Site Discussions

Now that we’ve stared down the barrel of a full blown depression, there is an upside to a depressed economic engine.  How so?  What’s good for the economy is not necessarily good for the environment and our forests.  Reduced economic output also results in…

Reduced greenhouse gas emmisions.
Opportunity for forests to rejuvenate due to reduced demand on building materials.
Increased emphasis on a more local, natural food chain.
Reduction in commercial fishing allows wild stocks to recover.

I don’t believe the economy has bottomed out as the increasing world commodity markets indicate high prices for gold, silver, copper and oil…but when it does, we will still have our forests to support us.

This article brings me back to growing up on the farm with Charlie Brown trees (this meant any tree growing wild that looked somewhat decent).  We actually used to have to drill holes in the trunk and insert extra branches to make it “full”.  The nice thing was that it never blocked the bay window because you could see right through it.

This comment came in as a Letter to the Editor for the printed magazine.

The phrase “native invasive” in Irwin Post’s informative article (“Got Fern: Controlling Native Invasive Plants” Autumn 2010 issue) needs elaboration to do justice to the ecological case for reducing the prevalence of beech. In many parts of the Northeast, oak and other disturbance-dependent forests are not sustaining themselves under current conditions. They are slowly being displaced by beech and other trees that can perpetuate themselves in their own shade. Few oak forests are being created in these areas, mainly due to a precipitous drop in the amount of fire, clearcuts, and natural reforestation of abandoned farmland.

Currently, the fire rotation (total number of forest acres divided by the average number of acres burned annually) in Connecticut is over 3,500 years, but historically fire occurred very frequently, at least near Native American populations. Fire occurrence is also dramatically below the historic norm in the other Northeast states.

Oaks are unparalleled in their value to wildlife, not only because acorns provide the highest source of plant based protein but also because of the quantity and diversity of Lepidoptera they host. Oaks have not been able to sustain themselves in the Southeast (except on droughty sites) under current conditions, so it is unlikely that even with global warming, oak forests will be able to sustain themselves on similar sites in the north. A general increase in precipitation that is expected with global warming will likely lead to a decrease in the already low fire occurrence. The ecological problem that beech and other shade-tolerant plants poise is that their current trajectory is toward creating a more homogeneous forest landscape and possibly a beech monoculture in some areas. In order to maintain diverse forest ecosystems, disturbance-dependent species must be favored over beech and other shade tolerant trees at least on part of the forest landscape. Those interested in sustaining diverse forest ecosystems may find it useful to cut beech in July and August as it appears to reduce the percentage of sprouting beech stumps. Also, some oak saplings are outgrowing beech sprouts after a clearcut and subsequent prescribed fire. This simulates the historic establishment of oak forests when substantial fires often followed severe blow downs.

Emery Gluck
Lebanon, CT

In times of economic downturn, the lands and wildlife always pay the initial price. Our charges would be next. Until we are in over our heads, we do not know the damage we will be creating. Everyone’s hands are in this gigantic cookie jar. “I’ll just take what I can for now. I’ll be dead by the time I run out.” 

Too many uneducated takers and not enough educated doers.

And I thought we were the only ones. Every year at Thanksgiving, we take down one of the balsam firs encroaching on the fields. We bring home the top seven feet and make a wildlife brush-pile out of the rest. It’s scraggly and asymetrical, but it’s cute and it’s ours. It’s also the freshest tree possible and it lasts until after New Years!

Northern Woodlands is one of the best publications ever. I look forward to every issue, and I have learned much from reading the thought-provoking and informative articles. Keep up the good work with a first-rate magazine!

Re Paul Doscher’s remark, “I despise Colorado Blue Spruce”—why?

I actually like Red Spruce for a Christmas Tree. We get one from our land each year. The challenge is with its long horizontal branches, but can work if you have some space and aren’t looking for “perfection”.

My favorite is Arizona corkbark fir, (Abies Arizonica?).  It looks a lot like a blue spruce from a distance - but, unlike a spruce - it has soft needles!

My favorite Christmas tree in years past was the Christmas tree my father made by leaving the bottom branch of a balsam fir and staking it with a board to turn it up to the sky, letting it fill out quickly due to the healthy root system which spurred a very rapid growth and it really filled out quite nicely. Try it-its amazing how nice of a tree you will have in a few short years!

I have land in Tioga Co, NY with a population of white pine among other needle leaved evergreens.  Having tried a variety over the years we settled on white pine. We would top promising trees as they were growing to fill them out.  They were easier to trim and the aroma was wonderful. Best of all, @ my wife, is that they did not drop needles.

“Godfrey mighty!” exclaimed Danny, “We got us a cat spruce.  It stinks!” 
It was 1973, my first Christmas in Maine.  I was teaching in a two room schoolhouse.  Twelve special needs children ages six to seventeen.  We trudged out back of the school looking for a tree worthy of our 12’ ceilings, finally deciding on the best shape we could get from the slim pickings in a coastal woods.
  The peculiar odor became more evident as the tree warmed up and the days wore on.  Still, it was beautiful with lights and hand-made ornaments and strings of popcorn for the birds. 
  On the last day of school before vacation, we stripped the tree of ornaments and considered the best way to get it outside.  The school had huge, double hung windows, no storms in those days.  We looked at the tree.  I looked at the kids and then at the window. 
“Yes!” they cried almost in unison as the same thought ran through our heads.  So out the window it went.  Thus began a tradition that lasted the next five years of the school’s existence.  Not a cat spruce, of course, but pitching the tree out the window as our finale to Christmas in our school. 
Years later, when I would ask my former students, “What was one of your favorite memories of our school?” invariably it would be, “Pitching the tree out the window.  And that gosh all mighty smell of that cat spruce.”
From then on we were always careful to get a balsam fir so we could enjoy the clean, spicy aroma.  It is for that reason my favorite Christmas tree is a fir.

Balsam fir, no contest - for the fragrance and the fact that it’s native, as Jackie said.  And maybe for nostalgia too - growing up we always had a balsam fir.

Risking heresy, I have to admit my favorite Christmas Tree is no longer my native Balsam Fir, nor the ever popular Fraser Fir.  I dispise Colorado Blue Spruce, and only tolerate White Spruce.  My favorites list includes Nordmann Fir (from Europe), Concolor (Rocky Mountains) and Korean Fir.  All these I like because they are virtually pest free (yes, I’m a grower) and have color or fragrance that customers find appealling. 

As one who generally prefers native species in landscaping, and would like to keep exotic invasives out of my woodlot, I can’t say the natives can compete with my favorite Abies arizonica (Corkbark Fir) when it comes to color, shape and beauty.  My mentor in the business, Bob Girardin, calls them “Blue Alpine Fir” so people can remember them.  They grow slowly, can be susceptible to late frost damage, but darn, they are beautiful.

My vote goes to Balsam Fir, a beautifully fragrant tree that holds its needles and is also native to the northeastern US.  A true Northern Woodlander!  I made the mistake of cutting a White Spruce one year and kept looking around the room for where the cat had peed.  But it was the tree that smelled bad.  It had a bird’s nest in it, though, so that was some compensation.

i love this article

I own a 321 acre farm and can say without question the management program of the state is a disaster. In the forty five years we’ve been here, not once has a biologist visited. During that same period of time the deer population based on actual sightings has gone from twenty-five to thirty deer a day to maybe 4 per month on a good month. We used to have twenty five hunters stay with us and hunt our properties and now there are none. This has also impacted our income. This year I planted a new alfalfa piece and not one deer came to graze during the entire year.

You can’t compare PA or CT to VT. They are different in may respects, among which are milder winters, longer growing seasons and different soils. You should do your comparing to places like NH or ME. Also you can’t do a deer study sitting in front of a computer entering bogus information into a model.

If you want a true study, get out and meet with landowners, put out cameras, walk the area (more than once) and talk to hunters, loggers, farmers. Also invest some money with landowners for food plots, and habitat improvement. True management is more than issuing licenses, permits, tags and generating phoney information. True management takes work and cooperation with the landowner.

Apropos of all this… a press release from the Massachusetts DFW came in today asking for help in a NE cottontail survey:

Beginning this winter, the Division of Fisheries and Wildlife (DFW) will be conducting a statewide survey of cottontail rabbits to assess the distribution and population of New England cottontails (Sylvilagus transitionalis), the only cottontail rabbit species native to the northeastern United States and rarely seen. Two kinds of cottontail rabbits are found in Massachusetts, the common non-native Eastern cottontail (Sylvilagus floridanus) and the New England cottontail. Division biologists are asking for the help of hunters, highway department workers, animal control officers, and other interested citizens across the state to provide DFW with cottontail carcasses or intact cottontail skulls for the survey.

Carcasses or intact cottontail heads should be placed in a plastic bag and frozen until they can be dropped off at a DFW District Office, DFW hatchery, or DFW’s Field Headquarters in Westborough. Please include a note with contact information, date of collection and detailed location information such as town, street or land parcel. A marked topographic map or GPS coordinates are ideal, but any detailed location information will greatly aid biologists.

When I was a young seasonal field biologist I worked for Maine Inland Fisheries and Wildlife, conducting some of the first research on cottontails in southern Maine (in 1998). At that time there was still a 6 a day bag limit! Hard to believe now. Having come and gone from my native Maine several times over the last decade or more I’ve been watching this issue with great interest. Rather than a species focus it would be most useful to discuss what’s necessary to benefit an entire suite of early successional species, including the NE cottontail, the American Woodcock, the Ruffed Grouse, golden-winged warblers, willow flycatchers, among others. This will require a new management paradigm that many New Englanders are likely unfamiliar with (your recent article on Woodcock captured this nicely). I encourage landowners to think about developing early successional habitat on their property through programs like the New England-New York Forestry Initiative. According to the NRCS “$2,000,000 in federal funding through the Wildlife Habitat Incentives Program (WHIP) is available to assist Maine forest land owners with forest land planning and management under the New England-New York Forestry Initiative.” http://www.me.nrcs.usda.gov/news/News_2011ForestryInitiativeSignup.html
Thanks for sparking such good discussions, NW!

Thanks to Chris for forwarding this interesting article to me.  The folks in Maine are to be congratulated for their vision and thoughtful approach to preserving the memory and the essence of such a majestic old natural treasure.  Herbie’s beauty has not been lost completely.  Maybe no longer as a tree, but now as surviving works of outstanding craft and objects of art for many geneations to admire and cherish.
The story is interesting, touching and heartwarming.  Thanks for an article well written.
Larry Ludke