After a burn and a shot of rain, things green up. Bracken fern, an early successional plant, grows in a maturing forest of longleaf pine.

Excerpt from "A Matter of Aesthetics"

January 29, and South Carolina was in the first cold snap of the winter. At seven a.m. it was six degrees below freezing and windy when I stepped out of the house for a long drive to meet Judy Barnes, DNR wildlife biologist; Barclay McFadden, owner of Scotswood, a longleaf pine plantation; and plantation manager Craig McFadden . . .

Barclay McFadden loved to hunt quail, and quail need an early successional habitat. But Barclay also loved mature longleaf forests, and his intent was to reestablish one.

Fortunately, these were not rival affections. Frequent prescribed burning is one way to achieve an early successional habitat on the ground within a maturing forest. The seeming paradox of old-growth trees towering above an early successional habitat reminded me of the forest in Gary Snyder’s poem “Toward Climax”:

A virgin
Forest
Is ancient; many-
Breasted . . .

“I love to hunt, love the experience of being out with bird dogs and riding horseback,” said Barclay. “I don’t even need to shoot. I just like watching the dogs, watching my friends and family. More than that, it’s a matter of aesthetics, of finding a piece of property that’s been damaged and returning it to what it was to begin with--in this case, a longleaf/broomsedge savanna. You’ve seen pictures of those old savannas. We don’t have any of those original forests left in South Carolina, but look at a longleaf savanna that’s 70 or 80 years old--in my mind, there’s nothing prettier than that."