CD!). Sit still a while and learn even more about them. Take pictures, make lists and read online. Map out distinct habitats (aka “natural communities”) and spend lots of time in each habitat, walking slowly, watching, listening and taking notes. If you don’t know the common names, make up your own until you do. Determine the following: what plants are dominant and when? Which are native and introduced? When do they flower, seed and die back? What’s eating them? What habitats and soil moisture do they like? Do they like sun or shade? Keep an eye on tree seedlings and shrubs—what is dominant, scattered or rare? What areas were formerly grazed, farmed, or only timbered? What wildlife eats the fruits of black haw, dogwood, pawpaw, or huckleberries? Take note of the exotic-invasive species—among the most serious threats to our forests today (see
www.invasive.org).

Natural patterns in your forest garden will emerge over time, and you’ll start to learn seeds you can save and when, when and how to divide roots, how to make cuttings, transplant, or even thin out some abundant woody stems to “release” less common trees into the canopy.

I don’t use many tools in the forest, mostly a root-fork, small pruning saw, clippers, loppers, and a backpack. I highly recommend the root-fork (or spading fork), a four-tined “mini-pitchfork” built for digging. I call mine the “root-raider,” because it’s lighter and faster than any shovel. And, it allows you to quickly pull a plant (at the right time only!) with far less soil disturbance. Ahead of dozers, I’ve pulled as many as 150 trilliums an hour with it.

Christmas fern is an easy plant to start working with; it’s common, native and abundant in the Southeast. In early spring or late fall, dig one up and observe how many buds it has, each of which can be transplanted, to see how many plants an “individual plant” can really be. I’ve divided some of these ferns into as many as twenty new plants—they’re a massive resource for quickly covering large areas, especially near your house. Carefully divide smaller root buds, replant the mother plant, and plant your “new” ferns near the mother plant in patches. Forget regularity; adjust distances slightly for more of a natural look. The mother plant will send out more buds to replace the ones you took. Other great ferns to divide are new york fern, fancy fern, and interrupted fern.

Some easy-to-divide wildflowers include bloodroot, wild ginger, spiderwort, and mayapple—all of which are prolific spreaders and wildlife attractors. Plant in colonies first and diversify later. This technique works with most perennial plants, but make sure there’s plenty of stock first. Don’t destroy your limited resources. Once you have this process down pat, you’ll find you have a wonderful, on-site nursery with an ever-increasing wealth of native plants to use for landscaping around your home.

Bear in mind, there are forest areas that should simply be left alone. Collection of seeds from some areas is preferable over root division to minimize soil disturbances until you develop techniques that minimize disturbance while leaving source plants intact.

However you approach gardening in the woodland area, think of your forest as a “biological neighborhood.” Many of the blocks and residents are in bad shape; others are doing fine even though they might not look like it to the untrained eye. Spend some time in those neighborhoods: look closely, take notes, and help out the community. Try to get rid of as many exotic-invasive plants as possible. Like a vegetable garden, you need to take time to assess and plan before you plant. The temptation is to just dig right in, and that’s okay in some cases. But first, you should get to know the forest. The opportunities for you to help restore and heal it are unlimited.

Kevin Caldwell is a botanist and wildlife biologist with Mountains-to-Sea Conservation of Asheville who helps landowners recognize, protect, and incorporate the ‘nature’ of the land into their plans. He specializes in finding and protecting rare species; while not exploring and restoring mountain forests for work or play, he’s asleep. He can be reached at (828) 551-8225.

Back to New Life Journal..