What Can Trees Tell Us? Fire Evidence and Wildlife Trees

The trees tell stories. When you look around, what do you see? Can you see a tree scorched by fire on one side? How about a tree full of holes? Trees are not just something that grows, sharing their shade and oxygen, but they can tell us a lot about the landscape we are standing in.

Take the scorched tree for example. The scorch mark tells us we are in an ecosystem that has felt fire. Now this sounds like a bad thing, but in truth, the forests here are well adapted to fire. They can survive and even thrive under intense conditions.

The tree here, a Douglas fir, has thick bark, able to withstand medium intensity fires. Other trees on your walk, like the arbutus, can regenerate from underground stem storage organs called lignotubers. If you see an arbutus with multiple trunks, it may be much older than it looks. If the central trunk is destroyed by fire, several lignotubers can become active and grow into new trunks. Historically, fire was used as an important meadow-making tool by many Coast Salish people. 

Now for the tree with holes in it. These holes are evidence of the rich diversity of wildlife surrounding you. Under the bark, there are insect populations thriving, moving beneath the wood. The holes are created by woodpeckers who are using this tree like a plentiful buffet. Even larger holes may be evidence of birds nesting, as there are more than 50 species of birds and mammals in BC who depend on tree cavities for housing.

Standing wildlife trees like this are vital parts of forest ecosystems yet are often removed unnecessarily. On your property, leave standing dead trees to naturally decompose when safe to do so, to provide habitat and food for wildlife.

Pileated Woodpecker Pecking© Cornell Lab of Ornithology | Macaulay Library