Forest and bald

Figure 9. Trees can survive when planted in a grassy bald, as these spruce and fir were in the 1930s. (Photograph by Dirk Frankenberg. More about the photograph)

Figure 9 shows a patch of spruce-fir forest in the grassy bald on top of Round Knob. This patch suggests that the forest has found a way to invade the bald. That assumption is correct, but doesn’t help solve the ecological mystery because we know that this patch of trees was planted here in the 1930s by a botanist who thought a patch of forest here “would help explain the past and future of this grassy bald”. The fact that the seedlings he panted have survived to modest-sized trees shows that seedlings can survive the environmental conditions on the bald, but the fact that the patch has not enlarged in 70 years shows that something is keeping the trees from invading the bald without human assistance.

Whatever natural processes may be at work have been supplemented recently by the Forest Service and conservation agencies that use controlled fires, mowing, cutting, and selective use of herbicides to help maintain the grassy bald community and the rare, endangered and threatened species that it contains.

next