Hello fellow tree huggers,
Question: if I have a plot of land in the Western Washington Cascades, should I plant redwoods and/or sequoias on it on not? I would do this in addition to the obvious douglas firs, western red cedars, western hemlocks and various appropriate ground shrubs/ferns.
I can see a lot of articles about “assisted migration”, many of which reference redwoods, but also all of which state that the idea is controversial. The idea is that Northern California is becoming less habitable for these trees, and Washington and BC become more like how California used to be, so the redwood forest will naturally migrate northwards. However, climate change is happening too fast for a slow-moving forest to realistically keep up.
The proponents argue that it’s a way to preserve an important species, especially one which is a great carbon sink.
The doubters argue that some species of plants wouldn’t survive the process, or could bring pests, or at least be susceptible them.
I can’t tell if those drawbacks really pertain to redwoods/sequoias in Washington though. There are hundreds of them around the Seattle area that are doing just fine, more than a hundred years after residents planted them.
What do y’all think? Do it or no?
Cheers for the answers. I think it’s a goer.
But, I’d implore you to assess the climatic zone movement that may occur (which was alluded to) and make sure your endemic/native plants have some insurance against that.
I wouldn’t take the advice of a nursery, I’d be trying to find studies from ecologists and climate experts and see what they are suggesting as possibilities.
Good luck with the invasives! I do that for work and it’s one of the hardest jobs I’ve ever had, naughty plants are fucking relentless.
Haha yeah those invasives are gonna be a few years of work. Any tips for killing them without creating a bigger erosion problem? I was thinking I’d start by just ripping out little circular clearings and plant some medium sized things in the space left behind, then wait a year or two to really go hard on the rest of it, so there’s never any time without roots holding everything together.
Yeah Ive read a bit about how climate change will impact the native plants. I think western red cedar is in the most danger but it’s gonna be a while before they really can’t handle it.
You’ll need a local expert in techniques for those particular weeds. For example, we have developed techniques for certain weeds but if I look those weeds up, not one technique will be listed; they’re usually generic and written by people that have never done the work. And these people are sure they know everything.
But the idea you have is right, if the weed allows you to do that. Sometimes, depending on the weed, you literally can’t plant anything back in because the weed is hard to remove and doing that makes it even harder. I would consider, without knowing anything about your ecology; grasses and sedges (possibly ferns) are usually a good option as they have fine, fibrous roots, are cheap to propagate, easy to mass plant, and grow relatively quickly. Maybe you have some pioneering trees (native or exotic) that you can remove later, quick growers that are easy to kill or succeed out once you’ve got the weed out of there.