A Woodland Developing in my Own Backyard
Squirrels step up
When I stopped cutting my grass, lots of little trees started to grow. There's a mature live oak tree in the backyard, and several live oak seedlings grew near its base, later farther out in the yard as well. Two near the base are over eight years old. I've also got small pecan trees from a tree in my next door neighbor's yard, red oak seedlings from a tree in a yard behind my house, and lots of bur oak seedlings.
[Picture: live oak trees without the benefit of squirrels, seedlings all at the base.]
On my walks and in parks, I've often seen live oak trees with dozens, maybe hundreds, of tiny oak seedlings at their base. That's not how they grow in my yard, or in most of the neighborhood around me. I only have about four come up every year right at the base of the tree. So what's the difference?
It's the squirrels.
Squirrels spread the live oak acorns around the yard when they bury them for future meals. They of course forget a few, which allows new trees to grow. The squirrels in my backyard bring the red oak acorns and pecan nuts from not too far away. The bur oak are a different story - the acorns are huge and worth going farther away to find. I looked at the properties near my house for a bur oak tree, and the closest I could find was half a block away. A lot of squirrel work for a big payoff, and fortunately for me, the squirrels have missed eating quite a few.
[P.icture: red oak seedling planted in my yard by squirrels]
Squirrels are excellent landscapers. They choose the healthiest, largest seeds and bury them at exactly the right depth. Seeds planted by squirrels have a much better chance at survival than those planted by people, or those that simply fall to the ground. Without exactly knowing what they are doing, squirrels guarantee their food supply by missing some seeds and letting them grow.
Watching this young woodland develop has allowed me a deeper connection to nature in my yard. I wanted my yard to be more like a park, and thanks to the squirrels, that's what it is becoming. With more mature trees that shed leaves, I'll get a wonderful forest floor of leaves that will shade out all the invasive grasses I struggle against.
I've noticed a home where I walk that has an open space at the side. The live oaks have been allowed to go their own way, and there are trees of all different ages, bending around each other in that escarpment live oak manner. A natural woodland in my neighborhood, a tree family. What a wonder to behold.
