Year Six of Woodland Restoration

We are just completing the sixth year of my woodland restoration project. My house sits on a bit over 10 acres, about three of them lawn and ornamental gardens. The remaining seven acres is woodland, and much of the woodland is part of the “resource protected area,” RPA, of the Chesapeake Bay. 

When we first moved here, we did not worry about dead trees, as it was all part of the natural process of renewal. A healthy forest has living trees functioning as part of a balanced and self-replacing ecosystem that is a complex mix of trees, understory shrubs and groundcover. In a healthy woodland the process of natural succession occurs over time. Small saplings develop and will become the next generation of trees as the older ones die out. Benign neglect had been my rule for managing the RPA that protects the stream.  

However, about a decade ago, I noticed that something had gone seriously wrong with the forest. The woodland was being destroyed by invasive insects, invasive vines and an explosion of deer and wildlife consuming the native understory. Deer prefer to eat native plants. They devour the saplings of the native trees, but pretty much leave the autumn olive and other invasives alone. When a gap appears in the canopy, there aren’t young trees in the understory waiting for their chance to grow in the sun, but rather, invasive vines and shrubs waiting to take over the landscape.

The woodlands are necessary for a functioning ecology. RPA’s in the Chesapeake Bay Preservation Act are vegetated areas along water bodies, such as lakes, streams, rivers, marshes or shoreline. RPAs are the last line of defense for the protection of water quality in our rapidly developing region. These buffers stabilize stream banks, filter pollutants, reduce the volume of stormwater runoff and provide critical habitat for aquatic species and wildlife. Trees and shrubs in riparian buffers reduce erosion, improve air quality, and provide shade in the summer, windbreaks in the winter and even store carbon.

About a decade ago the number of dead and dying trees had increased dramatically due to the emerald ash borer and it became obvious that the invasive vines, autumn olive and Japanese honeysuckle were choking out the natural renewal process blocking the sun from the trees. So, with guidance from the Virginia Forest Service and the Chesapeake Bay Act guidelines I began a project to restore my woodlands.   

I called the Virginia Department of Forestry to ask for advice. I did not know at the time that Prince William County had its very own forester who can provide information. A Forester came out and inspected the woodland and made some recommendations.  He felt that with removal of the invasive vines and the hanging dead trees the wood might begin to renew itself without requiring any planting. He put his recommendations in a report for me to submit to Clay Morris, Natural Resources Section Chief, Environmental Services Division of Prince William County Public Works to approve the work in the RPA. Though the RPA covers just 2/3 of the woodland, I am treating all the wooded area in the same way. My proposal to Prince William County was strictly by the book in what is allowed in an RPA.

After interviewing several companies, I hired Wetland Studies and Solutions (WSS) to perform and manage the woodland.  I barely knew where to start, the invasive vines blocked entrance to the woods. WSS guided the process and estimated that the project would take 7-10 years to accomplish my goals within my annual budget. They focused our efforts on removing invasive plants and dead or dying trees and tree limbs from the woods and treated the vines that were strangling the native vegetation and causing the most damage. WSSI created strategic brush piles for native animal habitat with the removed dead trees. WSS made sure that all work was conducted in compliance with Prince William County’s Chesapeake Bay Ordinance and all regulations.

WSS created a path from the garden into the RPA using an old deer trail. The trail was overgrown by invasive species and vines, so WSSI’s ecosystems team used foliar herbicide to reestablish the trail and clear out the non-native species. Asiatic bittersweet, autumn olive, and multiflora rose stumps are all spot treated with an herbicide every spring to ensure they would not resprout. Each winter WSSI staff do invasive removals. When the growing season really got underway last week they applied herbicides to the multiflora rose (Rosa multiflora), roundleaf bittersweet (Celastrus orbiculatus), and autumn olive (Elaeagnus umbellata) regrowth. They also sprayed the herbicide to the border of the yard, within the previously foliar treated riparian area, in areas that were cut this past winter, and treated all vegetation on the RPA trail.

It is slow work and and expensive. Every winter a small crew hand cuts the invasive vines and then comes back in the spring to paint the cut stems of the invasive vines with herbicide. We have now just completed the sixth year of  my RPA and forest restoration project and the woodland feels welcoming though I have finally realized that this is probably a perpetual project. I use "we" very loosely, Wetland Studies and Solutions is doing all of the actual labor, my husband and I are simply paying them and directing the sections to be done.  Here are a few pictures of the progress. 

Our trail to the river. Multiflora rose saplings have been greatly reduced in this area.

Area where WSS cut  multiflora rose this past winter. 

Coralberry is now prevalent in the garden boarder.

Now when you walk along the trail you see native species throughout the woods and included wild ginger (Asarum canadense L.)¸ jewelweed (Impatiens capensis), bottlebrush grass (Elymus hystrix), Jack-in-the-pulpit (Arisaema triphyllum), American hog-peanut (Amphicarpaea bracteata), pawpaws (Asimina triloba), and coralberry (Symphoricarpos).  Native tree saplings were present throughout the site and we saw box turtles, deer, turkeys and other native wildlife. The woodland path is a pleasant walk to the river.