Q: Value of brushpiles

[e.g. g]

I seem to remember a past Fred posting wondering if the oft-repeated oft-recommended high value of brushpiles had ever actually been tested.

There are for sure plenty of casual references on this very listserve to noticing creatures in a brushpile.  Enough to prove the convention?

What do we think?  

And are brushpiles indeed valuable enough to be worth long hard physical labour to create some, or to relocate some inconvenient ones?  Valuable enough to outweigh the (possibly exaggerated) fire risk of leaving out a lot of dry ground slash and windfall?

Elizabeth G.

[Fred Schueler]

On 9/25/2025 1:17 PM, 'e.g. g' via NatureList wrote:

> I seem to remember a past Fred posting wondering if the oft-repeated
> oft-recommended high value of brushpiles had ever actually been tested.

* here's the document for that -
https://ofnc.ca/conservation-how-to/brush-piles-improving-backyard-habitat
- basically, since we are cutting so much brush to control invasives,
and previously as livestock feed, they're a form of neatness for us,
while they're whooped as a bit of messiness on overly prim grounds. Also
the species that are whooped as mostly using them are also mostly
species not found this far north.

Since I wrote the essay, we've had a population explosion of Cepaea
nemoralis snails on the piles of brush left from controlling Buckthorn,
and yesterday I counted 115 snails chewing through a small pile of
Cathartic Buckthorn.

fred.
===============================================

>
> There are for sure plenty of casual references on this very listserve to
> noticing creatures in a brushpile.  Enough to prove the convention?
>
> What do we think?
>
> And are brushpiles indeed valuable enough to be worth long hard physical
> labour to create some, or to relocate some inconvenient ones?  Valuable
> enough to outweigh the (possibly exaggerated) fire risk of leaving out a

> lot of dry ground slash and windfall? - Elizabeth G.

--
------------------------------------------------------------
Frederick W. Schueler & Aleta Karstad
Fragile Inheritance Natural History - https://fragileinheritance.ca/
2024 annual letter: https://clt1233162.bmeurl.co/11E63979
6 St-Lawrence Street Bishops Mills, RR#2 Oxford Station, Ontario K0G 1T0
on the Smiths Falls Limestone Plain 44.87156° N 75.70095° W
------------------------------------------------------------