Tree Plantations on the Bear Run Nature Reserve

Shaped largely by water and by rock, the 5,075-acre Bear Run Nature Reserve is a landscape rich in natural resources, including a forest that is continually changing — whether through acts of nature such as fires and floods, or through created disturbances, such as logging, farming, gypsy moth invasions and surface mining.

When the Kaufmanns first came to Bear Run in 1916, nearly all of the land had been timbered — largely for railway ties and mine posts. To help prevent contamination of the watershed and offer protection to the forests, the Kaufmanns began acquiring more land, only to have the area besieged by the chestnut blight in the 1920s. Some unusual stump tables still exist as tangible evidence of what had been the most valuable timber tree in the northeastern United States.

By the time the Kaufmanns took title to the grounds in 1933, they were committed to a comprehensive plan of conservation. The 1930s may seem early for conservation planning, but forests were first studied as ecosystems and then as resources in the 1700s in Germany. As German forests came under management, vast plantations of pine, beech, or other single specie trees replaced the dark mixed woods. Plantations were orderly and neat, with no windfall or “trash” allowed on the ground and offered immediate economic benefits.

Given their background and frequent trips abroad, it is hardly surprising that the Kaufmanns followed the German model of a managed tree plantation. They planted nearly 100,000 seedlings, including 20,000 Norway spruce that are visible today along the main road and entrance to Fallingwater; 20,000 white pines that can be seen near the Barn at Fallingwater; and a mix of 50,000 white and red pines and Norway spruces planted throughout the fields.

Planting such a monoculture of trees was seen as good conservation practice at that time because it quickly converted field to forest and helped to prevent erosion. However, the practice has since been abandoned because the meticulously straight and unnatural rows of even-aged single species trees do not allow anything else to grow beneath the dense canopy, which in turn causes potential susceptibility to disease and insects. From an ecological perspective, it would be better to promote the more natural and diverse vegetation typical of the area and do away with the “plantations” that support comparatively few species.

Western Pennsylvania Conservancy’s Bear Run Conservation Plan identifies the most important resources and strategies to address threats and ensure a healthy and diverse forest ecosystem in the future.

Go to the featured article, The Northcentral Forests of Pennsylvania.