[hinkley]

Not one mention of succession. If you’re starting what we already know to be a multigenerational project, then what matters is not what are the “right” trees to grow but what are the right trees to grow to get more trees, and the right trees to grow to get more carbon in the ground. So that’s succession pathways and growing soil by focusing on the soil food web.

From that perspective something like alder or other short-lived tree may be better. They flame out and die young, and then you can seed trees that like to grow on nurse logs, things like hemlock, which will refill the canopy and help keep the process going. Then you plant the monster trees that you see in a mature forest. If you let this happen organically it will of course take longer, but you can nudge things along by planting in clearings instead of waiting a lucky germination, cull trees in areas where they the pioneer trees are doing too well, reintroduce understory plants and other wildlife, microbes, etc.