Brush piles - who wants ‘em? Who needs ‘em? I mean, who wants a bunch of dead sticks in their beautiful woods, yard, or field, right? Unsightly, ugly even, just a pile of wood sitting there and doing nothing but getting in the way. I mean, isn’t this what forests are supposed to look like:
Just trees and….nothing, as far as the eye can see. Beautiful, right? Sure, and actually, no, not if you’re a healthy forest with healthy soils and healthy mycorrhizal systems and high carbon storage and rich arthropod and small mammal populations sustaining the mesofauna that feed on them…..what else? Rich and diverse growth of mosses, fungi, and lichen; high water and moisture capture and retention; much lower overland and groundwater flow into streams and rivers during rain events, meaning less sediment and nutrient loading and transport; rich organic soil humus with high nutrient content and availability and high microbial activity; nurse wood for seed germination and growth; plus - unsurprisingly - significantly higher ecosystem resilience…. The research and data on the positive effects of downed “coarse woody debris” and “fine woody debris” (you need both, trust me) in forests lead one to the inevitable conclusion that any wooded area that doesn’t have lots - and I mean lots - of dead logs and sticks on the ground is by definition not, no matter how “clean” or “nice” it looks, a healthy forest. Sure, the trees may look okay - healthy, strong even. But no matter how good it may look to our encultured and biased human eye, without a rich, deep layer of duff and deadwood in all stages of decomposition a forest ecosystem is an impoverished system, and ultimately functions as such.
In a way this makes intuitive sense, when you think about it. True old growth forests are highly efficient recyclers of energy; very little is lost from input to output. These are essentially closed systems, through complexity and redundancy wasting almost nothing, and the tree, shrub, and herbaceous species of our northeastern forests evolved within this ecology. Without it, without the incredibly rich and diverse ground layer of living and non-living matter they evolved in and with, these species are not unlike fish out of water (okay, maybe fish with lungs, but still…). The native flora of our northeastern forests are resilient things capable of surviving significant stressors, but without the foundational matrix they evolved in and with you’re looking at ecosystems of much reduced richness, complexity, and resilience. What humans have to internalize is how deadwood is not an “over there” issue; it’s a “right here” issue. Yes, that means in your yard, in your copse of trees, in your patch of woods, in your forest parcel; along with “leave the leaves” for suburban lawns, “leave the wood” is the new normal. Which, you guessed it, brings us back to brushpiles.
If all the above benefits of downed deadwood are necessary for healthy forest ecosystems, clearly they’re even more important for systems degraded by invasives, systems that inevitably have suffered impoverishment in some or most areas of functioning. Plus, a well built brushpile is a thing of beauty (so says the guy who stacks ‘em up five days a week…). Sounds, ummm, a tad silly? Nosirreebob, What to do with the slash from invasive work is a serious consideration; a dense infestation of mature woody invasives is going to generate a lot - a lot - of slash (here defined as all woody debris generated by invasive removal). If it’s accessible you can, of course, hire somebody to come in and chip it, problem solved. Or if the conditions are amenable you could burn it. Or you could hire a forestry outfit to bring in the machines and haul it away. All reasonable responses to what might seem to be a “problem.” But what if this “problem” is not a problem, at all? What if that biomass were left right where it grew, like in a healthily functioning forest? (Hmmm. We might be onto something here.)
I got it, you say - leave the leaves; leave the wood. But it’s a lot of wood, you say. Yes, it is. The mechanics, however, are not complicated, and nowhere near as important as internalizing how critical it is to leave as much wood as possible on the forest floor. That said, when making brushpiles as a way to store biomass onsite with the smallest footprint and size possible, do these things:
Always put the largest diameter stems (trunks, boles) on the ground, edge to edge and end to end, like a raft. This is the base of your brushpile. Never throw large diameter pieces on top of branches and twigs. In terms of the benefits of “coarse woody debris” for soil, mycorrhizal, and microbial development, this is critical. So - big pieces on the ground. On top of each other works if you have to to make them fit.
Cut your trees and shrubs into the longest, straightest pieces possible. This can be a little challenging with stuff like honeysuckle, but it’s crucial for making dense, compact piles. More work, but the alternative is a sprawling, space hogging mess that takes forever to decompose. As much as possible I “deconstruct” trees and shrubs one branch or stem at a time instead of just dropping them; makes everything a lot easier.
As much as possible (and pretty self evidently…), pile from largest to smallest diameter from the bottom up. That said, brush piling is an imperfect art - got a lot of work to do, y’know. The most important thing is to get the stems and biggest pieces on the ground and at the bottom of the pile.
Now pile those branches up, parallel with each other. This is key. Break or cut cross branches as much as possible, especially bigger ones. Again, it’s not the Mona Lisa. Just think parallel and you’ll be fine.
Now the fun part - step on it, kneel on it, lay on it, whatever, just flatten the branches as you go, as much as possible, especially at first. Stomp and kneel on 'em as the pile grows, or just lay on it (don’t laugh, it works…). Climb on top and crush it down. When the pile’s too big to stomp, voila! You’ve reduced your biomass to anywhere from <5% to 20-30% of its original footprint. Good job! And good on you for initiating the process of a healthy, resilient, rich forest ecosystem.
Note that these suggestions are for woody invasive biomass; as much as possible I leave large native tree deadwood where it stands or lies. Finally, if it helps ease the transition to and acceptance of a “messy” landscape, remember that a dense, compact brushpile - as opposed to a pile constructed for habitat - will decompose and fall into itself fairly quickly, sometimes surprisingly so. With reduced airflow, increased moisture retention, and a foundation of rotting large pieces kickstarting decomposition processes, a densely built pile rots from the ground up and inside out. So while from the outside you might see a pile of sticks, saprophytic fungi, microbes, and arthropods are busy doing their work, out of sight but not out of mind.
And that - is everything you need to know about brush piles :-)
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