Walking out of the woods, Alex Lau, a Boy Scout and ninth-grader from Shirley, gestured to the strange assortment of branches and seed-like objects he held in his hand. “I found some insect galls, basically houses for insects that a tree builds,” he remarked. “Maybe they have some more life in them to bring to the next area.”
Alex was volunteering with a team of similarly excited citizens gathering a highly diverse assemblage of soil, young trees, and seeds from the small forest near the Ayer Shirley High School two weekends ago. The goal? Gather all of the living things needed for a complex and healthy forest ecosystem to thrive. These living samples would be used for an innovative approach to preserving ecosystem health in Ayer and Devens. In small, vacant lots on town properties, the team will be planting miniature ecosystems, “pocket forests,” to combat what they see are the manifold issues faced by heavily developed areas. Everything collected will be stored and later planted at the first of several planned pocket forest sites.
Casey-Lee Bastien, a landscape architect for the design firm BSC Group, delivered a spirited set of instructions on what specifically was to be gathered, and the ecological reasons for
doing so.
A self-maintaining ecosystem
At the top of Bastien’s list was forest “duff,” the loose layer of partially decomposed leaves and plants that accumulates on the forest floor. Rather than a simple garden that requires constant human intervention, a pocket forest is intended to be a largely self-maintaining ecosystem. The duff collected would contain not just soil for planting, but millions of microorganisms such as mycorrhizal fungi to help the young trees establish themselves and thrive into the future.
These underground fungi will link the trees to one another, as well as provide sources of valuable nutrients. Rather than a simple collection of single trees planted near one another, this technique will allow the pocket forest to form a cohesive whole, a resilient and functioning ecosystem in its own right, better able to withstand the stresses of living on small patches of soil surrounded by parking lots and roadways.
According to Bastien, this brisk, early spring morning was perfect for the work of finding the first generation of trees to grow the pocket forest. “You don’t do surgery when someone’s awake; you don’t do transplanting when the plant is either.”
With that, the volunteers had dispersed into the woods, gently working seedling white oaks, pines, paper birches, and huckleberry bushes out of the ground with garden trowels and hand rakes. Birches and pines are both fast growers and share many of the same mycorrhizal fungi, meaning they can share nutrients and energy if one species is under stress. The berries grow well under a dense canopy of leaves and can provide food to small mammals and birds.
Laurie Nehring, president of People of Ayer Concerned about the Environment (PACE) and a self-described naturalist, was pleased with both the day’s event and the decidedly local nature of the project. “I didn’t realize we’d be using our own trees; I thought we’d be purchasing them,” she said. “This is much better.”
A benefit to wildlife
Many others in attendance were happy that their work would benefit the wildlife in Ayer, noting that in the area around the future pocket forest, they had already lost the local species of songbirds and the pollinating insects that they eat. And though the project is aimed in part at helping wildlife populations, others were quick to dispel the notion that the pocket forest would simply have aesthetic value.
“It’s about very serious things concerning folks living in these neighborhoods,” said Alan Manoian, Ayer’s director of economic and community development. A man more than happy to deliver soaring soliloquies on the project, he stressed that the growth of the pocket forest would help combat poor air quality, summer heat, and flooding.
Neil Angus, environmental planner for the Devens Enterprise Commission, similarly highlighted the grand aspirations of the tiny woodland. “The whole point of the thing is climate change,” said Angus, adding, “It’s not only an environmental thing, but a social and economic one, too.” He further noted the health benefits to people living around the new pocket forest, citing studies that being around greenery can lower blood pressure and give people greater peace of mind. “That’s how you have a strong economy,” Manoian added. “It’s about human beings.”
Two science teachers from the Ayer Shirley School District, helping to gather materials, spoke of the potential for the forest to be incorporated into their classrooms, saying, “Anytime we can get the kids outside and offer experiential learning is great.” Students could potentially track the progression of the pocket forest as it matures, charting its growth and recording any new species to the habitat.
Now that the necessary materials have been gathered, the group is planning to host a planting day Saturday, April 29, with two sessions, 10 a.m. to noon and 1 p.m. to 3 p.m., at the first pocket forest site, a lot across from the Ayer Public Library. This pocket forest will function as a pilot project, with six more to be planted in Ayer and five in Devens, with sites including downtown Ayer, the Ayer Shirley Regional School District campuses, and Rogers Field.
James O’Shea is a graduate of the Bromfield School and currently teaches biology at Concord-Carlisle Regional High School.
