to increase conservation values ..." So declared vegetation scientist Frank Egler in 

 his controversial book The Plight of the Right-of-Way Domain.^ Egler had held 

 these views since the early 1950s. They pertained to the feasibility of developing 

 low-growing communities of shrubs and herbs as cover on transmission ROWs. Such 

 vegetation types are relatively stable (i.e.. they do not readily change into grass or tree 

 types). Thus, they are obviously superior to stands of fast-growing tree shoots that 

 quickly intrude into overhead lines causing power outages, or to grassland in which 

 undesired tree seedlings readily establish themselves. 



Since the brush control methods then used did not give adequate root-kill of trees, 

 maintenance had to be performed at frequent intervals. In contrast, low-growing 

 (usually < 15 ft. tall) and relatively stable shrub communities need less maintenance 

 over the life of the line. Therefore, dollars are saved. Moreover, ROWs rich in bushes 

 and small trees are productive of berries, nuts, drupes and pomes, and thus make 

 good wildlife habitat. 



In his remark about research, Egler was criticizing industry for not taking 

 advantage of existing scientific information on plant and animal ecology, but was not 

 suggesting that all was known. Theories of vegetation change (i.e., plant succession) 

 remain highly pertinent to ROW research and management. Because of this, and 

 because they demonstrate the important role that academic plant ecology played in 

 the development of this field, a brief review is warranted. 



The initial reaction of managers and ecologists generally to the idea of low- 

 maintenance shrub communities was: "nonsense." The theory of the period, which 

 had become dogma, was that shrubs were only a transitory stage in an orderly 

 succession of communities culminating in a climax or "adult" forest. This theory, the 

 creation of influential ecologist Frederick Clements, held that a site stripped of its 

 trees would return to trees through an orderly sequence of "immature" stages: 

 generally, (1) grassland, (2) herbland, (3) shrubland, (4) shade intolerant tree stage, 

 and finally (5) climax forest — a specific association of species that could reproduce in 

 its own shade (the other stages could not), hence perpetuating itself indefinitely. Let 

 Clements himself, in his definitive work Plant Succession and Indicators,* describe 

 his theory: 



The fundamental nature of the climax and its significance in the life-history 

 of a vegetation are indicated by the fact that it is the mature or adult stage of 

 a vegetation . . . The climax information is the fully developed community, 

 of which all initial and medial communities are but stages of develop- 

 ment . . . The explanation of the universal occurrence of a climax in succes- 

 sion lies in the fact that succession is reproduction. The reproduction 

 process can no more fail to terminate in the adult form (climax) in vegeta- 

 tion than it can in the case of an individual plant. 



Clements' concept left plenty of room for stalled stages withinthe progression, e.g., 

 the subclimax and disclimax. Nevertheless, its core precept of a deterministic 

 vegetation ontogeny akin to that undergone by an individual organism was ripe for 

 exploitation by those who desired, for various reasons, to discredit or challenge the 

 heresy of "natural" shrub-herb communities that were relatively stable and easy to 

 keep that way. Accordingly, a sound management concept stagnated for years. This 

 fascinating episode is of interest because it reveals how basic human propensities 

 enter into the development and flow of knowledge, thus greatly affecting ideals of 

 research, management, and societal good. 



Contrary to the beliefs of many early workers there were (and are) numerous 

 examples of vegetation types with "neotenic" qualities: the grassy balds and scrubby 

 slicks of the southern Appalachians, the heath barrens of the Coastal Plain, and the 

 chaparral types of California's Encinal (oak) Province. In fact such communities may 

 be seen everywhere, when one only looks; Viburnum, Sali.x, Cornus, Kalmia, 

 Rhododendron. Solidago. and ferns form them in the east; in the west, Berberis, 



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