Jul 31 2011
Trees
A simple title, I know..
Every now and then, my mind wanders.. okay.. frequently my mind wanders.. In the past week, I’ve come up with a couple questions for you all..
1. What is the difference between a forest and orchard. If I’m growing Christmas trees, would it be an orchard or forest?
2. How many trees need to be grouped together to be considered a forest?
Yes.. I’ve had a lot of spare time recently.. :)
My thoughts:
1. Forests are usually wild, with no planned or constructed appearance, and often are only barely maintained (trash picked up, dead animals carted away), so as to maintain their natural appeal. Orchards are usually task-planted for the cultivation of a crop, designed to allow easy access for the collection of the crop, and are usually well maintained (weeded, pest controlled, etc) to protect the crop from hardier plants, pests, and disease.
If you are growing Christmas trees specifically for the purpose of harvesting them, rather than harvesting them from a mixed woodland lot, I would consider it to be an orchard. I would also consider some forms of logging to take place in orchards.
2. In sequence, it is usually Tree < Stand << Grove <<< Forest / Orchard, a stand being 2 to 3 closely placed, a grove being 3 to a few, and a forest or orchard being a few to many. Of course, then you get into questions of "how close together do trees need to be for it to be a grove?"