Thanks for watching!! Be sure to tell me why you think I am wrong in the comments! Will do my best to reply to as many as I can! As always, please make sure to subscribe: www.youtube.com/@DylanBures?sub_confirmation=1 If you liked the video, sub to our Patreon to support us: patreon.com/DylanBures Or buy me a coffee: buymeacoffee.com/dylanbures Till the next film! See ya!
I grew up in the beautiful pine forests of deep East Texas but I have a profound love for the Hill Country, which I discovered as a student at UT Austin. Very proud to be a Texan and to live in such an ecologically diverse and beautiful state.
This really spoke to me, as I’ve unfairly vilified the Ashe juniper in the past, or at least not given the full nuance it deserves. Great video! Excited to watch more.
Welcome to the grey side of the force =) We're so glad you enjoyed the film! I'd love to hear more about how you used to feel about Ashe Juniper, how you feel now and what changed your opinion.
My 7th grade science project back in the 80s was finding the best ways to propagate Texas Madrone (my mother was an amateur botanist in addition to being a teacher). Juniper litter turned out to be the best mulch medium to propagate the trees in by a long shot by both percentage of germination and size of the saplings after a year. Guess I should have published a paper. 😊
I have 22 acres on top a limestone hill of juniper cedar outside Lampasas towards Burnett. I cut anything that doesn't go mostly straight up and lower branches i can easily reach on those straight ones. Mostly just so I can get around because from space you can only see ground in a couple places. I get a lot of criticism because I leave too much. So thanks for your encouragement to not clear cut. I burn but want to understand how to berm. because i do have lots of contour and would like to keep my dirt instead of rinsing downhill.
The simple problem is that the majority of Texans are allergic to juniper/cedar pollen to some degree, some of us, more than others. In fact, right now, on the first weekend of January, we are in the midst of "cedar fever season" (rampant allergic rhinitis due specifically to juniper pollen) and, if we had our "druthers," we'd all like to burn every damned cedar tree in the state. Today's pollen level in North Texas is all juniper, and it's at a 9.2 on a scale maxing at 12. The forecast in 2 days for here and Central Texas is of its being at 11.6.
It’s a good point and I agree. I think the answer to stuff like this is to get really curious. Why does this pollen disrupt some people way more than others? What are the most effective ways to try and be one of the people who is less reactive? What does it look like to work with nature to bring things back into balance in the greater ecosystem? You’re just not going to cut all these trees down and even when someone does they come back from the seed bank or neighboring forests…
I thought about going to texas and i hear its one of the worst states for allergies in the country and it seems the cedar trees are the reason. I heard people acquiring life long allergies after even leaving texas. The heat and humidity seems to be going up and so the pollen counts aswell apparently. I heard the natives dont even get used to it and some feel okay for a couple of years and then eventually cant handle it. Disapointing
As a rangeland ecologist, I take issue with the video from a few different points. To make myself clear, y’all are correct on the biodiversity and juniper has a correlation. However that has to be a properly managed environment. 1) historically the savannahs of central TX were historically controlled by fire and grazing. Much of the hill country burned every 2-3 years, killing smaller juniper trees. 2) junipers catch the first .2 inches during a rainfall event and that will be lost to evaporation. In a place that most rainfall events are less than .5”, you’re losing most of your water to canopy. Effectively making a cedar brake a desert. 3) why make a “brush berm” when you can just cut and drop the cedar? When you cut a leave the cedar you’re getting the same result. Leave trees on the ground for 12-15 months so the leaves drop and grasses establish and grow into the cedar. Then come back and burn each tree individually. Don’t build piles. 4) NEVER CHIP CEDAR, thick cedar mulch like in the video acts like concrete on rangelands. Prevents water from getting into the ground, establishment of grasses, and alters soil ph.
Thanks for the response: 1. AFAIK the extent of the burning and its impact, whether natural or from native americans, is still hotly debated and contested. If you have sources or papers otherwise, I would love to read them. 2. Sure, but the point of this video isn't to say you should never remove or cut down an ashe juniper ever. In fact, the entire point of this video, one that I say almost verbatim multiple times, is that there is not a one size fits all solution and in order to truly find the best solution for your land/property, you need to evaluate the water and soil conditions, not just how many ashe junipers are on it. That will give you your answers. Cutting down cedar brakes under some preconceived notion that it will magically make all of your springs come back or that actually, its supposed to ONLY be oak trees and grass is the reason we are here in the first place. The ashe juniper often is just the punching bag and lightning rod for most people here and the go straight for it instead of actually diagnosing and observing what needs to be done for their land. 3. This is effectively the same thing but utilizing the berms on contour to manage and manipulate water flow, which depending on your wants/needs, may be more or less important. 4. I have seen firsthand the results of Symbiosis and others chipping cedars selectively, in conjunction with biochar application and inoculation with mycorrhizae fungi, and have seen literal moonscapes on very tops of watersheds turn into extremely healthy fields of native plants and grass.
2) Rain interception on steep, highly erodible slopes may be desirable. On flatter land, however, I don't think there is a benefit of a closed canopy. 3) I think the point of the "brush berm" is to eventually build up an actual berm which is used as a permaculture method for slowing runoff and sinking more water into the ground. Bryan Hummel demonstrates this on his TH-cam Channel, Water Ranching. I also personally do it because it looks neater; if I didn't do it, my dad would just burn it all himself. It can also be difficult to see what grass is growing under fallen brush. Many times when picking up after downed cedar that has been lying out for months, I find Australian or King Ranch Bluestem underneath, and who knows how much seed it has dropped during that time before I was able to see and pull it out.
Well said, you saved me lots of typing. Blame the old "smokey the bear" adds for their successful promotion of fire suppression, as well as urban sprawl making it difficult to use fore as a management tool.
@ the source for the historic fire frequency comes from a model called PC2FM. It was aimed to help guide managers decide burn frequency in fire dependent ecosystems. 2) I think we have too many oaks and cedars so I say, cut most the trees in the hill country. Any flatland or southern facing slope should be restored into native grasslands instead juniper/oak woodlands. Fire suppression and the invasive nature juniper contributes to that unnatural spread. 3) if you just drop the trees on the hillside you’re not opening the bare soil to rainfall. Rather, the water energy is slowed, reducing erosion and letting grasses establish. Instead of building a berm and letting the soil on hillsides erode.
Fascinating video especially as we have bought a hilly property full of cedars and oaks where I found a seep spring. I thought to clear some cedar to help the spring and pond while giving oaks more room to spread. Now I can see how the cedars nursed some of the oaks. I want to be superselective in how we clear to build our home and switch from Ag to wildlife extemption. We want to be good stewards of what God has blessed us with.
Believe it or not, you just helped me think of what I need to do while having my trees thinned on my property. Keeping and creating the ecosystems that each tree needs to stay naturally healthy and how to prevent soil erosion. I'm in Southeast Texas with giant oaks and 100+ foot pines. I want to keep the china berry trees from growing and this showed me how to keep non native Texas trees out of my forest. I have one of the few naturally forested properties in the area. They're being cut down daily to make way for housing developments and commercial properties. I just need things to be opened a little to make use of some of the acreage we have. But this video will help me when selecting what to cut, how much to cut and soil building. Instead of buying top soil, we'll let the forest keep making it with wood chips just as they have done all this time.
Fantastic! This was the exact message I wanted to convey! Its totally fine to remove or clear sections/acreage as needed, but we just always need to be conscious of the things we are removing and what purpose they served. Best of luck! Let nature do the hard work for you!
@@hanschitzlinger3676I’m not one to say we should eliminate all invasive sand we won’t be successful even if we try but just so you know china berries have been shown to kill birds that try to eat them.
This video just confirmed a theory I had. I always had noticed in areas of the hill country where there was prevalent oak wilt, that there are also were no cedar trees whatsoever because they have obviously been cleared out. It seemed to me there was some sort of symbiosis going on between cedars and Live Oaks
I have oak thickets in large cedar thickets that have oak wilt so I don't know that is strictly true. I have been working with the forestry service to solve this issue. The Cedars are so thick I think they are affecting the oaks and preventing new oak growth. There is likely a healthy balance somewhere but there is evidence on all sides it is hard to really know what to do. I am to the point where I am running different strategies on different parts of my land to find my own truth and what works. for me.
The biggest challenge cedar faces is the fact that possibly a majority of people are allergic to them, that is likely a bigger factor than any other in their destruction.
We love our "mountain cedar". It is the only native plant that survives the straight-line winds that develop in our very common storms. Sooner or later, the oaks and other hardwood in this area all come crashing down when the winds come blowing.
The highway department in Collin County used them in landscaping along the original Hwy 75 and even groomed them. That inspired me to plant one in my back yard. Our area was once cotton fields and cattle pasture where farmers learned to hate them for their tenacity and persistence, thanks for offering your respect for them that reinforces me.
As a native South/Central Texan and scientist, I thank you for this excellent and informed video. Great job and great interviews! You've got a new subscriber.
Hey, thanks so much for this great video. Growing up I always heard that cedar took water from the rest of the plants, I wasn’t even aware it was a type of juniper till this video! Thank you for making such a well done video on this tree!
Thanks! The Ashe Juniper has a lot of misconceptions surrounding it! There was a (now controversial) study done in the 90s that said that Ashe Junipers used more water than oaks. As Michael mentions in the video, this has since been heavily contested and more recent studies show it uses as much if not less water! Additionally, the soil building and erosion control they provide actually creates new homes for plants. If you go walk around anywhere in the hill country with cedars, you can easily find baby live and red oaks growing underneath mature cedars!
@@DylanBures The same scientist who first reported that they used 33 gallons of water per day also stated in the same paper that his number was only a loose guesstimate and would likely vary greatly. ;)
Great vid. Im between San Marcos and Wimberley and worked on finding creative solutions for juniper brush piles. Finding long limbs in the pile and using them as waddles in a waddle fence works well. Also, burn cedar to make charcoal and the inoculating it as biochar. I then pulled all surface rock to dry stack a wall a filled the craters in with biochar. Tons on sequestered carbon…
I ate some hackberries a week ago and they were truly delicious. You just suck the pulp between the skin and seed and then spit the seed out where you want more hackberries to grow…
@@ajknaup3530 understandable, perhaps it's better appreciated in the woods than the front yard, but it has nutritious fruits and it's hardiness and range made it a staple survival food for early settlers. It's also a good addition for wildlife habitat.
Thanks. Great observations about the evils of clear-cutting and making trails to promote desirable native species. However, historical fire suppression and the threat the resulting massive wildfires present to legend junipers and legend oaks demands attention. Today's thickets resulting from fire suppression requires a strategy of thinning, trimming damaged limbs (cf., Feb 2022 ice storm), and those trails you mentioned. Also, a shout-out to the Golden-Cheeked Warblers who need both oak and ashe juniper!
It's more important to make sure our wooded areas retain a continuous canopy cover and a dense edge vegetated with low to mid flammability plants. When they're thinned and parked out, they dry out and allow grass to grow underneath. Because we have short trees, that creates MORE of a fire risk.
Thank you for your post on the Ash Juniper. I was raised in Texas and from my youth, I have found it thrilling to pass through Mountain Cedar breaks. I love the fresh aroma from these indigenous plants. I enjoy a canoe ride down the Brazos River while enjoying the scenic junipers. I find clear cutting deplorable.
My experience with Ashe Juniper is in an area we called Dinosaur Valley outside Glen Rose TX. My bonsai club used to meet for an annual dig in late winter. Very interesting Ashe could be found, usually more interesting than the Eastern Red Cedar we were more familiar with. Wish this video had been available back then.
I see nothing about burning cedar for charcoal. Before electric power and natural gas for heating and cooking, old growth cedar was used. Cedar burning to make charcoal was a major industry in central Texas. Goat raising was also a control on cedar growth. Goats would eat the young cedar growth. Where are the goats in central Texas today?
If there is a tree that deserves more disdain that it usually gets, it would be the Bradford pear. What a worthless tree... they smell bad and they are almost guaranteed to break in dramatic fashion.
The Juniper has many medicinal uses. It is important to the ecosystem. When it is eradicated other trees suffer, the trees that are left will become suseptible to parasite plants.
Robert Caro wrote about LBJ getting paid a nickel a tree with others digging out down to the tap root because they believed the hill country would be a better place to grow crops. The government is the entity that paid them.
Isn't the Ash Juniper also known as the Mountain Cedar? I think they are beautiful trees. However, the pollen count one year was the highest on record and it sent me into anaphylactic shock just from breathing the air, so allergic. Lovely tree tho and I love the way they smell. I thought they were drought tolerant. Never heard they drank a lot of water. :O
Yeah they'll learn a lot of ignorant misguided arguments with which to attack you out of absolute stupidity ignorance and fear of the fact that they know they're dumb they know they're stupid they know they are ignorant which is why they have to annihilate everyone who is not. Then they'll feel secure enough, maybe but doubtfully, to start self-examining their own logic psychology and mindsets. We're headed towards the Civil War folks. Well we're not having towards the Civil War we are standing right on the very precipice of it. I hope you have chosen sides by now but if not you have a little chance of figuring it out on your own. However if you are one of the few the proud the educated, then you should know that we have got to unite and fight this fascism autocracy oligarchy dictatorship tyranny and here's a new one for histories dictionary, trumpism. Which is the same as fascism basically but with a modern social media aspect. I hope that doesn't put too much of a lightning bolt of reality up your asses. But if you voted for the guy, I actually hope that it's 10 times worse than a lightning bolt no wait make that 100 times no wait make that 1000 times no wait make that 1 million times no wait make that just Infinity up your ass if you voted for or supported in any way this fascist sorry Nazi piece of shit. God Bless America
Improper land management is the ultimate reason we have a juniper problem. So Many land owners are absent and only come to recreationally use the property, and they let the land run wild. Clear cutting is ill advised without a clear plan to control erosion and a plan to restore native grass. I am from East Texas and our problem is Yaupon Holly, What a nightmare!!
Great video. I live in South Fort Worth and in this area as a kid, which I am now 45 years old was covered in Sycamore trees, and as Juniper cedar trees and Oak trees now it’s covered with homes and businesses, and we are having issues with wildlife coming into the neighborhood looking for food, which is completely understandable because we keep going out into there habitat, but as a kid we would ride from our neighborhood out into these sycamore tree covered areas. These oak tree covered areas and these cedar tree covered areas and play. It is kind of sad.
I have to agree to disagree on a few points. Out property has been cleared since the 30s. We had families that went for generations living on the land just clearing cedar. We are on the headwaters of a major river snd have running springs on the ranch whereas our neighbors who never cleared are a monoculture of cedar. We have a very diverse set of trees because we allowed those trees to thrive. Ive seen first hand where the cedars havent been cut for 20 years snd then we clear the cedar and the springs start to run. The next thing is the acidic nature of the cedar that when not managed will creat a monoculture. Also as a rancher we need grass and anywhere theres cedar there isnt grass. We clear about 100 acres every year through the nrcs and have seen excellent results targeting just the cedar. We have about 400ft of elevation and clear the tops and valleys snd leave the sides of the hills that we cannot reach with a skid steer. We just cut it and let it lay where it fell thunking it would be habitat. After 20 years of that its kinda meh on having birds or other animals using it. Now the nrcs is paying to pile snd burn so thats what we will be doing in future. Im not a fan of mulchers because its under my thoughts that its too acidic and changes the ph too much for the native trees to thrive. Just looking at google maps you can tell the difference between our ranch that has been cleared snd our neighbors who havent. Its a drastic difference. Ill just have to agree to disagree and will keep the war going against the cedar.
Thank you. I too know of several examples just like yours. And letters of cowboys in the mid 1800s cite riding a horse for weeks and never seeing a single tree. Those areas are now covered with cedar and nothing else is growing. Deer in those areas are small and thin, too.
@@iamsecond3625 Those accounts of endless grasslands come from the far western Edwards Plateau and the Panhandle, not the Hill Country and karst country to the north.
Texas A&M proved that junipers growing over limestone bedrock can increase groundwater 20x more than adjacent grass cover. But they are using that water since that's what plants do. If you have areas like that, then clearing it will allow all the groundwaters to enhance spring flows until new vegetation grows in and/or karst porosity decreases. As for the monoculture, it is more a result of past erosion that has lead to a decrease in the seedbank. Degraded soil also means fewer plants can grow. Then, as a new thicket of junipers starts growing, its matted leaf litter will literally prevent seeds from entering--until a few decades go by. That's why it's important create wildlife/livestock corridors throughout these thickets so they'll move through, bringing dung and seeds, and pawing at the matted litter to break it up. The acidic nature of their leaves actually helps to balance the high limestone pH. ;) I understand the need for grass is a huge hindrance. But if we focus on the areas that would support the best grass, such as areas with soils deeper than 12-18", then we can work to improve carrying capacity. I want to visit your property. I'm the author of the book mentioned at the end. At Project Bedrock, we've begun developing a landowner decisions making tool (www.projectbedrocktx.org) and I want to bring in generational landowners such as you. Where are you located? My email is elizabeth@projectbedrocktx.org.
Man, I have read so many damn studies on this subject that contradict each other, it would make your head spin. I've worked land in the Hill Country for 35 years and, anecdotally, the best management I've come across is pretty simple. You leave them in the ravines and on the hill sides, and clear the flats. Your dude is right about using them to act as berms, but those berms can also become major wildfire fuel. Cedar takes FOREVER to decompose, and can go up in flames in an instant. Now, you wanna do a video on central Texas ecology? Cover groundwater. The story there isn't what we know about it, it's how much we DON'T know. Didn't agree with everything of this video, but I enjoyed it. Subscribed.
My parents learned that the hard way. 30 years ago they bought a ranch outside Kerrville and started having the cedars hand cleared by a crew. They worked fast, too fast really, and we had a pretty big cover of dead dry juniper on the top of the hills. Well, lightning…. One hill went up like it was soaked in gasoline. Luckily the fire department got it out before it spread to other properties. Unfortunately the fire took out everything else on that hilltop. Oak trees etc. it’s recovered since but it’s still very obvious which hill on the property burned and which didn’t.
@@franciscodanconia4324 to be fair, a lightning strike can start a wildfire among juniper ashe that's living, as well as dead. Their green bits contain a chemical (don't ask me what it's called) that's pretty close to rubbing alcohol. When they die, and that green turns red, that chemical undergoes a change, and becomes something closer to diesel. Either way, it's really easy for fire to jump among cedars.
My book that was mentioned at the end syphons through all the evidence, research, and anecdotes. Throughout my research I was always amazed at how backtracking the source ended up needing to backtrack to another source, and then another. When I arrived at the original source, sometimes it had nothing to do with junipers or Texas!
Thank you for this informative video! IMO, Every Texan should watch this... and particularly those in the Hill Country and surrounding areas (as I am). I have a few acres in an area of central-west Texas, north of the actual Hill Country (40 mi. north of Sonora/I-10). Lots of Ashe Juniper ("Cedar") here. I particularly like them, and one of the first things I discovered was how every other larger tree had started in the middle of a Cedar thicket. While I have cleared some on my property, I have left much of the Cedar in place, as well as other larger shrubs.
My ranch between Rocksprings and Del Rio has many different trees and shrubs that you described in the film. The juniper is one of my favorites with it's evergreen color wonderful clean scent, shade from the sun and cold wind shelte,r plus the berries good for tea and disinfecting if chewed and leaves create a good smudging bundle. Under the tree lives the agaritas, persimmons, non-edible mountain laurel which provide food and shelter for animals and insects. The same thing can be said about the different oak species in that area the relationship between these mother trees to the smaller shrubs is priceless. I have also witnessed that each tree and shrub will produce their fruit or nuts at different months of the year which provide food for the native wildlife, if one of these species are removed it affects the balance and the animals would suffer greatly.
The communication happening around trees via the bacteria and fungi is incredible. Trees using a common "language" and communication between fungi and a stand of trees is something out of science fiction but it's real and I think we don't know the half of it yet. Trees being browsed on by animals and that signaling production of tannins and other responses is incredible. Trees communicating information and fungi in a symbiotic relationship has a which came first chicken or egg question. There is absolutely no way this system just happened to develop randomly.
Well done, Dylan. Having worked in Texas horticulture for over fifty years, I have tried to spread many of the truths you espouse here. Keep up the good work!
I grew up in Central Texas and I can tell you, if you’re new to Central Texas and don’t have cedar fever. You will within the next two years, I guarantee it.
@ San antonio seems really nice. I hear its very dangerous though, then I hear its not much worse than any city. Its confusing lol. I thought about texas or TN , both states are apparently terrible for allergies. IDK I might be willing to risk it..
I really appreciate the perspective. I am in the residential development business which is often the reason these cedars get cleared. I want to make one point that you may have overlooked. US Fish & Wildlife administers the Endangered Species Act, which in Central Texas, often translates to regulating the habitat of those species. Specifically the golden cheeked warbler. This endangered animals habitat is the cedar. The issue is that, for developers, complying with these regulations often represents millions of dollars for projects that are not nearly big enough to justify multi million dollar regulatory compliance. So what ends up happening? Land owners that hope to sell their land to developers just clear cut every living cedar and burn them while they have the right to for agricultural purposes. I can tell you from personal experience that land owners, developers, and home builders would end up leaving significantly more of these trees still standing were it not for the fear of getting into a lawsuit with the federal government. The feds have a heavy handed way of enforcing the endangered species act which in turn drives people to circumvent the regulations all together, resulting in cedars necessarily being completely removed.
We’re starting to work with developers to help bring more practical ways of land stewardship into that process. Get in touch with us if you want to have a conversation about it.
Boerne resident. People are rabid about removing cedar under the guise that they’re protecting their land and enabling better oak health. I’ve always loved cedar and have even planted some new ones.
I'll be speaking in Boerne on Feb 4 to give a talk about mountain cedars at Native Plant Society meeting. At the Hunke Gathering Hall, meeting starts 6pm, I start at 7pm.
Thank you, this was interesting and educational. May I suggest the background music be less invasive please. I have hearing loss and the music is so overbearing that I had a difficult time actually understanding the spoken word. I would actually refer no music, but understand why one wants to evoke emotion through its use. I just ask that you please consider the hearing impaired when using background music. Thank you
Great video! In the cross Timbers region Ashe junipers play a key role in preventing erosion on slopes, however I believe they are decimating the slow growing post oak/blackjack oaks in the pastures by suffocating their canopy and making them susceptible to disease. Of course blanket cedar thicket clear cutting and pasture overgrazing are prevalent issues, but I’m not sure I agree that Ashe jumpers were the species creating understory hundreds of years ago in the Texas oak savannas. I love the berm idea! I leave the skeletons for the grass/wildlife, but I’ll look to start implementing berms as well
Very well done. I care so deeply about this tree, it is in my bones, in my heart. It is so valuable on the landscape as a pioneer, a restorer, a mother tree. I've observed this plant more than any other, and it refuses to be boxed in. It seems to be so many things, that end up just being a projection. They joyfully sway in a breeze, eagerly anticipate a rain, lie content and quiet in a fog. They have done the work on my site to allow for a new disturbance/diversification. I've planted many madrone seeds at the base of many junipers, along with many other things. Did y'all know you can do that? They don't just show up. You gotta wait for a bird and luck, or do it yourself. Create abundance. Heal the water cycle. These guys just showed you how.
Cedar and Juniper are my FAVORITE TREES (/shrubs). Thank Yall SO MUCH for Teaching about their life and roles in their environment 🙏🚂🎼🌹🎵🎶⚕️~C< 3)>>-Z->}
Great video and fantastic information. Even if someone disagrees with this argument, there are many vital principles included in this video that can, and should be, used in many other aspects of our lives. Humans are not above nature. We are a conscious contributor with nature, and our actions have consequences for literally countless other lives.
Bravo for this! Ok, first off, I was distracted by the vollume of the music, that I couldn't plainly hear what you were saying. Background music should be barely noticable. It did get better later! Second, I'm an old man now in my 80's, but over the years I've noticed that Oak WQilt Rot hseems to have escalated, and mostly in areas that were cleared of Cedar. I suspect, (have not proof), that Cedar acts as a deterant that protects other trees, esp Oaks from this disease. Many people are allergic to Cedar and I believe that whatever is born in the air also cllects on other trees. It's this substance that may protect whatever tree/plant that gathers it. The devastation from Oak Wilt Rot, destroying these Oaks, is horrible. Making the landscape for many acres, look like something ghostly from another world.
I loath and hate the ash juniper!😂 but thats probably because I am allergic to it. that being said what alternatives are there? what can we use that is a shrubby evergreen giving us the erosion control and micro climate benefits of the ash juniper? random thought based on your comment about the juniper making the limestone more porous, would it help to drill holes through the limestone where you are planting trees to give a place for the roots to grow into.
There really is no better alternative to these junipers. As for allergies, the best thing you can do is stop eating sugar during the holidays since that makes us more prone to flu/cold (or get a flu shot and boost your immune system with stuff like vitamin D and C). The allergy itself isn't so bad, but it becomes unbearable when combined with cold/flu--even mild cases. Also, if you're taking hot showers in city water that has chlorine/chloramines, that could be irritating your lungs and making it worse.
@symbiosistx agreed on it being the easiest to use and have seen first hand it's ability to help build soil on the hill country rocky slopes but those allergies are rough. And I'm looking for alternatives for the immediate vicinity of my house and farm. Me and my buddy have been playing around with this stuff on his 1800 acre ranch and there is zero chance of replacing juniper 🤣 that stuff loves to grow!!!!!! And I'm a big fan of things that love to grow with no inputs.
Here in Texas there used to be a business of cutting the tops off these things to make cedar fence posts, leaving an ugly tree even uglier. They were called "cedar choppers". "Don't let your daughter date a cedar chopper." They were seen as kind of low lifes.
Thank You for the informative video for The Hill Country!! Now... If you can just get the developers to understand & change their clear cutting ways...
A great film! These concepts need to be promoted as a real answer to central Texas' water crisis. Can we see any examples of what a restored hill country landscape looks like? With wildlife (particularly predators) so depleted, what strategy can compensate for the missing pieces?
I have some videos (The RIse and Fall of the Texas Hill Country and Regenerating a Quarry) where theres more deep dives into land regeneration here featuring some of the people from this video! That being said, I have done a lot and will continue to do regeneration content, I want to do more content focus exactly on later stage landscapes! Thanks for watching! More to come!
I would prefer the Cedar trees to the damned Huisache tree/bushes that are a thorny barrier and spreads like weeds. I hate the total clearing of land. We've also seen the wild grapes vanish from the fence lines because of land clearing.
This was an awesome video! I'm from south Texas and our version of the juniper is definitely the Chinese Tallow tree. Everyone loves to hate it, but it's the only tree that gives us fall colors. Now I need to do some research and see if that's unfair hate, too!
Overgrazing by continuous grazing of small fenced in tracts, suppression of fire until it ultimately becomes impossible to control and runs wild, excessive harvesting of timber, monoculture farming . . . These actions of man have ruined the ecosystem in a century and a half or so, an ecosystem that required thousands of years to develop, gone in a flash!
how can you say Cedar has no effect on water when we have bamberger ranch preserve as an example of what can be achieved without cedar? I've cleared acres of cedar on my property, grasses have come back and I see much more wildlife as they appreciate the clearing. I strongly advise that you clear cut as much of the smaller cedar as you can and then trim back the larger cedar trees. Obviously do NOT cut a cedar down if it is near a Madrone tree (I lost 2 small madrones doing that). I have a hilltop property in Bandera County.
When you clear any woody vegetation, springs can sometimes resurface/increase. With this limestone bedrock we have, it's important to wait until the mountain cedars have helped increased soil infiltration and karst porosity before removing. Removing too soon means the grass/forbs won't be able to establish continuous cover to control erosion and runoff. At Bamberger's, the mountain cedars they cleared were older and had done their job. Unfortunately, they cleared hilltops and steeper slopes that years later are now experiencing degradation and erosion. Of note, while Bamberger's springs stopped flowing during last summer's drought, at least 5 other hillside springs continues to flow--they are all covered with old-growth mountain cedars and other native trees (there's a big difference between bushy pioneer cedars and tree mountain cedars that grow inside forests). But if you're interested, I would like to come check out your property to see what you've done. Please email me at elizabeth@projectbedrocktx.org.
On the west Texas ranches, they cut them down because the claim is that they consume so much water. The wood is used for fencing, which seems to last forever. I thought they were pretty plants, and wildlife liked them. I was near RockSprings. We were on family property, which wasn’t being maintained for cattle, but had previously been a cattle ranch. I didn’t want to leave the juniper groves.
West Texas soils are different from Edwards Plateau soils. Although the cedar out there aren't using more water than other woody trees, clearing them CAN help increase water supplies. Still need to be careful about soil erosion and infiltration.
3:39 “the only thing that comes back is the Ashe juniper.” Not in my experience. My parents cleared their 250 ac Hill Country ranch 30 years ago (except in the draws). The hilltops are covered in bluestem and other native grasses
So one Hill 30 years ago before climate change sunk its teeth into is representative of the entire ecosystem? Sounds like you were educated in American public schools. You know the ones that have the lowest test scores on the planet? Why don't you wake up and realize that there is a much bigger world with much larger sample sizes than one Hilltop 30 years ago. What we have now is a government led by an ignorant moron Tyrant dictator who is basically applying that same, "well it worked on this one little spot, 30 years ago" logic to our whole country. You got to have the big picture fully resolved in your mind's field of view to understand what is happening right now. When you have somebody blinded by ignorance, stupidity, wealth, extreme wealth, a criminal mindset, a criminal history, and a well documented history of being owned and manipulated by Russian intelligences, then you probably shouldn't listen to him and you definitely shouldn't elect him do the highest office in the land and what you should actually do is throw the motherfuker in prison for the rest of their life because they are convicted of more felonies than it would have taken to put me you and our entire family is into prison for the rest of our lives but this cocksucker gets to be the most powerful man on the planet regardless of all that? Yeah I think something is really broken. Now if you would like to fix that as well as the planet psychology then you have to start looking at the big picture.
I cleared 50 acres of cedar that had grown over the last 25 years. What I noticed after clearing and shredding the broom weed is that the grass underneath looked much healthier. The soil varied quite a bit. Some areas held water better compared to other areas that were more dusty. I have the cedar piled up. I really like your idea of creating smaller lines of mulch to help control the water flow. I have done permaculture gardening so I'm familiar with some of the ideas shared. I'll consider selective clearing on the rest of my 295 acres in Bosque County.
Thank you so much for this information. I was just talking to a friend about our cedars, some clear them away and burn the piles. And seeing those piles of once vibrant greenery, now just piles of ugly dead wood, about to be burned was so sad.. Next time you're in Llano I'll buy you a coffee at our local coffee shop, the Fuel House. lol again thank you for this information.
Oak trees are the best. But I don't hate any part of the Texas hill country, unless it is named Greenbriar. Oak is by far my favorite. Too many were likely cut down in past generations.
I think there is a little more information ignored and not mentioned here. To infer that Texas was once covered with cedar and that man has cleared it all is a bit of a reach. To also claim that cedars do not, in their entirety, consume more ground water, is patently misleading. Also to ignore the clear evidence of invasive proliferation is equally misleading. The bigger story is the complex relationship of cattle and cedars in Texas.
It's a complex issue for sure. I'd encourage you to check the source links provided and do a deep dive on the historical info if you want to get it from the horses mouth. Thanks for chiming in, we're going to keep making content like this so we can get down to the nitty gritty and talk about the complicated, interconnected nature of all of this stuff.
When did they say Texas was covered with these trees? Ashe junipers for the most part grows wherever there's limestone bedrock. That's mostly the Edwards Plateau. Back in the 1800s, junipers on the Edwards Plateau made up about 25% of the cover. And they were highly valued as decay resistant, heartwood trees that were cut down and used for roof/pier beams, utility poles, railroad ties, and fences. Thousands upon thousands were cut and shipped throughout Texas and the western US. They even built railroads into the Hill Country to extract them.
Most importantly, I recognize your enormous potential in this space, so I’ll give you raw feedback, in case you see this (and care to consider). There are some distractions that lead me to pause watching; I’ll finish later though. 1. Immersion breaking grandiloquence: relate to me using the best elements of your natural lexicon. 2. Less is more: Excessive samey screen time and gestures - sometimes I wanted to hear your voiceover and watch you simply experience or interact with the environment rather than talking at the camera to convey that you’re on a journey of discovery with the audience, and place emphasis on the people you interview when they do talk at the camera.
Well, sir, that's you, and *your* particular preference/style. But don't confuse your preference for everybody else's preference. I watched the same video, and I really enjoyed it the way it was presented. I think the message they conveyed in the video had to to be spoken and heard, not just seen.
You totally miss fire as a method of control. In the past we burned our pastures but now the liability is just too great. If it was natural or Native American induced historically there were great fires that controlled many species and is essential to the natural ecosystem. In my area well northwest of Fort Worth there are areas that have never been cleared or plowed. Much of this was burned once every few years but now not so much and I can clearly see the degradation of the native plants and invasive species coming in. This is land that is not grazed just bailed once per year at least the grass prairie parts. I fear that Texas will become like California with their massive wildfires due mostly to cedar. My wife and I were driving in California several years ago and I told her that now I knew why they have so many wildfires. Just the massive overgrowth. Most of that has now burned.
This is intentional. The underlayer and undergrowth of Californian forests are very very different from those found here. On a incredibly large scale, such as in the balcones canyonlands, it makes sense for the US Fish and Wildlife Service and US Forest Service to utilize burning due to scale and scope. For the average landowner (unless we are talking huge acreage), burning is usually the worst way of going about things because you effectively burn off all of the carbon sequestration that those trees and plants provided when you burn them. These plants have to work much harder and through much more difficult conditions than other regions to perform that sequestration (and on a much longer timescale). You effectively reset the clock on that when you do so. Why not utilize that carbon to instead promote other plant growth that you desire? Additionally, I think people focus way too much on only cedar when it comes to fire for some reason. Healthy grasslands will burn as much if not more easily than a healthy cedar brake. Everything in central texas is fire prone, not sure why cedar specifically is treated as the only fire hazard. The largest forest fire in central texas history was loblolly pines in Bastrop (2011 Bastrop Fire). The largest in Texas history was grasslands in the panhandle (2024).
Would like to hear Crime Pays but Botany Doesn't make a clear concise comment on the situation. This is a bit much for me. I have a ton of cedar growing in my flower beds which I transplant from time to time along fenceline or for gifting. Very fast growing privacy hedges that require trimming bc of proximity to sidewalk. Birds love them
The Ash Junipers and the oaks are the trees I love, but unfortunately my property is covered with mesquite trees, I would love to replace these mesquites with the a for mentioned trees.
Mesquites will eventually grow into forests tall enough to ride a horse under and to support a lush cover of mesquite and buffalo grass. It would probably be better to work with what you have. ;)
We used to have several towering mesquite trees, heck they were so tall you could probably ride an elephant under them. The problem with them was shedding. Every other dat, we had to pick up bundles of branches that had fallen. These branches, bristling with thorns, are a menace to pets and mower wheels, fully capable of puncturing the sole of our shoes. It was absolutely unavoidable to walk there uninjured. No thanks.
@@allisonangier1631 A menace to people also. Very much agree, my hands that have been poked by numerous thorns and almost my feet, would very much appreciate them being gone.
@@allisonangier1631 That's true. I wonder how the missionaries and ranchers in the 1700s handled the thorns since that's where they kept their herds. Hmmm...
I've been looking forward to this video. Thanks Dylan. Of course, the cedar fever that plagues the area doesn't help. What about the claims from people that they had springs return to lands where cedar was cleared. Are they mistaken, making the wrong cause/effect relationship? Wishful thinking?
The best thing you can do is stop eating sugar during the holidays since that makes us more prone to flu/cold (or get a flu shot and boost your immune system with stuff like vitamin D and C if you can't avoid Auntie Emm's pumpkin pie and cookies). The allergy itself isn't so bad, but it becomes unbearable when combined with cold/flu--even mild cases. Also, if you're taking hot showers in city water that has chlorine/chloramines, that could be irritating your lungs and making it worse. I add a vitamin C filter to neutralize the chloramines--it has helped so much I no longer get asthma.
I grew up in a town called Cedar Park in central texas, we had a cedar chopper festival when I was a little kid. Even though they are important historically and shouldn't be wiped out completely, they are not desirable trees to most folks nowadays and I've never felt bad about removing some of them to allow pasture land to be claimed or to allow trees like oaks, ashes, elms or pecans to prosper instead. An issue like this doesn't have one answer that's right.
100% The entire point of this video isnt to say that we should never remove or manage cedars, instead, as I say multiple times throughout, we are missing the forest for the trees! The question should always be one of soil and water, and of observation of the greater system. If you want to remove cedar for many numerous valid reasons, you just have to be aware of what role that tree plays and how it will affect the greater ecosystem. The Ashe Juniper is just one tool and component of our natural systems, not the be all end all, for good or for bad. Too many people here think they can magically fix all of their issues by just mass removal (often in very aggressive ways) of the ashe juniper. Nature doesn't work like that. Its a delicately balanced system and when you make changes, you need to do so with the understanding and willingness to compensate and/or support it where it needs it!
@@garymorgan3313indeed but everybody calls the Ashe juniper a cedar tree so you have to use that terminology as well or people will not realize your talking about the tree they’ve been told is bad.
An average of 5" of soil was lost during the mid1900s mass clearing we did. There are also many large areas with soil deeper than 12", such as around Kerrville and Johnson City. But go dig under a thicket of junipers and you'll find soil rebuilding. But it will never be deep because this is Texas karst country. FYI I'm a 6th gen Texan, so do not suggest I'm from California.
I am not going to say you are wrong, but I am also not going to say you are right. In truth there are many people like my biological mother who hate Cedar, in this case Ash Juniper because they are either allergic to it or believe they are allergic to it. And living in the Texas hill country, I have seen old growth Cedars that are more than 60 foot tall. There is one in the middle of the Antioch Cemetery between Blanket, Tx and Zephyr, Texas if it still stands. That tree got damaged in a bad storm about 6 or so years ago, but last I seen it was still there.
The best place to find old junipers is an old cemetery. I found a giant one in Skyview Cemetery west of Kyle. It's trunk measures about 36" wide. Is the juniper in this image the big one? images.findagrave.com/photos/2012/55/CEM1730469_133018621406.jpg
"The Hill Country" could be synonymous with "The Ashe Juniper Country" We call them "Mountain Cedars" in our part of the woods... The Northwest corner of The Hill Country. Thank you for this research, just subscribed. EMBRACE The AWE!
The video link below was responsible for opening my eyes. Growing up my dad considered “cedars” to be “trash/ water hogs/invasive/ remove them all”! So I had just assumed he was right. But after finding that video many years ago, and doing more research I’ve discovered he was very ignorant in that regard. th-cam.com/video/fuuw9GEVcEs/w-d-xo.html
Thanks for watching!!
Be sure to tell me why you think I am wrong in the comments! Will do my best to reply to as many as I can!
As always, please make sure to subscribe: www.youtube.com/@DylanBures?sub_confirmation=1
If you liked the video, sub to our Patreon to support us: patreon.com/DylanBures
Or buy me a coffee: buymeacoffee.com/dylanbures
Till the next film! See ya!
My allergies hate cedar. But as a land owner that has been in a multi year war beating back the brush, I hate yaupon more
I grew up in the beautiful pine forests of deep East Texas but I have a profound love for the Hill Country, which I discovered as a student at UT Austin. Very proud to be a Texan and to live in such an ecologically diverse and beautiful state.
This really spoke to me, as I’ve unfairly vilified the Ashe juniper in the past, or at least not given the full nuance it deserves. Great video! Excited to watch more.
Welcome to the grey side of the force =) We're so glad you enjoyed the film! I'd love to hear more about how you used to feel about Ashe Juniper, how you feel now and what changed your opinion.
As an austinite I really appreciate you making this video!
My 7th grade science project back in the 80s was finding the best ways to propagate Texas Madrone (my mother was an amateur botanist in addition to being a teacher).
Juniper litter turned out to be the best mulch medium to propagate the trees in by a long shot by both percentage of germination and size of the saplings after a year.
Guess I should have published a paper. 😊
Wow what a great tip. Texas madrone are beautiful and extremely difficult to grow.
@ my mom had it down. She started a plant nursery after she retired and my parents ranch is covered in them now.
This is awesome. I can’t tell you how happy I am to come across this. I’m a Native of the Texas Hill Country. Thank you
The scoring here really transforms the atmosphere. Really excellent touch.
I have 22 acres on top a limestone hill of juniper cedar outside Lampasas towards Burnett. I cut anything that doesn't go mostly straight up and lower branches i can easily reach on those straight ones. Mostly just so I can get around because from space you can only see ground in a couple places. I get a lot of criticism because I leave too much. So thanks for your encouragement to not clear cut. I burn but want to understand how to berm. because i do have lots of contour and would like to keep my dirt instead of rinsing downhill.
Really beautiful video. Thanks for taking the time to craft and share this.
The simple problem is that the majority of Texans are allergic to juniper/cedar pollen to some degree, some of us, more than others. In fact, right now, on the first weekend of January, we are in the midst of "cedar fever season" (rampant allergic rhinitis due specifically to juniper pollen) and, if we had our "druthers," we'd all like to burn every damned cedar tree in the state. Today's pollen level in North Texas is all juniper, and it's at a 9.2 on a scale maxing at 12. The forecast in 2 days for here and Central Texas is of its being at 11.6.
It’s a good point and I agree. I think the answer to stuff like this is to get really curious. Why does this pollen disrupt some people way more than others? What are the most effective ways to try and be one of the people who is less reactive? What does it look like to work with nature to bring things back into balance in the greater ecosystem? You’re just not going to cut all these trees down and even when someone does they come back from the seed bank or neighboring forests…
Mostly just city dwellers.
I thought about going to texas and i hear its one of the worst states for allergies in the country and it seems the cedar trees are the reason. I heard people acquiring life long allergies after even leaving texas. The heat and humidity seems to be going up and so the pollen counts aswell apparently. I heard the natives dont even get used to it and some feel okay for a couple of years and then eventually cant handle it. Disapointing
As a rangeland ecologist, I take issue with the video from a few different points. To make myself clear, y’all are correct on the biodiversity and juniper has a correlation. However that has to be a properly managed environment. 1) historically the savannahs of central TX were historically controlled by fire and grazing. Much of the hill country burned every 2-3 years, killing smaller juniper trees. 2) junipers catch the first .2 inches during a rainfall event and that will be lost to evaporation. In a place that most rainfall events are less than .5”, you’re losing most of your water to canopy. Effectively making a cedar brake a desert. 3) why make a “brush berm” when you can just cut and drop the cedar? When you cut a leave the cedar you’re getting the same result. Leave trees on the ground for 12-15 months so the leaves drop and grasses establish and grow into the cedar. Then come back and burn each tree individually. Don’t build piles. 4) NEVER CHIP CEDAR, thick cedar mulch like in the video acts like concrete on rangelands. Prevents water from getting into the ground, establishment of grasses, and alters soil ph.
Thanks for the response:
1. AFAIK the extent of the burning and its impact, whether natural or from native americans, is still hotly debated and contested. If you have sources or papers otherwise, I would love to read them.
2. Sure, but the point of this video isn't to say you should never remove or cut down an ashe juniper ever. In fact, the entire point of this video, one that I say almost verbatim multiple times, is that there is not a one size fits all solution and in order to truly find the best solution for your land/property, you need to evaluate the water and soil conditions, not just how many ashe junipers are on it. That will give you your answers. Cutting down cedar brakes under some preconceived notion that it will magically make all of your springs come back or that actually, its supposed to ONLY be oak trees and grass is the reason we are here in the first place. The ashe juniper often is just the punching bag and lightning rod for most people here and the go straight for it instead of actually diagnosing and observing what needs to be done for their land.
3. This is effectively the same thing but utilizing the berms on contour to manage and manipulate water flow, which depending on your wants/needs, may be more or less important.
4. I have seen firsthand the results of Symbiosis and others chipping cedars selectively, in conjunction with biochar application and inoculation with mycorrhizae fungi, and have seen literal moonscapes on very tops of watersheds turn into extremely healthy fields of native plants and grass.
2) Rain interception on steep, highly erodible slopes may be desirable. On flatter land, however, I don't think there is a benefit of a closed canopy.
3) I think the point of the "brush berm" is to eventually build up an actual berm which is used as a permaculture method for slowing runoff and sinking more water into the ground. Bryan Hummel demonstrates this on his TH-cam Channel, Water Ranching. I also personally do it because it looks neater; if I didn't do it, my dad would just burn it all himself. It can also be difficult to see what grass is growing under fallen brush. Many times when picking up after downed cedar that has been lying out for months, I find Australian or King Ranch Bluestem underneath, and who knows how much seed it has dropped during that time before I was able to see and pull it out.
Well said, you saved me lots of typing. Blame the old "smokey the bear" adds for their successful promotion of fire suppression, as well as urban sprawl making it difficult to use fore as a management tool.
@ the source for the historic fire frequency comes from a model called PC2FM. It was aimed to help guide managers decide burn frequency in fire dependent ecosystems. 2) I think we have too many oaks and cedars so I say, cut most the trees in the hill country. Any flatland or southern facing slope should be restored into native grasslands instead juniper/oak woodlands. Fire suppression and the invasive nature juniper contributes to that unnatural spread. 3) if you just drop the trees on the hillside you’re not opening the bare soil to rainfall. Rather, the water energy is slowed, reducing erosion and letting grasses establish. Instead of building a berm and letting the soil on hillsides erode.
None of this and none of your typing matters. The entire hill country will be a concrete parking lot in 40 years.
Fascinating video especially as we have bought a hilly property full of cedars and oaks where I found a seep spring. I thought to clear some cedar to help the spring and pond while giving oaks more room to spread. Now I can see how the cedars nursed some of the oaks.
I want to be superselective in how we clear to build our home and switch from Ag to wildlife extemption. We want to be good stewards of what God has blessed us with.
Believe it or not, you just helped me think of what I need to do while having my trees thinned on my property. Keeping and creating the ecosystems that each tree needs to stay naturally healthy and how to prevent soil erosion. I'm in Southeast Texas with giant oaks and 100+ foot pines. I want to keep the china berry trees from growing and this showed me how to keep non native Texas trees out of my forest. I have one of the few naturally forested properties in the area. They're being cut down daily to make way for housing developments and commercial properties. I just need things to be opened a little to make use of some of the acreage we have. But this video will help me when selecting what to cut, how much to cut and soil building. Instead of buying top soil, we'll let the forest keep making it with wood chips just as they have done all this time.
Fantastic!
This was the exact message I wanted to convey!
Its totally fine to remove or clear sections/acreage as needed, but we just always need to be conscious of the things we are removing and what purpose they served.
Best of luck! Let nature do the hard work for you!
I kept one chinaberry for the slingshot ammo 😉
@@hanschitzlinger3676I’m not one to say we should eliminate all invasive sand we won’t be successful even if we try but just so you know china berries have been shown to kill birds that try to eat them.
those Tallow trees are the scourge in SE Texas.
This video just confirmed a theory I had. I always had noticed in areas of the hill country where there was prevalent oak wilt, that there are also were no cedar trees whatsoever because they have obviously been cleared out. It seemed to me there was some sort of symbiosis going on between cedars and Live Oaks
The history of oak wilt is fascinating! It’s been around for a long time but only been a big problem recently
I have oak thickets in large cedar thickets that have oak wilt so I don't know that is strictly true. I have been working with the forestry service to solve this issue. The Cedars are so thick I think they are affecting the oaks and preventing new oak growth. There is likely a healthy balance somewhere but there is evidence on all sides it is hard to really know what to do. I am to the point where I am running different strategies on different parts of my land to find my own truth and what works. for me.
The oh brother where art though was a fine touch sir. Excellent film!
The biggest challenge cedar faces is the fact that possibly a majority of people are allergic to them, that is likely a bigger factor than any other in their destruction.
We love our "mountain cedar". It is the only native plant that survives the straight-line winds that develop in our very common storms. Sooner or later, the oaks and other hardwood in this area all come crashing down when the winds come blowing.
Caliche soil won't support large trees like oaks. When they get tall, the first strong wind will topple them.
Straight line wind and ice storm damage become more of a problem when people clear and thin dense woodlands/forests.
The highway department in Collin County used them in landscaping along the original Hwy 75 and even groomed them. That inspired me to plant one in my back yard. Our area was once cotton fields and cattle pasture where farmers learned to hate them for their tenacity and persistence, thanks for offering your respect for them that reinforces me.
As a native South/Central Texan and scientist, I thank you for this excellent and informed video. Great job and great interviews! You've got a new subscriber.
Hey, thanks so much for this great video. Growing up I always heard that cedar took water from the rest of the plants, I wasn’t even aware it was a type of juniper till this video! Thank you for making such a well done video on this tree!
Thanks! The Ashe Juniper has a lot of misconceptions surrounding it!
There was a (now controversial) study done in the 90s that said that Ashe Junipers used more water than oaks. As Michael mentions in the video, this has since been heavily contested and more recent studies show it uses as much if not less water!
Additionally, the soil building and erosion control they provide actually creates new homes for plants. If you go walk around anywhere in the hill country with cedars, you can easily find baby live and red oaks growing underneath mature cedars!
@@DylanBures The same scientist who first reported that they used 33 gallons of water per day also stated in the same paper that his number was only a loose guesstimate and would likely vary greatly. ;)
Great vid. Im between San Marcos and Wimberley and worked on finding creative solutions for juniper brush piles. Finding long limbs in the pile and using them as waddles in a waddle fence works well. Also, burn cedar to make charcoal and the inoculating it as biochar. I then pulled all surface rock to dry stack a wall a filled the craters in with biochar. Tons on sequestered carbon…
Biochar is such an awesome tool!
Great stewardship, thank you!
Beautiful area you live in.
I’m fond of the Devil’s Backbone area.
my "most hated" list begins with the Hackberry
I ate some hackberries a week ago and they were truly delicious. You just suck the pulp between the skin and seed and then spit the seed out where you want more hackberries to grow…
I'm no fan of hackberry myself.
Hackberry is an awesome tree with multiple uses and benefits.
@@dont.ripfuller6587 I just get tired of uprooting the saplings. Perhaps you could share some of the uses & benfits?
@@ajknaup3530 understandable, perhaps it's better appreciated in the woods than the front yard, but it has nutritious fruits and it's hardiness and range made it a staple survival food for early settlers. It's also a good addition for wildlife habitat.
Thanks. Great observations about the evils of clear-cutting and making trails to promote desirable native species.
However, historical fire suppression and the threat the resulting massive wildfires present to legend junipers and legend oaks demands attention. Today's thickets resulting from fire suppression requires a strategy of thinning, trimming damaged limbs (cf., Feb 2022 ice storm), and those trails you mentioned.
Also, a shout-out to the Golden-Cheeked Warblers who need both oak and ashe juniper!
It's more important to make sure our wooded areas retain a continuous canopy cover and a dense edge vegetated with low to mid flammability plants. When they're thinned and parked out, they dry out and allow grass to grow underneath. Because we have short trees, that creates MORE of a fire risk.
Thank you for your post on the Ash Juniper. I was raised in Texas and from my youth, I have found it thrilling to pass through Mountain Cedar breaks. I love the fresh aroma from these indigenous plants. I enjoy a canoe ride down the Brazos River while enjoying the scenic junipers. I find clear cutting deplorable.
My experience with Ashe Juniper is in an area we called Dinosaur Valley outside Glen Rose TX. My bonsai club used to meet for an annual dig in late winter. Very interesting Ashe could be found, usually more interesting than the Eastern Red Cedar we were more familiar with. Wish this video had been available back then.
I see nothing about burning cedar for charcoal. Before electric power and natural gas for heating and cooking, old growth cedar was used. Cedar burning to make charcoal was a major industry in central Texas. Goat raising was also a control on cedar growth. Goats would eat the young cedar growth. Where are the goats in central Texas today?
If there is a tree that deserves more disdain that it usually gets, it would be the Bradford pear. What a worthless tree... they smell bad and they are almost guaranteed to break in dramatic fashion.
The Juniper has many medicinal uses. It is important to the ecosystem. When it is eradicated other trees suffer, the trees that are left will become suseptible to parasite plants.
Agreed!
Robert Caro wrote about LBJ getting paid a nickel a tree with others digging out down to the tap root because they believed the hill country would be a better place to grow crops. The government is the entity that paid them.
Isn't the Ash Juniper also known as the Mountain Cedar? I think they are beautiful trees. However, the pollen count one year was the highest on record and it sent me into anaphylactic shock just from breathing the air, so allergic. Lovely tree tho and I love the way they smell. I thought they were drought tolerant. Never heard they drank a lot of water. :O
brilliant work gentlemen.
Great video, very informative! Yall keep it up, really appreciate yall's knowledge.
Thank you for this video! Finally a video with love. I hope other Texans learn from this.
Yeah they'll learn a lot of ignorant misguided arguments with which to attack you out of absolute stupidity ignorance and fear of the fact that they know they're dumb they know they're stupid they know they are ignorant which is why they have to annihilate everyone who is not. Then they'll feel secure enough, maybe but doubtfully, to start self-examining their own logic psychology and mindsets. We're headed towards the Civil War folks. Well we're not having towards the Civil War we are standing right on the very precipice of it. I hope you have chosen sides by now but if not you have a little chance of figuring it out on your own. However if you are one of the few the proud the educated, then you should know that we have got to unite and fight this fascism autocracy oligarchy dictatorship tyranny and here's a new one for histories dictionary, trumpism. Which is the same as fascism basically but with a modern social media aspect. I hope that doesn't put too much of a lightning bolt of reality up your asses. But if you voted for the guy, I actually hope that it's 10 times worse than a lightning bolt no wait make that 100 times no wait make that 1000 times no wait make that 1 million times no wait make that just Infinity up your ass if you voted for or supported in any way this fascist sorry Nazi piece of shit. God Bless America
Great video. There’s a lot of good stuff about these trees that most don’t know.
Go read my book! (mentioned at the end). :)
Improper land management is the ultimate reason we have a juniper problem. So Many land owners are absent and only come to recreationally use the property, and they let the land run wild. Clear cutting is ill advised without a clear plan to control erosion and a plan to restore native grass. I am from East Texas and our problem is Yaupon Holly, What a nightmare!!
Agreed!
Makes a really good tea, the only native plant with natural caffeine.
I have a ranch in Central Texas and we love them. We use them for building, and we're so sad we lose so many in the drought a couple years ago.
Where's your ranch? Is it Hill Country?
Great video. I live in South Fort Worth and in this area as a kid, which I am now 45 years old was covered in Sycamore trees, and as Juniper cedar trees and Oak trees now it’s covered with homes and businesses, and we are having issues with wildlife coming into the neighborhood looking for food, which is completely understandable because we keep going out into there habitat, but as a kid we would ride from our neighborhood out into these sycamore tree covered areas. These oak tree covered areas and these cedar tree covered areas and play. It is kind of sad.
I made some sourdough bread with juniper yeast. It's probably the best sourdough i've made.
How do you make juniper yeast? Ferment the berries??
I have to agree to disagree on a few points. Out property has been cleared since the 30s. We had families that went for generations living on the land just clearing cedar.
We are on the headwaters of a major river snd have running springs on the ranch whereas our neighbors who never cleared are a monoculture of cedar. We have a very diverse set of trees because we allowed those trees to thrive.
Ive seen first hand where the cedars havent been cut for 20 years snd then we clear the cedar and the springs start to run.
The next thing is the acidic nature of the cedar that when not managed will creat a monoculture.
Also as a rancher we need grass and anywhere theres cedar there isnt grass.
We clear about 100 acres every year through the nrcs and have seen excellent results targeting just the cedar. We have about 400ft of elevation and clear the tops and valleys snd leave the sides of the hills that we cannot reach with a skid steer. We just cut it and let it lay where it fell thunking it would be habitat. After 20 years of that its kinda meh on having birds or other animals using it. Now the nrcs is paying to pile snd burn so thats what we will be doing in future.
Im not a fan of mulchers because its under my thoughts that its too acidic and changes the ph too much for the native trees to thrive.
Just looking at google maps you can tell the difference between our ranch that has been cleared snd our neighbors who havent. Its a drastic difference.
Ill just have to agree to disagree and will keep the war going against the cedar.
Thank you. I too know of several examples just like yours. And letters of cowboys in the mid 1800s cite riding a horse for weeks and never seeing a single tree. Those areas are now covered with cedar and nothing else is growing. Deer in those areas are small and thin, too.
@@iamsecond3625 Those accounts of endless grasslands come from the far western Edwards Plateau and the Panhandle, not the Hill Country and karst country to the north.
Texas A&M proved that junipers growing over limestone bedrock can increase groundwater 20x more than adjacent grass cover. But they are using that water since that's what plants do. If you have areas like that, then clearing it will allow all the groundwaters to enhance spring flows until new vegetation grows in and/or karst porosity decreases.
As for the monoculture, it is more a result of past erosion that has lead to a decrease in the seedbank. Degraded soil also means fewer plants can grow. Then, as a new thicket of junipers starts growing, its matted leaf litter will literally prevent seeds from entering--until a few decades go by. That's why it's important create wildlife/livestock corridors throughout these thickets so they'll move through, bringing dung and seeds, and pawing at the matted litter to break it up. The acidic nature of their leaves actually helps to balance the high limestone pH. ;)
I understand the need for grass is a huge hindrance. But if we focus on the areas that would support the best grass, such as areas with soils deeper than 12-18", then we can work to improve carrying capacity.
I want to visit your property. I'm the author of the book mentioned at the end. At Project Bedrock, we've begun developing a landowner decisions making tool (www.projectbedrocktx.org) and I want to bring in generational landowners such as you. Where are you located? My email is elizabeth@projectbedrocktx.org.
Your where right to cute down the Cedar trees on your property. It's what we do all over the Texas area.
Man, I have read so many damn studies on this subject that contradict each other, it would make your head spin. I've worked land in the Hill Country for 35 years and, anecdotally, the best management I've come across is pretty simple. You leave them in the ravines and on the hill sides, and clear the flats.
Your dude is right about using them to act as berms, but those berms can also become major wildfire fuel. Cedar takes FOREVER to decompose, and can go up in flames in an instant.
Now, you wanna do a video on central Texas ecology? Cover groundwater. The story there isn't what we know about it, it's how much we DON'T know.
Didn't agree with everything of this video, but I enjoyed it. Subscribed.
My parents learned that the hard way. 30 years ago they bought a ranch outside Kerrville and started having the cedars hand cleared by a crew. They worked fast, too fast really, and we had a pretty big cover of dead dry juniper on the top of the hills. Well, lightning…. One hill went up like it was soaked in gasoline. Luckily the fire department got it out before it spread to other properties. Unfortunately the fire took out everything else on that hilltop. Oak trees etc. it’s recovered since but it’s still very obvious which hill on the property burned and which didn’t.
Hello. I love what you said in the comments. I live and have done landscaping in the Texas Hill Country for over twenty years.
@@franciscodanconia4324 to be fair, a lightning strike can start a wildfire among juniper ashe that's living, as well as dead. Their green bits contain a chemical (don't ask me what it's called) that's pretty close to rubbing alcohol. When they die, and that green turns red, that chemical undergoes a change, and becomes something closer to diesel. Either way, it's really easy for fire to jump among cedars.
My book that was mentioned at the end syphons through all the evidence, research, and anecdotes. Throughout my research I was always amazed at how backtracking the source ended up needing to backtrack to another source, and then another. When I arrived at the original source, sometimes it had nothing to do with junipers or Texas!
@@ElizabethMcGreevy-j2d
Happy new year! I own your book, actually.
Thank you for this informative video!
IMO, Every Texan should watch this... and particularly those in the Hill Country and surrounding areas (as I am).
I have a few acres in an area of central-west Texas, north of the actual Hill Country (40 mi. north of Sonora/I-10). Lots of Ashe Juniper ("Cedar") here. I particularly like them, and one of the first things I discovered was how every other larger tree had started in the middle of a Cedar thicket. While I have cleared some on my property, I have left much of the Cedar in place, as well as other larger shrubs.
My ranch between Rocksprings and Del Rio has many different trees and shrubs that you described in the film. The juniper is one of my favorites with it's evergreen color wonderful clean scent, shade from the sun and cold wind shelte,r plus the berries good for tea and disinfecting if chewed and leaves create a good smudging bundle. Under the tree lives the agaritas, persimmons, non-edible mountain laurel which provide food and shelter for animals and insects. The same thing can be said about the different oak species in that area the relationship between these mother trees to the smaller shrubs is priceless. I have also witnessed that each tree and shrub will produce their fruit or nuts at different months of the year which provide food for the native wildlife, if one of these species are removed it affects the balance and the animals would suffer greatly.
Yes!
It smells like infection
@@mkatseal Can you be specific what are you talking about?
The communication happening around trees via the bacteria and fungi is incredible. Trees using a common "language" and communication between fungi and a stand of trees is something out of science fiction but it's real and I think we don't know the half of it yet. Trees being browsed on by animals and that signaling production of tannins and other responses is incredible. Trees communicating information and fungi in a symbiotic relationship has a which came first chicken or egg question. There is absolutely no way this system just happened to develop randomly.
Juniper Ashe is my favorite tree. Thank you for this well researched and beautiful video.
Well done, Dylan. Having worked in Texas horticulture for over fifty years, I have tried to spread many of the truths you espouse here. Keep up the good work!
We will Tim, thank you!
I grew up in Central Texas and I can tell you, if you’re new to Central Texas and don’t have cedar fever. You will within the next two years, I guarantee it.
It's not the allergy that's so bad, it's made worse when we get colds/flu.
how about in san atonio is that central texas?
@@heythere6983 It sure is.👍🏼
@ San antonio seems really nice. I hear its very dangerous though, then I hear its not much worse than any city. Its confusing lol. I thought about texas or TN , both states are apparently terrible for allergies. IDK I might be willing to risk it..
When an evergreen shades and cools a land
I really appreciate the perspective. I am in the residential development business which is often the reason these cedars get cleared.
I want to make one point that you may have overlooked. US Fish & Wildlife administers the Endangered Species Act, which in Central Texas, often translates to regulating the habitat of those species. Specifically the golden cheeked warbler. This endangered animals habitat is the cedar. The issue is that, for developers, complying with these regulations often represents millions of dollars for projects that are not nearly big enough to justify multi million dollar regulatory compliance.
So what ends up happening? Land owners that hope to sell their land to developers just clear cut every living cedar and burn them while they have the right to for agricultural purposes.
I can tell you from personal experience that land owners, developers, and home builders would end up leaving significantly more of these trees still standing were it not for the fear of getting into a lawsuit with the federal government.
The feds have a heavy handed way of enforcing the endangered species act which in turn drives people to circumvent the regulations all together, resulting in cedars necessarily being completely removed.
That’s a really interesting point! So tough to regulate our way out of any problems despite best intentions.
We’re starting to work with developers to help bring more practical ways of land stewardship into that process. Get in touch with us if you want to have a conversation about it.
@@symbiosistx I wrote you through your contact link on the website.
It's why I call warblers 'canaries in the coal mine,' not endangered birds.
Boerne resident. People are rabid about removing cedar under the guise that they’re protecting their land and enabling better oak health. I’ve always loved cedar and have even planted some new ones.
You rebel!
I love the people of Boerne. They are doing the Lord's work.
I'll be speaking in Boerne on Feb 4 to give a talk about mountain cedars at Native Plant Society meeting. At the Hunke Gathering Hall, meeting starts 6pm, I start at 7pm.
The complexity of nature
Thank you, this was interesting and educational. May I suggest the background music be less invasive please. I have hearing loss and the music is so overbearing that I had a difficult time actually understanding the spoken word. I would actually refer no music, but understand why one wants to evoke emotion through its use. I just ask that you please consider the hearing impaired when using background music. Thank you
Great video! In the cross Timbers region Ashe junipers play a key role in preventing erosion on slopes, however I believe they are decimating the slow growing post oak/blackjack oaks in the pastures by suffocating their canopy and making them susceptible to disease. Of course blanket cedar thicket clear cutting and pasture overgrazing are prevalent issues, but I’m not sure I agree that Ashe jumpers were the species creating understory hundreds of years ago in the Texas oak savannas.
I love the berm idea! I leave the skeletons for the grass/wildlife, but I’ll look to start implementing berms as well
Very well done. I care so deeply about this tree, it is in my bones, in my heart. It is so valuable on the landscape as a pioneer, a restorer, a mother tree. I've observed this plant more than any other, and it refuses to be boxed in. It seems to be so many things, that end up just being a projection. They joyfully sway in a breeze, eagerly anticipate a rain, lie content and quiet in a fog. They have done the work on my site to allow for a new disturbance/diversification.
I've planted many madrone seeds at the base of many junipers, along with many other things. Did y'all know you can do that? They don't just show up. You gotta wait for a bird and luck, or do it yourself.
Create abundance. Heal the water cycle. These guys just showed you how.
Great point!
To paraphrase: "The fault, dear people, is not with the ashe juniper, but in ourselves, that we have degraded the ecosystem." Great video.
No. I'm pretty sure the most hated tree in Texas is the mesquite tree.
It's a tight race for sure! Nobody is allergic to the mesquite though!
Cedar and Juniper are my FAVORITE TREES (/shrubs). Thank Yall SO MUCH for Teaching about their life and roles in their environment 🙏🚂🎼🌹🎵🎶⚕️~C< 3)>>-Z->}
Great video and fantastic information. Even if someone disagrees with this argument, there are many vital principles included in this video that can, and should be, used in many other aspects of our lives. Humans are not above nature. We are a conscious contributor with nature, and our actions have consequences for literally countless other lives.
Yes!
Bravo for this! Ok, first off, I was distracted by the vollume of the music, that I couldn't plainly hear what you were saying. Background music should be barely noticable. It did get better later! Second, I'm an old man now in my 80's, but over the years I've noticed that Oak WQilt Rot hseems to have escalated, and mostly in areas that were cleared of Cedar. I suspect, (have not proof), that Cedar acts as a deterant that protects other trees, esp Oaks from this disease. Many people are allergic to Cedar and I believe that whatever is born in the air also cllects on other trees. It's this substance that may protect whatever tree/plant that gathers it. The devastation from Oak Wilt Rot, destroying these Oaks, is horrible. Making the landscape for many acres, look like something ghostly from another world.
Suspect timing of this video with the fog of misery (i.e. Cedar fever) starting any day now here in NW Austin.
Make some tea with the berries and needles to help your allergies. “Can’t beat em, join em.”
@@symbiosistxTried that. Made it worse.
3:20 on the Rio Grande we call creosote “la gobernadora” bc it steals all the water from the other plants, lol
Some plants produce compounds that kill other plants around them. I think creosote may be one such plant.
Wish I could have heard your summary, but the choral singing drowned it out.
I loath and hate the ash juniper!😂 but thats probably because I am allergic to it. that being said what alternatives are there? what can we use that is a shrubby evergreen giving us the erosion control and micro climate benefits of the ash juniper?
random thought based on your comment about the juniper making the limestone more porous, would it help to drill holes through the limestone where you are planting trees to give a place for the roots to grow into.
Why not just work with the tree instead of trying to replace all of functions it is doing for free with outside inputs?
There really is no better alternative to these junipers. As for allergies, the best thing you can do is stop eating sugar during the holidays since that makes us more prone to flu/cold (or get a flu shot and boost your immune system with stuff like vitamin D and C). The allergy itself isn't so bad, but it becomes unbearable when combined with cold/flu--even mild cases. Also, if you're taking hot showers in city water that has chlorine/chloramines, that could be irritating your lungs and making it worse.
@ElizabethMcGreevy-j2d lol the allergies have put me in the hospital we don't all react the same to allergens.
@symbiosistx agreed on it being the easiest to use and have seen first hand it's ability to help build soil on the hill country rocky slopes but those allergies are rough. And I'm looking for alternatives for the immediate vicinity of my house and farm.
Me and my buddy have been playing around with this stuff on his 1800 acre ranch and there is zero chance of replacing juniper 🤣 that stuff loves to grow!!!!!! And I'm a big fan of things that love to grow with no inputs.
Here in Texas there used to be a business of cutting the tops off these things to make cedar fence posts, leaving an ugly tree even uglier. They were called "cedar choppers". "Don't let your daughter date a cedar chopper." They were seen as kind of low lifes.
There's a whole book on the Cedar Choppers!
I think this is brilliant
Loved hearing from the guys at at the symbiotic hill country team
Do this but for mesquite trees
Thank You for the informative video for The Hill Country!!
Now...
If you can just get the developers to understand & change their clear cutting ways...
We’re working on it!
@symbiosistx I can only hope you are!
Meanwhile, the old growth Oaks are disappearing soooo fast!!
(and the Cedars too!)
I wish you lots of luck!
A great film! These concepts need to be promoted as a real answer to central Texas' water crisis. Can we see any examples of what a restored hill country landscape looks like? With wildlife (particularly predators) so depleted, what strategy can compensate for the missing pieces?
I have some videos (The RIse and Fall of the Texas Hill Country and Regenerating a Quarry) where theres more deep dives into land regeneration here featuring some of the people from this video!
That being said, I have done a lot and will continue to do regeneration content, I want to do more content focus exactly on later stage landscapes!
Thanks for watching! More to come!
Tree is gonna tree where tree trees.
I would prefer the Cedar trees to the damned Huisache tree/bushes that are a thorny barrier and spreads like weeds. I hate the total clearing of land. We've also seen the wild grapes vanish from the fence lines because of land clearing.
Around here in south Texas hackberry is the worst - they will hurt you
I understand why people don't like em but the berries are honestly delicious and these trees feed songbirds like no other!
This was an awesome video!
I'm from south Texas and our version of the juniper is definitely the Chinese Tallow tree. Everyone loves to hate it, but it's the only tree that gives us fall colors. Now I need to do some research and see if that's unfair hate, too!
The primary difference is Chinese Tallow is not from Texas. ;)
Overgrazing by continuous grazing of small fenced in tracts, suppression of fire until it ultimately becomes impossible to control and runs wild, excessive harvesting of timber, monoculture farming . . . These actions of man have ruined the ecosystem in a century and a half or so, an ecosystem that required thousands of years to develop, gone in a flash!
how can you say Cedar has no effect on water when we have bamberger ranch preserve as an example of what can be achieved without cedar? I've cleared acres of cedar on my property, grasses have come back and I see much more wildlife as they appreciate the clearing. I strongly advise that you clear cut as much of the smaller cedar as you can and then trim back the larger cedar trees. Obviously do NOT cut a cedar down if it is near a Madrone tree (I lost 2 small madrones doing that). I have a hilltop property in Bandera County.
When you clear any woody vegetation, springs can sometimes resurface/increase. With this limestone bedrock we have, it's important to wait until the mountain cedars have helped increased soil infiltration and karst porosity before removing. Removing too soon means the grass/forbs won't be able to establish continuous cover to control erosion and runoff. At Bamberger's, the mountain cedars they cleared were older and had done their job. Unfortunately, they cleared hilltops and steeper slopes that years later are now experiencing degradation and erosion.
Of note, while Bamberger's springs stopped flowing during last summer's drought, at least 5 other hillside springs continues to flow--they are all covered with old-growth mountain cedars and other native trees (there's a big difference between bushy pioneer cedars and tree mountain cedars that grow inside forests).
But if you're interested, I would like to come check out your property to see what you've done. Please email me at elizabeth@projectbedrocktx.org.
On the west Texas ranches, they cut them down because the claim is that they consume so much water. The wood is used for fencing, which seems to last forever. I thought they were pretty plants, and wildlife liked them. I was near RockSprings. We were on family property, which wasn’t being maintained for cattle, but had previously been a cattle ranch. I didn’t want to leave the juniper groves.
West Texas soils are different from Edwards Plateau soils. Although the cedar out there aren't using more water than other woody trees, clearing them CAN help increase water supplies. Still need to be careful about soil erosion and infiltration.
It’s my favorite tree.
And I’m super allergic.
3:39 “the only thing that comes back is the Ashe juniper.” Not in my experience. My parents cleared their 250 ac Hill Country ranch 30 years ago (except in the draws). The hilltops are covered in bluestem and other native grasses
So one Hill 30 years ago before climate change sunk its teeth into is representative of the entire ecosystem? Sounds like you were educated in American public schools. You know the ones that have the lowest test scores on the planet? Why don't you wake up and realize that there is a much bigger world with much larger sample sizes than one Hilltop 30 years ago. What we have now is a government led by an ignorant moron Tyrant dictator who is basically applying that same, "well it worked on this one little spot, 30 years ago" logic to our whole country. You got to have the big picture fully resolved in your mind's field of view to understand what is happening right now. When you have somebody blinded by ignorance, stupidity, wealth, extreme wealth, a criminal mindset, a criminal history, and a well documented history of being owned and manipulated by Russian intelligences, then you probably shouldn't listen to him and you definitely shouldn't elect him do the highest office in the land and what you should actually do is throw the motherfuker in prison for the rest of their life because they are convicted of more felonies than it would have taken to put me you and our entire family is into prison for the rest of our lives but this cocksucker gets to be the most powerful man on the planet regardless of all that? Yeah I think something is really broken. Now if you would like to fix that as well as the planet psychology then you have to start looking at the big picture.
Trees worthy of hate: Honey Locust, Prickly Ash, Sweet Gum
why such hatred? 😅
Sweet gum: natures spiny leggo
I cleared 50 acres of cedar that had grown over the last 25 years. What I noticed after clearing and shredding the broom weed is that the grass underneath looked much healthier. The soil varied quite a bit. Some areas held water better compared to other areas that were more dusty. I have the cedar piled up. I really like your idea of creating smaller lines of mulch to help control the water flow. I have done permaculture gardening so I'm familiar with some of the ideas shared. I'll consider selective clearing on the rest of my 295 acres in Bosque County.
Nice! Thanks for watching and sharing your experience. I think how you clear and how you steward the land after make a big difference in the outcome!
Thank you so much for this information. I was just talking to a friend about our cedars, some clear them away and burn the piles. And seeing those piles of once vibrant greenery, now just piles of ugly dead wood, about to be burned was so sad.. Next time you're in Llano I'll buy you a coffee at our local coffee shop, the Fuel House. lol again thank you for this information.
Oak trees are the best. But I don't hate any part of the Texas hill country, unless it is named Greenbriar. Oak is by far my favorite. Too many were likely cut down in past generations.
Stop destroying start creating we have been living wrong we all know something is not right.
I think there is a little more information ignored and not mentioned here. To infer that Texas was once covered with cedar and that man has cleared it all is a bit of a reach. To also claim that cedars do not, in their entirety, consume more ground water, is patently misleading. Also to ignore the clear evidence of invasive proliferation is equally misleading. The bigger story is the complex relationship of cattle and cedars in Texas.
It's a complex issue for sure. I'd encourage you to check the source links provided and do a deep dive on the historical info if you want to get it from the horses mouth. Thanks for chiming in, we're going to keep making content like this so we can get down to the nitty gritty and talk about the complicated, interconnected nature of all of this stuff.
When did they say Texas was covered with these trees? Ashe junipers for the most part grows wherever there's limestone bedrock. That's mostly the Edwards Plateau. Back in the 1800s, junipers on the Edwards Plateau made up about 25% of the cover. And they were highly valued as decay resistant, heartwood trees that were cut down and used for roof/pier beams, utility poles, railroad ties, and fences. Thousands upon thousands were cut and shipped throughout Texas and the western US. They even built railroads into the Hill Country to extract them.
Most importantly, I recognize your enormous potential in this space, so I’ll give you raw feedback, in case you see this (and care to consider). There are some distractions that lead me to pause watching; I’ll finish later though. 1. Immersion breaking grandiloquence: relate to me using the best elements of your natural lexicon. 2. Less is more: Excessive samey screen time and gestures - sometimes I wanted to hear your voiceover and watch you simply experience or interact with the environment rather than talking at the camera to convey that you’re on a journey of discovery with the audience, and place emphasis on the people you interview when they do talk at the camera.
Well, sir, that's you, and *your* particular preference/style. But don't confuse your preference for everybody else's preference. I watched the same video, and I really enjoyed it the way it was presented. I think the message they conveyed in the video had to to be spoken and heard, not just seen.
weedy pioneer species are important to the ecology itself thats why junipers are the most widespread woody plants in the world
You totally miss fire as a method of control. In the past we burned our pastures but now the liability is just too great. If it was natural or Native American induced historically there were great fires that controlled many species and is essential to the natural ecosystem. In my area well northwest of Fort Worth there are areas that have never been cleared or plowed. Much of this was burned once every few years but now not so much and I can clearly see the degradation of the native plants and invasive species coming in. This is land that is not grazed just bailed once per year at least the grass prairie parts. I fear that Texas will become like California with their massive wildfires due mostly to cedar. My wife and I were driving in California several years ago and I told her that now I knew why they have so many wildfires. Just the massive overgrowth. Most of that has now burned.
This is intentional.
The underlayer and undergrowth of Californian forests are very very different from those found here.
On a incredibly large scale, such as in the balcones canyonlands, it makes sense for the US Fish and Wildlife Service and US Forest Service to utilize burning due to scale and scope.
For the average landowner (unless we are talking huge acreage), burning is usually the worst way of going about things because you effectively burn off all of the carbon sequestration that those trees and plants provided when you burn them. These plants have to work much harder and through much more difficult conditions than other regions to perform that sequestration (and on a much longer timescale). You effectively reset the clock on that when you do so. Why not utilize that carbon to instead promote other plant growth that you desire?
Additionally, I think people focus way too much on only cedar when it comes to fire for some reason. Healthy grasslands will burn as much if not more easily than a healthy cedar brake. Everything in central texas is fire prone, not sure why cedar specifically is treated as the only fire hazard.
The largest forest fire in central texas history was loblolly pines in Bastrop (2011 Bastrop Fire). The largest in Texas history was grasslands in the panhandle (2024).
Would like to hear Crime Pays but Botany Doesn't make a clear concise comment on the situation. This is a bit much for me. I have a ton of cedar growing in my flower beds which I transplant from time to time along fenceline or for gifting. Very fast growing privacy hedges that require trimming bc of proximity to sidewalk. Birds love them
Never seen a Cedar tree that couldnt use a good trimming.
Is it Texans that have a problem with the cedar, or Californians? I’m not sure we have any Texans left out here…
Good long lasting fence posts, at least in this country,
The Ash Junipers and the oaks are the trees I love, but unfortunately my property is covered with mesquite trees, I would love to replace these mesquites with the a for mentioned trees.
Mesquites will eventually grow into forests tall enough to ride a horse under and to support a lush cover of mesquite and buffalo grass. It would probably be better to work with what you have. ;)
We used to have several towering mesquite trees, heck they were so tall you could probably ride an elephant under them. The problem with them was shedding. Every other dat, we had to pick up bundles of branches that had fallen. These branches, bristling with thorns, are a menace to pets and mower wheels, fully capable of puncturing the sole of our shoes. It was absolutely unavoidable to walk there uninjured. No thanks.
@@allisonangier1631 A menace to people also. Very much agree, my hands that have been poked by numerous thorns and almost my feet, would very much appreciate them being gone.
@@allisonangier1631 That's true. I wonder how the missionaries and ranchers in the 1700s handled the thorns since that's where they kept their herds. Hmmm...
I've been looking forward to this video. Thanks Dylan.
Of course, the cedar fever that plagues the area doesn't help.
What about the claims from people that they had springs return to lands where cedar was cleared. Are they mistaken, making the wrong cause/effect relationship? Wishful thinking?
Springs can sometimes resurface/increase because when you clear any vegetation, there's less to no water being used. It's a global phenomonen.
My eyes and sinus cavities say “Death to the Juniper!”
The best thing you can do is stop eating sugar during the holidays since that makes us more prone to flu/cold (or get a flu shot and boost your immune system with stuff like vitamin D and C if you can't avoid Auntie Emm's pumpkin pie and cookies). The allergy itself isn't so bad, but it becomes unbearable when combined with cold/flu--even mild cases. Also, if you're taking hot showers in city water that has chlorine/chloramines, that could be irritating your lungs and making it worse. I add a vitamin C filter to neutralize the chloramines--it has helped so much I no longer get asthma.
Go live somewhere else
I grew up in a town called Cedar Park in central texas, we had a cedar chopper festival when I was a little kid. Even though they are important historically and shouldn't be wiped out completely, they are not desirable trees to most folks nowadays and I've never felt bad about removing some of them to allow pasture land to be claimed or to allow trees like oaks, ashes, elms or pecans to prosper instead. An issue like this doesn't have one answer that's right.
100%
The entire point of this video isnt to say that we should never remove or manage cedars, instead, as I say multiple times throughout, we are missing the forest for the trees!
The question should always be one of soil and water, and of observation of the greater system. If you want to remove cedar for many numerous valid reasons, you just have to be aware of what role that tree plays and how it will affect the greater ecosystem. The Ashe Juniper is just one tool and component of our natural systems, not the be all end all, for good or for bad.
Too many people here think they can magically fix all of their issues by just mass removal (often in very aggressive ways) of the ashe juniper. Nature doesn't work like that. Its a delicately balanced system and when you make changes, you need to do so with the understanding and willingness to compensate and/or support it where it needs it!
Juniper trees are not cedar trees
@@garymorgan3313indeed but everybody calls the Ashe juniper a cedar tree so you have to use that terminology as well or people will not realize your talking about the tree they’ve been told is bad.
@@garymorgan3313colloquially in the Hill Country they’re called cedars.
@@garymorgan3313 But like several conifers, they contain cedrol oil. Hence the nickname.
WHY do you need background music? If your message is worthwhile then music is not necessary!
Yes, I did pronounce Coup De Grace wrong, pardon my french.
Mon francais n'est pas bon!
Unforgivable!
Soil? The Hill Country is a solid block of limestone. These California hippies are full of it. 🤣🤣🤣
Where did all the soil go?! Most of it is in the gulf of Mexico due to poor land management practices.
An average of 5" of soil was lost during the mid1900s mass clearing we did. There are also many large areas with soil deeper than 12", such as around Kerrville and Johnson City. But go dig under a thicket of junipers and you'll find soil rebuilding. But it will never be deep because this is Texas karst country.
FYI I'm a 6th gen Texan, so do not suggest I'm from California.
I am not going to say you are wrong, but I am also not going to say you are right. In truth there are many people like my biological mother who hate Cedar, in this case Ash Juniper because they are either allergic to it or believe they are allergic to it. And living in the Texas hill country, I have seen old growth Cedars that are more than 60 foot tall. There is one in the middle of the Antioch Cemetery between Blanket, Tx and Zephyr, Texas if it still stands. That tree got damaged in a bad storm about 6 or so years ago, but last I seen it was still there.
The best place to find old junipers is an old cemetery. I found a giant one in Skyview Cemetery west of Kyle. It's trunk measures about 36" wide. Is the juniper in this image the big one? images.findagrave.com/photos/2012/55/CEM1730469_133018621406.jpg
"The Hill Country" could be synonymous with "The Ashe Juniper Country"
We call them "Mountain Cedars" in our part of the woods...
The Northwest corner of The Hill Country.
Thank you for this research, just subscribed.
EMBRACE The AWE!
Yes!
I call them mountain cedars so people don'
t think I'm talking about Eastern Red Cedars or some other juniper that uses cedar in its nickname.
The video link below was responsible for opening my eyes. Growing up my dad considered “cedars” to be “trash/ water hogs/invasive/ remove them all”! So I had just assumed he was right. But after finding that video many years ago, and doing more research I’ve discovered he was very ignorant in that regard.
th-cam.com/video/fuuw9GEVcEs/w-d-xo.html
Steve Nelle!