By DAN SHAVER, guest columnist

Picture, if you will, pre-European-settlement Indiana. It was said that a squirrel could climb a tree in Ohio and go all the way to Illinois without touching the ground. Can you picture that, tree to tree all the way across Indiana?

Did you picture that squirrel in a 3-year-old baby tree seedling?

We are conditioned to think that pre-European-settlement Indiana was blanketed by old-growth forest. While it is true there would have been a lot of old-growth forest, there would have been burned-over forest, tornado-damaged forest and wind storm-damaged forest.

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Disturbance has always been a part of the forest systems in Indiana, and it still is today, and should be.

In Brown County, you can split the forest up into six main forest community types. Four of them are disturbance-dependent, oak-dominated forests, one is a beech-maple unglaciated forest, and one contains remnant populations of eastern hemlock. As with most classification systems, you can split the forest into many more community types, but these six dominate the landscape in Brown County.

These native forest community types have existed for thousands of years in Brown County, and should exist for thousands more. We need all of them, because there are species of plants and animals that are tied to different forest community types. But there are also plants and animals that are tied to young forests, teenaged forests and older forests.

Is there a type of forest or age of forest that is better than another? The answer is, “it depends.” Most people like a shady wood with big trees that amaze and inspire us. But if all we had were big, old, shady forests, we would lose all the biodiversity associated with young forest and teenage forest. If we had all young forest, we would lose the species associated with older forest.

Even if we like older forest better, we need different aged forests on the landscape. We need all native forest community types and age classes represented, and we should not allow species to disappear from the Brown County hills because we don’t like the looks of a certain type of forest or age of forest.

Change to the forest is sometimes slow and pervasive, like the encroachment of maple and beech trees into an oak forest because we no longer have fire disturbing the understory of the forest. And sometimes the change to the forest is drastic and abrupt, like a tornado, straight-line winds, or a timber harvest.

The change to the forest by the overlook on State Road 135 was abrupt. The overlook to the north was cleared without much fanfare. But the overlook to the south is on the inside of a curve that looks straight into the opening, and it is big — bigger than many expected.

Do you know what will be in the overlook opening in one year? A one-year-old baby forest. Tree seedlings by the millions. Briars, brambles, annual weeds, wildflowers, birds, deer and many other wonderful creatures.

Some species will not do well with the disturbance (including humans), but in this fantastic forested landscape, the species that need older forest will adjust and move — or fade from this site, but flourish on another site.

The replication of forest community types and age classes across this forested landscape gives it power, gives it resilience. Nothing will go extinct from the overlook clearing. The forest will begin again, and the cycle of succession will continue. Species will move in and out of the area based on the type of habitat and age of forest that they like — not based on what we like.

The change to the overlook was abrupt. There will be work required to make sure erosion does not occur on the skid trials and roads. Work will be needed to keep invasive plants from moving in and taking advantage of the disturbance. And time will be needed to see what becomes of the forest in the areas that were disturbed.

The important thing is that it is growing back into a forest and not being converted to another use. The overlooks will provide amazing habitat for species like yellow-breasted chats and indigo buntings that need disturbance in the forest. Fledgling forest interior birds, like worm-eating warblers, will seek out this forest opening for the amazing food and cover it can provide a young bird. Whippoorwills will find this area very much to their liking in a couple years, and the whirly-twirly song of woodcock will fascinate observers as they dance, strut and fly in disturbed areas.

I challenge you to look beyond the abrupt change and see the baby forest and all the amazing plants and animals that will benefit from the forest disturbance.

When you drive by, don’t see what it looks like; see what it will become, and what it provides to this amazing forest system.

Dan Shaver is forest bank operations manager for The Nature Conservancy and a member of the Brown County Native Woodlands Project.

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The Brown County Democrat accepts guest opinion columns from local people who are representing a community or government group, or who are experts in a particular field. Political candidates are not eligible to write columns during their campaigns, but they can write letters to the editor. To inquire about a guest column spot, email your submission to Editor Sara Clifford at [email protected].

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