Page 22 - BSAM 2016 Q2

Top; A juniper from Wyoming.
Middle and bottom; I have col- lected trees for over 10 years from this area, but now, after some recent logging/thinning operations were completed not a single contorted pine remains.
Although thinning is painful from a bonsai collector’s perspective, it is necessary to protect the overall forest from insects and re. The current beetle outbreak has killed millions of trees on several hundred thousand acres of forest in the last 15 years.
for wayward ranch kids is to be sent out to dig up sagebrush until they come to their senses. Anyway, I actually did pay for my sagebrush, because the ranch I got it from was closer to home and this particular rancher wanted his two bucks. A er all, he owned enough sagebrush that if I took them all he’d be a bil- lionaire. But I only dug 40.
I always pay for the trees I collect from public lands, so it makes sense to me to pay for trees I’m getting from private land.
I have a friend who has great success nding houses and buildings that are going to be demolished and then getting permission to dig up the old foundation plants. He’s gotten some awesome cotoneasters that way. He’s never had to pay for anything, but he always asks rst. His biggest problem is guring out who to ask.
So, you found a great place to collect and you have the landowner’s permission. You searched the area and you found a couple of spectacular trees to collect. What now?
Respecting trees and Nature
Now is when you take your backyard out of your pocket and unroll it. The essence of ethics is the Golden Rule, which in this case means to treat the land like you lived there. If it really were your backyard, what would you consider acceptable?
Perhaps the first consideration is not to collect threatened or endangered plants, or plants that are locally rare. It’s great to have a tree that’s unusual as a bonsai, but that’s very di erent from collecting a tree that’s unusual in the wild, even locally. e trees we want for bonsai are rare because of their form, not because of their species. Most of the permits I get will specify what species are acceptable to collect. Where I live, ponderosa pine dominates the forest and so it is almost always acceptable to collect them. Other spe- cies are common too, like aspen and white spruce, but in some cases the land managers are trying to increase forest diversity by removing pine so other species can grow. So not every district will allow the collecting of aspen or spruce, especially if they are working to enhance that component of the forest.
Another consideration is tree survivability. Only experience can tell you what species will transplant well and what is required to make them survive. And this can vary considerably from species to species and season to season. And even if you do everything right you won’t get 100% survival. But we should all avoid being wasteful with trees. If it looks like the tree won’t survive transplanting it is far better to cover it back up and look for one that will.
I expect to get a 95%+ survival rate on ponderosa pine. One reason I get good survival is that I’m very selective of the trees I take. I try and remove only trees that have a great root system and therefore an excel- lent chance of survival. I’m not always successful at this, but I’ve gotten better over the years. With pon- derosa pine I estimate only about 1 tree out of 100
20 | BCI | April/May/June 2016
Surprisingly, private lands are also o en a good source of bonsai material. Many times I have asked ranchers for permission to cross their place and get to my collecting location only to have them tell me I was welcome to collect on their land as well.
I once put an ad in the paper o ering to pay $2 each to dig sagebrush. I got a lot of phone calls from some very suspicious ranchers, most of whom assumed I was really selling insurance. A er I assured them I really wanted sagebrush, most of them o ered it to me for free. I later learned that a common punishment