There is no time to beat around the bush: we must rebuild the woodland network we have destroyed and responsibly manage the fragments that remain. We need to do this now—not tomorrow, not next year—because we so desperately need what woodlands give us. And private landowners are ideally positioned, both geographically and financially, to take the lead in this endeavor.

In the last two centuries, our nation’s forests have been heavily exploited, first for lumber and fuel to build our nation and then by a more permanent elimination, as woodlands were cleared for development. We’ve learned a lot in the past century as the profession of forestry has matured, and many forests are now managed for multiple goods and services such as timber and wildlife diversity. The state of the life around us is now of greater concern.

Native birds, such as this Black-capped chickadee, benefit from caterpillars that inhabit native trees.

Native birds, such as this black-capped chickadee, benefit from caterpillars that inhabit native trees.

The abundance of Lepidoptera caterpillars in native v. non-native woody plants

This graph represents the abundance of caterpillars of butterfly and moth species in native versus non-native woody plant ecosystems in the mid-Atlantic area. (Click here to enlarge.)

Today, land use is increasingly shifting to developed areas: woodlands and fields that once provided timber, agricultural crops, and habitat are rapidly being lost to urban and suburban sprawl. The increasing rate at which we are losing our woodlands, their resident wildlife, and all of the ecological services they provide for us has made informed woodland management on private property more important than ever. Fortunately, we now know that woodland management need not be an “either/or” choice. You can manage the trees on your land for both wood products and biodiversity, if that is your goal -- or simply to coax as much life, and thus ecosystem function and enjoyment, from your property as possible, no matter the size of your ownership.

We need a new perspective about the role of our woodlands because the inextricable links between forest health, biodiversity, ecosystem function, and human well-being are not yet part of our national consciousness. Quite simply, it is woodlands that produce most of the living things that constitute nature in the eastern United States, and it is this biodiversity that runs our ecosystems. Whether or not you enjoy the natural world, this is important to you because it is the diversity of the plants and animals around you that provides the life-giving services that support us all. It is biodiversity that produces the oxygen we breathe, cleans and stores our fresh water, sequesters carbon, builds and stabilizes topsoil, moderates severe weather, and protects our watersheds. It is biodiversity that shades us in the hot summer months and protects us from bitter winds in the winter; and it is biodiversity that disperses seeds from parent plants, provides free pest control, and pollinates 80% of the plants on earth, including most of our crops.

Technology will never replace our reliance on these vital services, and so, for our own sake, we must be good stewards of the landscapes that produce them. Plants reign supreme among the life forms that provide ecosystem services, and native trees (those with which local animals have coevolved) provide more services than shrubs or herbaceous plants. In fact, trees are so important that you can make a significant contribution to society’s goal of sustainable living by adding native trees to your property. Ideally you will be able to plant enough trees to form a cohesive interacting forest patch, either alone or in combination with trees you already own.

There are many lessons about woodland management offered in this guide, but one of the most important is that all trees are not equal in their contributions to woodland function. This is particularly true when it comes to supporting the animal life that is essential to healthy forests. Studies of animal food webs have shown that the insects supported by native trees, especially various caterpillar species, directly or indirectly provide the protein and fats that sustain most amphibians, reptiles, mammals, and birds.

Not only are native trees far better at producing caterpillars than introduced tree species, but we now know there are big differences between our local native trees in their level of food web contributions as well. Oaks, native cherries, willows, poplars, and hickories, for example, are much better at supporting native animals than non-native trees like Norway maple, European beech, or Chinese chestnut. Encouraging native tree and shrub species is a challenge with the onslaught of invasive species that are displacing native plants, but they are essential. Choosing and ensuring the successful establishment and growth of productive native trees and shrubs for your woodland is the best thing you can do for local biodiversity. It will likely entail both supporting native plants, killing non-native plants, and controlling deer populations that give invasive plants a competitive advantage over the natives that deer love to eat.

You can think of this as active land management, or simply gardening; in either case we can no longer simply “let nature take its course” and expect the return of productive ecosystems. Humans have meddled in too many ways that prevent nature from healing itself. We have introduced over 3,400 species of invasive plants to which local wildlife is not adapted, and we have eliminated the top predators that used to keep deer, raccoon, skunk, and possum populations in check. If we remove an essential part of an ecological community, we must replace it through active management or the system will collapse.

Because we have removed so many trees from our developed landscapes, each tree on your property today plays a greater ecological role than individual trees did when the East was mostly forested. Not only do the trees on your property provide much-needed ecosystem services for humans, but they also could be an important part of a biological corridor linking the isolated natural areas in our landscapes with each other. Our parks and preserves play a critical role in sustaining the natural world, but they are too small and too isolated to sustain it for long. Research has documented a steady loss of species over time from even our largest parks. If we connect our protected areas through a network of biological corridors, they will no longer be isolated or small. This alone can slow, stop, or even reverse species drain from our local ecosystems.

Doug Tallamy
Author, “Bringing Nature Home: How You Can Sustain Wildlife with Native Plants”
Department of Entomology and Wildlife Ecology,
College of Agriculture and Natural Resources
University of Delaware