Quick Plotting

Coming from Whinlatter, a Temperate rainforest, where the quickest growing trees need at least 30 years or more to reach a reasonable size the rate of tree growth in the Tropics is phenomenal!

It has taken just 9 years from planting for this revegetation patch to reach the same height as the mature trees at the edge of the jungle. Only when you get inside you can see it has not differentiated into levels and there is no understory growth yet.

Another thing that differs from UK native forests is of course the number of species. In the UK we have about 35 to learn. Here there are anything up to 2000, most only having a Latin name. This reveg plot consists of a grid with 1250 trees of  68 species of 25 families, all tagged with metal ID tags. They are a mix of pioneer generalists,  -short lives grow fast, which shade and protect the longer lived specialist forest ones. Comparable with our Silver birch and oak.

It has been run as a community project since its beginnings in 2009, so this school geography group from Sydney is visiting to learn some measuring techniques to monitor growth – height, trunk diameter and health. Some of the lads seem to be more used to moving between air-conditioners so the heat and the thought of the insect life lurking under the trees is not inspiring great enthusiasm for the task.

However, the data they collect will go into finding out what might improve succession in planting for establishing future plots and corridors. The DRO is built on ground that was cleared for cattle in the last century and planted with fodder, so the lawn here is all non-native grass. It is very invasive and inimical to establishing young trees but if they are helped to grow it can be shaded out of existence.

Any increase in the area of the forest is beneficial, for increasing biodiversity, enlarging the carbon sink, stabilising the water table etc. and giving more room for cassowaries, which need at least 20 acres of fruiting trees each to survive.