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Comment by colechristensen | Hacker News Reader

Go plant an oak tree. Not in theory, not a big plan for a monumental effort, just plant an oak tree. They survive for many lives of men and are a cornerstone for feeding the entire ecosystem. If you can't plant one where you're supposed to, plant one where you're not. It takes an afternoon not a lifetime.

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Where I am white oak grows by the hundreds of thousands. I see new seedlings ever summer but I would estimate only about 3-5% get past that seedling stage. All that to say that an afternoon of work isn’t enough, if you want to grow a tree you need to follow up on it for atleast a year or more.

Half of my property is woods and there are multiple fallen oaks that are slowly returning to the ground, but the canopy remains exposed. I'm constantly torn between letting "nature take its course" or speeding things up with a chainsaw and carefully sapling.

I have also considered walnuts or fruit-bearing trees and slowly converting my land to something more akin to a food forest.

Oaks ARE a food forest for birds and bugs and small mammals and such. They create food chains. Oaks are particularly good at this.

I think the best path is helping nature along to be the best that it can be naturally. There's a bunch of artificial gardening which would never sustain itself that ought to be avoided because it only looks like you're doing something worthwhile.

I'd highly suggest reading up on different keystone species for creating year round food sources for your local ecosystem with native plants and help nature along a little with a light touch.

You do have to protect them from deer for the first few years.

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