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		The Nature Conservancy in Maryland/District of Columbia Maryland/DC Home Places We Protect News Room Ways of Giving Volunteer Events Contact Landmarks

Why is a conservation organization cutting trees?!

Few places on our planet are truly pristine and unaffected by human activities. In many cases, the best care for our preserves requires restoring lost or disrupted ecological processes. Where that is difficult or impossible, we must mimic natural processes with our management techniques. Ecological Management and Restoration is the correct term for this work, a scientific way of saying "healing the land." Ecological Management and Restoration may include such diverse activities as:

• planting trees, restoring native prairie or wetland plants
• revegetating stream banks to reduce siltation, erosion and nutrient runoff
• building exclosures for deer and cattle to protect rare plant populations
• controlling invasive exotic species (aka weed control or Weed Busters)
• restoring the natural flow of water by removing ditches or culverts (hydrological restoration)
• reintroducing a plant or animal that has vanished from the area
• conducting prescribed burns
• controlling woody vegetation (trees and shrubs) to maintain open habitats

A more familiar term for these activities is "habitat restoration."

• Why are we cutting trees? I’d rather be hugging them.
   
• I want to help, but I don’t care to use herbicide. What can I do?
   
• Why aren’t you doing anything about the bush honeysuckle and porcelainberry around your office in Bethesda?

"There can be no purpose more inspiring than to begin the age of restoration, reweaving the wondrous diversity of life that still surrounds us." -- E.O. Wilson