Hi all, I recently found a small group of immature Salal plants (Gaultheria shallon) in some woods behind my house. They’re the only ones I’ve ever seen in this mixed foresty area, and could potentially be the first ones in this part of the woods in a long time. The forest behind my house was probably logged at some point in the recent past, and my theory is that before conifers could completely re-populate it, maples and other hardwoods got there first and set down roots. Along with the conifers, the Salal might have left too? I’m not sure.
Would it benefit the ecosystem if I propagated the Salal? Would helping to re-introduce this native ground-cover attract any other native species? I imagine before this area was logged/inhabited, there were tons of salal. Typically, in a lot of our woods here in the PNW we have large amounts of Salal, so I feel like maybe it would do those things? I guess I’m asking two questions here:
What role does salal play in PNW forests?
and
Should I intentionally re-introduce them into this forest? (Would it do any harm?)
If it is a more mesic/riparian spot it might have originally been hardwoods/mixed hardwood conifer.
Even then, often alders will repopulate an area first as they are a colonizing species (and fix nitrogen) and the confires that are shade tolerant take their time moving in.
When those forests are logged the understory often survives even being clearcut. In the natural disturbance cycle of these forests, the understory plants as a colony will long outlive the trees.
So unless the land was plowed and completely leveled, the salal probably never left, some parts of the forest simply have more or less salal depending on a variety of conditions(soil, moisture, and light)
Maybe, it certainly would not harm. It would benefit if you are expanding the salal’s range into habitat that had previously been destroyed for example a lawn
Potentially, but not any plants, I’m sure it would provide countless ecosystem services for animals, and fungi.
It wouldn’t really harm, but I don’t think it would be the best use of your time.
Salal is not the easiest plant to propogate from seed. It is easier from dividing an existing plant into multiple rooted pieces.
Salal is a really common forest understory plant that is very hardy of human impacts, if the forest type is right for it it will naturally expand anyways.
A better use of your time would be removing invasive plants from that system and introducing natives into habitats that have been degraded.
I agree with @ dgwdoesthings here. Approaching this from a “value-add” perspective, removing nonnative species and increasing the biodiversity of locally native species would probably be more beneficial.
Yes, I believe it actually is a riparian zone. It goes down into a large valley with a creek running through it, and it does get quite a bit of water since It’s in a local depression to begin with.
Oof yea… there’s a large Holly tree back there. I don’t think I can really chop it down or anything. But definitely a yes on the Ivy!
Now I’m starting to think that maybe there wasn’t ever any Salal there to begin with? You said that
so If there isn’t really any Salal now, there wasn’t any in the past. If not, then the Salal would have survived and there’d be plenty of it. Or maybe its always just been a bad habitat for Salal?
Even if you can’t chop it down you should girdle it by removing a strip of bark radially around the tree with a knife and that will kill it. It will definitely sucker form the same root stock but then it won’t be spreading more seeds.
It is likely there never was any salal, that is an option.
Propagating the Salal wouldn’t do any bad, per-say, but it wouldn’t be the most effective way of benefiting the local ecosystem.
There’s a high likelihood that there wasn’t ever Salal in these woods to begin with, as even if there a was recent logging activity or a deforestation event, the salal would have likely survived and would still be around.
It already has a native species of fern acting as effective ground cover in most areas, so the Salal wouldn’t really be doing anything the ferns aren’t already doing.
Removing preexisting invasive and non-native species would be more beneficial to the forest.
Update: I just got done uprooting and removing about 8 giant holly bushes! And the ivy - there’s so much of it, I dont think It’s realistic to try and remove it.
Yeah I have inherited ivy too… I’ve cleared so much, but the run into the forest is beyond me. My best bet at this point would be to sell to a much younger person with time and determination.
Awesome! Glad you’re clearing up invasives.
A tiny bit everyday at a rate faster than the ivy grows and it can be reduced in much less time than you’d think. Also pulling ivy off of any trees and not letting it get up into the canopy will have a big impact.
