Webb Pond

Brief-Form Post #7: Ten Year Conversion from Agriculture to Forest!

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I am pleased to offer the seventh of my new GBH Brief Form Post format to my website (Less than three-minutes to read! Not including the brief video). I tend to get a bit long-winded with my routine Posts. I don’t want my enthusiasm for thoroughness and detail to discourage readers. So I will publish the brief Posts regularly on at least a trial basis.

I visited the Webb Pond Preserve (Land Trust of North Alabama) March 8, 2023 with retired Natural Resources Conservation Service forester Brian Bradley, who worked on the 60-acre property’s wetland restoration project. Webb Pond is located in Madison County near Harvest, Alabama, just north of Madison.

 

Brief-Form Post on Glorious Sky and Cloud Images 

 

Ten years ago managers planted a marginally productive agricultural field (too wet to reliably cultivate, sow seed, and harvest crops) to a mixture of seedlings from three oak species, to return the field  to its original hardwood forest and wetland hydrology.

The field below left is fallow in its final summer before tree planting…in progress the following winter.

 

Nine growing seasons have effectively transformed farm land to fully-stocked forest. Brian is grasping a four-inch diameter shumard oak below left, and is walking within an area below right where naturally seeded loblolly pine tree have out-competed the planted hardwoods.

Webb Pond

 

I recorded this 3:26 video to give readers a better sense of this successfully converted agricultural field.

 

 

Millions of acres of Alabama forestland once saw the plow…now appearing to the casual observer as being permanent woodland, not revealing its past. I look for hints of past use in every forest I wander. However good my attempt to peer back in time, nothing beats the certainty of a photo-record!

  • Nothing in Nature is static; consider nine years from plowed field to closed-canopy young forest.

Inhale and absorb Nature’s elixir. May Nature Inspire, Inform, and Reward you!

 

NOTE: I place 3-5 short videos (15-seconds to three minutes) on my Steve Jones Great Blue Heron YouTube channel weekly. All relate to Nature-Inspired Life and Living. I encourage you to SUBSCRIBE! It’s FREE. Having more subscribers helps me spread my message of Informed and Responsible Earth Stewardship…locally and globally!