The wildlife travel corridor that was surveyed is approximately 800 feet long by 70 feet wide and runs in the north/south direction. Sections were "cut" every 30 paces and canopy species identified and amount of canopy estimated.
31% of the canopy were Oak with the make-up fairly evenly split between Sawtooth Oak (an Asian species), English Oak (a European species) and Northern Red Oak (a North American species).
16% of the canopy was Black Locust. That is about half of what my mental picture was. Black Locust showed up in 6 of the 9 sections.
Spruce made up 8%. Apples 7%. Chestnuts and Poplar at 6% with Mulberries and Staghorn Sumac both at 5%.
Glades of blackberries and raspberries made up an additional 5%.
I was mildly surprised that no vining (grapes, Virginia Creeper, Bittersweet) species showed up in the survey.
The remaining 11% were onesie-twosies of many different species.
20 different woody species were logged.
I make no claims that this is "optimal". This is just a record of where this particular wildlife travel corridor is at this stage of its continuing evolution.
Mast
Nitrogen fixing
Shelter
You put a lot of time and attention into that. What are you looking to accomplish? ---ken
ReplyDeleteThe survey did not take that long. I walked down the trail up the middle of the corridor and tied a bit of surveyor's ribbon every 30 paces. Then I walked back and estimated to the closest 5' what was in the "slice" overhead.
ReplyDeleteIt took as long to type it into the spreadsheet as it did to take the data.
That particular corridor is on the windward side of my property. It is a windbreak. It is also for hunting and, in a pinch, to produce human quality food.
Lately I have been harvesting wood for burning and rough construction.
Gotcha. Good planning.
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