You know to Leave the Leaves in autumn; over-wintering beneficial insects, amphibians, birds, small mammals, and soil all benefit. We’ll add: Leave the Fallen Trees.
With all the rain, shallow roots rot and huge trees topple. We hope you’ve avoided damage. Forestland behind our house hosts huge whoosh-crack-kaboom-thuds on a regular basis, especially this summer.
Humans love tidy; nature detests it. When a tree “dies,” it’s only just beginning to really live. As they slowly decay, rotting logs provide:
- Shelter, habitat, and food for diverse flora and fauna; some thrive only under downed wood.
- 5x more mass of living material grows on logs than upright trees.
- Carbon sequestration.
- Slow release of nutrients and water-storage capacity for the soil.
- Protection for seedlings to replace that fallen tree. Or hügelkultur!
- Fascination / Citizen Science to watch the cycle evolving, especially for kiddos.
Leave the stumps, too!
Planetarily,
Laura & Gil
Our friends Laura & Gil Richardson are, in their own words, “imperfect” but they are much further down this Planetarian path than anyone I know. They are a treasure trove of sustainable living inspiration and we’ve asked them to share one simple swap per week that they’ve made (and the products they love) in hopes it might inspire you to make them, too.
