MANAGEMENT TREE

Management Tree

A Management Structure is often referred to as a tree. This is an accurate description for the following reasons:

- It is made almost entirely of wood.

- Parts of it can be dead for years before they drop off.

- If a branch falls off, most of the parasites move back to the main structure.

- It takes years to react to any environmental change.

- A large one can transpire hundreds of gallons of liquid in a day.

- It sometimes carries a great many nuts.

- If not pruned regularly it will not bear much fruit.

- Small pieces, which are chopped off often, grow again in a few years.

- It can be fired, but usually needs lots of paper to get it going.

- It may provide shelter for those underneath, but also blocks out most of the light.

- From the top one can see for miles in all directions, except vertically downward.

- Anything heavy dropped from the top reaches the bottom quickly; the intervening layers merely delay it slightly.

- Parts of it can be used to make boards (of varying thickness) but unless properly seasoned the quality will be poor.

- It bends easily in light winds but in storms it is rarely flexible enough to avoid damage.

- It sometimes gets the chop, but usually only after it has been dead or rotten for years.

- A man falling from the upper levels can often grab a lower branch to break his fall, but a man falling from lower levels goes straight to the ground.

- Sometimes one can move from tree to tree without touching the ground. One can travel thus for considerable distances eventually reaching a point at which one has absolutely no knowledge of the ground below.

- Monkeys can get to the top with remarkable speed.