Hi folks, i hope you are doing ok… This weekend is our weekend away so we won’t be meeting on Sunday night.
As part of our weekend away we are going to be doing a woodland walk, which Pete has organised for us… He has written a preamble for us, which I think those of you who aren’t coming will find interesting! Let us know your thoughts…
This year for our Saturday walk at Saughy Rigg we are going to do something a little different. As part of that walk we have received an invite to share time together with the community of trees which make up Briarbanks Wood so they can share some startling secrets with us. More about that on Saturday. In the meantime can you manage to read the accompanying blog before then and be able to recognise the main species by their barks (oak, ash, beach and hazel). Trust this is ok with you.
I guarantee that a woodland walk will never be the same
When you walk into a wood what do you see?
Do you see individual trees battling for space and light, living in intense competition with each other where only the fittest and biggest will survive, or do you see a close community where different species co-exist, characterised by the support and sharing which comes from interdependent living?
There are places where the former is reality, like tropical rain forests or where a ‘mother tree’ with a large canopy is suddenly uprooted, creating a massive increase in light and space for those left. In Western European forests however, the latter is largely true, especially in the deciduous forests of beach, ash and oak, very common in the UK and the dominant species in Briarbanks Wood, which we will be exploring during our walk. Put simply there is great benefit in living as a community, made possible through a gigantic network involving the roots of trees and soil fungi which act as routes for transmitting information and transporting water and plant food. The role played by fungi is vital. There are hundreds of fungi in a forest and not all of them are ‘good’ fungi, indeed many are poisonous to trees. Mycorrhizal fungi are especially ‘good’, covering and penetrating the roots with soft hairs and connecting them together, massively extending the surface area of roots for any one tree. Though scientists are still discovering how the system works precisely, it is known that electronic impulses transfer information, similar to that in an internet network- albeit an exceedingly slow one. This comes at a price, with the fungi taking some 30% of the available sugar and carbohydrates. In return the fungi enable the tree to not only suck up considerably more water and nutrient and act as routers in the communication/ transfer network but also offer ‘medical services’ such as help in warding off attacks by insects and toxic fungi and support in times of illness and distress. Trees also communicate using chemical signals and these can also be passed through the network or sent in other ways eg scent carried by the wind
Put simply, a wood is a group of trees. It has long been recognised that there are benefits in togetherness – things like protection from wind, increased humidity / temperature. However, we now know that a wood is not merely a group of trees but a vibrant interdependent community in which individual trees are bound together by a fungal/ root network which acts as a communication highway and distribution network, through which they are able to support and encourage each other. Using this network trees can send out distress signals and receive help, operating like a social security system in which the strong support the weak. Put simply; In the UK some people earn vast sums of money, others not enough to make ends meet, so we redistribute income to give some degree of equalisation. It is the same in a wood. Some trees have prime positions with better soil and light conditions, others very marginal conditions, so there is a very unequal ability to photosynthesise and produce nutrient: equalisation occurs through the wood wide web to enable the less fortunate to survive. Like-wise trees which are sick may need extra nutrient in order to promote healing, provided by the healthy. Such equalisation also applies to light- vital to photosynthesis. Evidence exists that trees respect other tree’s need for a fair share of light, so control the spread of their branches – one of the reasons for the typical oval shaped crown of deciduous trees.
There are great benefits for the trees in community living, not least dead trees leave gaps which weaken the defences of the forest so in saving one they help save all. Likewise, with protection against insects. The bark of an oak tree contains bitter/toxic tannins; if a tree is attacked by insects these tannins are released to kill the insects or provide protection through making the leaves inedible. Other trees in the network are then informed of a pending attack either through the root/ fungi network or by the wind carrying the tannin scent which in protection triggers other trees to begin pumping tannin. Amazingly, the community approach applies to things like procreation. Animals, like squirrels, deer and boar love beach nuts and acorns and can sometimes eat a high proportion of those that fall, considerably reducing the number of saplings which sprout up. In order to reduce such losses trees ‘agree’ not to seed every year. This reduces the animal population in the years when nuts/seeds are not dropped. increasing the chances of nuts/seeds surviving in the years when they are dropped . This may well be crucial to the survival of the wood since the odds against any one tree producing an offspring is not very good- about the same as winning the lottery! There is a further advantage in dropping seeds in agreed unison- it helps keep the local seed gene pool diverse reducing ‘in breeding’ (self fertilisation) which would prejudice the long term health and survival of the community.
From this blog we can see that the behaviour which comes from interdependent living is a social necessity for long term survival of the wood, if not every tree in the wood. This promotes the growth of parallel communities like ground cover plants, animals and insects creating a unique and vibrant interdependent self -perpetuating ecosystem in which the whole exceeds the sum of the parts- each taking but also each giving!
I hope a walk in the woods will never be the same again!
Ps if you want to explore this further I recommend you read ‘The Hidden Lives of Trees’ by Peter Wohlleben
Rob Wylie is the founder of BeachcomberFX and guides its leadership team. He has worked in the North East for over 20 years and has vast experience from various roles he has held. He has a passion for Fresh Expressions of Church and Pioneer Ministry as well as beer, beaches and Miniature Schnauzers.