Man-made Tree and Water Habitat Creation

Discussion in 'Designing, building, making and powering your life' started by S.O.P, Jan 16, 2012.

  1. S.O.P

    S.O.P Moderator

    Joined:
    Jul 8, 2011
    Messages:
    1,456
    Likes Received:
    5
    Trophy Points:
    38
    A tangent from another thread and would be an interest to any permaculture designer is the topic of man-made habitat creation for both tree and in the water be it whether dead/living tree or dam/creek.

    Recently I was involved in a course run by a gentleman called Phil Kenyon (arborist) who in association with James Smith (zoologist), and Pat Kenyon (arborist) are designing tree habitat without the need for boxes, rather being cut directly into the tree with a chainsaw and a drill.

    These 'boxes' or hollows are needed because thanks to the rampant logging of most habitat trees, which tend to be larger and older. The general rule of thumb is tree hollowing tends to take place in trees 50 years and above (there are exceptions to this rule - approx 20-30 years old in this pic).

    Here is an 8-part series regarding the creation of these boxes - Trees & Habitat Creation Workshop Part 1

    Not only can you target your animal with volume and entrance size, you can make them comfortable by choosing your height and orientation. Micro-bats, for example, need a clear 5m below them for easy take-off and prefer a hollow designed like a cross-hatch so they can move about inside for heating/cooling purposes.

    [​IMG]

    Here is a link to the Practical Notes from the Treenet Symposium in 2010 which includes pictures of the creation - Pruning for Habitat Philip and Patrick Kenyon

    Note: They no longer drill holes directly into the faceplate, the either bore or drill a hole to the side of the faceplate so the faceplate retains its integrity.

    Expanded in the course, and for which I cannot find much information online about was water habitat creation. Basically, logs taken from any source, fresh is fine, hacked at with a chainsaw to create hollows, swim-throughs, crustacean hidey-holes, bird-roosts etc and pushed/placed into a water source. This will most likely accelerate the balance of wildlife in and around your creek or dam if the natural logs are missing or never replaced. Here is a photo of a picture that we received (all credit to Phil Kenyon):

    [​IMG]

    Any permaculturalist knows the importance of natural predators and wildlife in their system. For example, the Pardalote (small bird), has a direct influence on Eucalypt health in their control of lerps. A graph was shown to us showing the decline of pardalote versus the increase of lerps and the decline of Eucalypts. Removal of habitat and dense understory are the reasons to blame.
     
  2. Pakanohida

    Pakanohida Junior Member

    Joined:
    Feb 27, 2011
    Messages:
    2,984
    Likes Received:
    20
    Trophy Points:
    38
    As someone who spent his growing years at the Bronx Zoo, and the Coney Island Aquarium... ..a lot. This deeply intrigues me. I grew up learning how to make zoo habitats, aquariums, vivariums, etc in so much as building and replicating "trickle" filters (a.k.a. Wet/dry filters), making faux rocks with gunite and other materials & more importantly being paid for it through private companies. I find this whole concept to be wonderful, awesome, etc... but my question is how can I get information like you have in your table image above for my part of the world? Any ideas?

    My bats, squirrels, and predators are different from Oz, and certainly different here based on the time of year. The summer pasture below, and north of my property floods (normally) during winter and fills with incredible amounts of water fowl. Some how, we even have Nutria rats up here some how which the otters seem to be avoiding.

    This also gives me ideas for my river access area.
     
  3. S.O.P

    S.O.P Moderator

    Joined:
    Jul 8, 2011
    Messages:
    1,456
    Likes Received:
    5
    Trophy Points:
    38
    A dilemma. Most of our information is freely available online for the more popular birds and marsupials.

    I think, from the info mentioned at the course, the entire project really moved ahead once the zoologist became involved. Entrance size, height, orientation on tree for a wider range of animals, all that information suddenly became available and the zoologist himself gave feedback on the design of the boxes within the limit of what you can do in a tree, or even on ground.

    Options for you may include googling, contacting local conservation groups, or even zoologists directly. Surely an email detailing what you were attempting to do, particularly if you are targeting certain types of bug-eating birds (thinking short and sweet - not too hard a question), would garner some sort of response.
     
  4. sweetpea

    sweetpea Junior Member

    Joined:
    Apr 7, 2005
    Messages:
    1,442
    Likes Received:
    2
    Trophy Points:
    0
    I discovered something on a part of my property that was densely overgrown and has large pine trees I didn't realize was going on, it's a huge bird flyway. All day long they are going back and forth, back and forth. When large birds come around for "lunch" they float over this area. There are bird squabbles all day long. This is where they hang around and it's interesting to watch. Not sure I've seen huge advantages for growing food.

    The rest of my property is open, and while the birds float and hover when hunting, they don't hang around there. I have greenhouses tucked into this overgrown area to protect them from the wind, and while the ground is rich with rabbit droppings, it is harder to keep the mice/rats/rabbits out of my growing space. So we are still trying to cohabitate.


    Pakanohida, do you think that your birds/bats/predators don't have enough habitat? Our animals aren't all that different, they are related and live under similar conditions. Do you want more critters, or different critters? wouldn't you be afraid to encourage squirrels? they eat everything! :)
     
  5. Pakanohida

    Pakanohida Junior Member

    Joined:
    Feb 27, 2011
    Messages:
    2,984
    Likes Received:
    20
    Trophy Points:
    38
    I am not afraid of any critter, & I won't be afraid of apex predators either... I will be aware of them though. :D (nice little play on words)

    Seriously though, I am not afraid of the actions of squirrels or other forest critters. I have been reading Thoreau lately and in his book called, "The Succession of Forest Trees & Wild Apples," he found how much work squirrels and other animals do to the forest in order to keep trees and other things growing. From the random collection of acorn nut piles that the squirrels as an example create, come spring, when you see the piles everywhere like a gardener raked them all up, he would find 1 new baby tree growing in the nut pile... the squirrels made compost piles of acorn nuts to grow a new tree! All this from direct observation!

    2ndly is the story of what happened at Bullock Brothers homestead. These people loved their cattail roots. Everything was fine the first couple seasons, then rats moved in and ate up the cattails. They tried in vain many things till eventually they said screw it and left the problem alone. A season or 2 after leaving things alone, the otters moved in and started eating up all the rats. A season after that, the rat population dropped to almost nothing, the cattail came back (since its no longer eaten to the point of annihilation) and now they have a happy population of otters living there!

    As such, the lessons I am taking away from that is make sure there is habitat for everything... ..it all needs to come back into balance since it has been out of balance for so very long.

    Lastly, I realize part of me is a swirling typhoon of ideas at the moment. I am in the master design phase (which is both easy and hard IMO) of my property while starting my PDC; as such I am trying to take in every idea & constantly re-evaluate since I have a lot of hard permaculture problems.
     
  6. sweetpea

    sweetpea Junior Member

    Joined:
    Apr 7, 2005
    Messages:
    1,442
    Likes Received:
    2
    Trophy Points:
    0
    pakanohida, are you sure it's out of balance? :)
     
  7. Pakanohida

    Pakanohida Junior Member

    Joined:
    Feb 27, 2011
    Messages:
    2,984
    Likes Received:
    20
    Trophy Points:
    38
    That's a deeply philosophical question.

    Glibly I would say yes, I currently have a lot of soil being turned over by gophers, voles, mice rabbits, or something else.

    I also noticed that it is happening more along edges of compacted and non-compacted soil. In addition I have seen more mushrooms this year then I have the other 2. Still learning what is here, most likely will be as long as I reside here.
     

Share This Page

-->