Page 22 - Tạp chí bonsai cây cảnh BCI 2016Q2

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

20 | BCI | April/May/June 2016