Restoring the Forest Floor Through Applied Microbiology
Ava Clennon
Welcome back to Permaculture Thursday - tales of healing Fifth Dimension’s Enchanted Forest as the good work with Mother Nature unfolds.
How do you heal a broken forest floor?
Let’s start with what happened…
In an attempt to quickly deal with a monstrous invasion of Himalayan Blackberry that had laced itself through the undergrowth at the edge of the forest, decisions were made. A bulldozer was brought in to scrape the surface of everything but the Douglas Fir trees themselves.
What was left is nothing much but the underlying soil. The type of soil at 5D is called glacial till. That’s the Puget Sound Region’s classic soil - a dense clay and rock mixture. It was left behind as the glaciers retreated over the region somewhere between 15,000 -17,000 years ago. Basically it’s Nature Cement, if you remove the plant roots that give it any structure.
The other thing left was… all the roots and growing crowns of the Himalayan Blackberry. They quickly started to sprout, sending up fresh green flags merrily mocking the heavy machinery’s best attempt. Bulldozing accidentally became an experiment in removing everything good and leaving behind the ONLY thing that was intended to be removed.
Here’s what we started, microbiologically speaking…
Soil problems? Let’s fix it!
At our September end-of-month Eco Retreat, a group of enthusiastic guests got down and dirty, building an on-contour swale to channel the upcoming rainy season water right along the edge of the forest.
We made berms from soil, rock and logs to slow the water and create ponding right along the root zone of the trees. This will allow the water to infiltrate into the soil instead of running off the surface down the slope of the land.
We sawed down logs and arranged an attractive border along the water-channeling swale. They’re placed intentionally. We dug a shallow trench and buried them a few inches into the soil. This will give the mycelial network of fungi and mushrooms the water and contact they need to spread into the surrounding soil. They will grow out from the logs into any woody material, spreading outward searching for more organic matter to feed on.
Above ground, we describle the microbiome’s work (like those invisible mycelial networks) the process of decomposition while they go about eating. What’s actually happening is the invisible-to-us microbiology in the soil is eating dead stuff and secreting nutrients.
Decomposition produces microbial manure. That’s what becomes food for bigger life like plants. Plants, in turn, support animals.
When Death Becomes Life…
Becomes Death… Becomes Life…
Soil nerds like me who study microbiology call the process of decomposition
→ nutrient cycling ←
Check out that video link. It changed my life.
Long story short, microbes digest dead things, secreting nutrients that provide for living things, which will one day become… dead things.
Very Dia De Muertos, with this death-equals-life-equals-death stuff!
What we didn’t do…
What we did NOT do was remove any of the blackberry roots. As I mentioned before, roots are the only thing that gives glacial till soil any structure. Without roots in the soil, it quickly collapses in its structure, particularly when the rainy season mixes it up into Nature Cement. So we’ll leave the regrowing blackberry for now as they hold together the soil’s fragile character.
After we’ve rehabilitated the soil, we’ll get in and clip the growing crowns of the blackberry away from their roots, which won’t regrow or spread. Instead they’ll decompose slowly, adding to the carbon compost underneath the surface.
What’s next?
Now that we’ve done some in-ground water engineering, it’s time to cover up all that bare soil with wood chips. Wood chips are like sponges, soaking up water from the rainy season. They protect the soil from erosion and dehydration.
They’re also food the mushroom mycelium need to thrive and spread. They digest this woody material. Their output is humic acid (pronounced: hee-YOU-mick). That’s what feeds, nourishes and heals the forest trees.
Yes, humic acid has the same root as the word humus, referring to dark organic matter decomposing on the forest floor (as well as the words human, humility, humble and humane; all going back to the root concept “of the earth”).
Wood chips are one of the best ways hee-YOU-mahns can “pre-digest” the food our soil microbiome needs. This leads to organic matter decomposing quickly. The result of their eating becomes rich, nourishing humus.
Like chewing food before you swallow - where your gut microbiome can then digest your food easily - chopping up woody material speeds up this natural decomposition process.
Humans have the ability to turn big tree trunks and limbs into microbiologically digestible pieces. We do it in a fraction of the time natural ecological processes can.
Yes, it’s that easy to be a beneficial organism in your own environment.
Go get yourself some wood chips.
These bright yellow mushrooms show us where the unseen mycelial network is spreading from cut logs through surrounding wood chips
Next step: Planting new roots… with plants that make more water
Some plants specifically help to create a watery environment and nurture everything around them. True story! I’m delighted to introduce a couple of my faves.
After wood chips are clothing the once-naked forest floor, we’ll plant some water-friendly Willow and Elderberry. These form roots quickly without any help. We just stick them into the soil around where we made our water features and they do the rest. They’ll stabilize the loose soil all along the contour of our water-channeling swale, preventing erosion over winter.
Willow and Elderberry are both indigenous to the Pacific Northwest. They have powerful, different but complimentary herbal medicinal properties. Our on-site herbalists will make plenty of magic healing potions from them.
They’re also ecological powerhouses. They’ll grow up very quickly to shade out the roots of the Douglas Fir, which are accustomed to never being subject to the hot sun. Their root systems will travel deep and wide, which naturally channels water down further into the soil. This will help raise the in-ground aquifers that we draw our well water from.
With an always-replenishing water table, we can feel confident running our year-round Spa without worrying about depleting the unseen resources of the land.
Elderberry is a delicious fruit, feeding all our animal friends. They have wonderful flowers that support all our pollinators. Willow has a natural rooting hormone, which infiltrates out into the surrounding landscape. This produces robust root growth in all neighboring plants.
Come visit. Learn how to heal the planet. Kid you not.
When you visit our end-of-month Eco Retreats, it’s more than just the epic fun and deep rest you achieve in our five acre secluded woodland. You also learn how to heal Mother Earth wherever you go.
That powerful, sacred healing process is wisdom we all need to cultivate.
The fun part - come party with us!
We’ll take the next steps toward healing our Enchanted Forest Floor during Dia De Muertos Halloween Celebration Weekend!
Pumpkin Pinata anyone????
We’ve set the stage for unseen mycelial networks to thrive. They will spark abundant nutrient cycling in the soil of our Forest Floor.
With our Smashing Pumpkin Party on Sunday November 1st, we’ll be taking a deep dive into the Sister Muse of the microbial world: Bacteria.
Joyful magic awaits.
Come for the fun. Learn how to heal Mother Earth. In practice, not just theory.
From our family to yours
We can’t wait to see you!
