Native Shrubs Important but Overlooked

On Saturday, 12-1-12 four volunteers and two staff (including Volunteer Coordinator Yvonne Dunphe)  planted about 200 native shrubs and small trees at Germantown MetroPark.  These shrubs were grown from seed by the Marianist Evironmental Education Center in Beavercreek.  They were planted to create an edge habitat composed of native shrubs and trees.  Each plant was protected from deer and rabbits by a plastic shelter.

Volunteers Mike Stanton, Mike Shade, Patrick Kennedy, and Marga Huban proudly pose after planting 200 native shrubs at Germantown MetroPark on December 1.  Great job everyone!!

Southwest Ohio has many species of sun-loving shrubs and small trees that lived in openings in the forests and along the edges of prairies and wetlands prior to human settlement.    Many are very important to wildlife.  Wild hazelnuts and plums have edible nuts and berries and make thickets for nesting birds.  Hoptree is a major food plant for the giant swallowtail butterfly, and many others like blackhaw viburnum and American crabapple are important parts of "edge" habitats. Many species of birds like yellow breasted chat, blue-winged warbler, and willow flycatcher need edge habitats. Unfortunately most of these plant and bird species have become quite uncommon in southwest Ohio.  The loss of fencerows and edges to clean farming over the years, the massive colonization of open areas by invasive shubs (bush honeysuckle, autumn olive, common buckthorn etc), and invasion of openings by trees are the likely reasons for their decline.

Wild Plum (Prunus americana)

American Crab (Malus coronaria)

Hoptree or Wafer Ash (Ptelia trifoliata)

American Hazelnut (Corylus americana)

Managing for edges is difficult, mainly because they are actually land in transition.  Without some kind of disturbance they are inevitable invaded by canopy trees and become young forests (often poor quality ones).
Edges and thickets are often too thick to mow with conventional equipment such as a bushog, and too labor intensive to do it by hand.  As a result, they are often lost to succession.

A few years ago Five Rivers MetroParks solved this problem with the purchase of a Fecon.  This tough, tracked tree/shrub whacker can turn the biggest honeysuckle or buckthorn into mulch.  After some follow-up spraying the old thickets of invasive shrubs are ready to be restored with native shrub species.

Habitat management plans in Five Rivers MetroParks natural areas are designed to maintain a variety of habitats and plant and animal species.  At the core of most natural areas is some mature forest.  Plans call for the forest to be protected and managed to achieve mature status, and to get larger on adjacent land.  Managed/restored thickets (controlled succession) zones border the forests, and open grasslands border the controlled succession, usually on the park boundary.

90's Direct Seeding Effort Revisited

In 1990 Doug Smith, a MetroParks staff member at Carriage Hill Farm noticed there was something wrong with succession in the nearby Carriage Hill MetroPark.  Doug was the Restoration Specialist at the Farm, in charge of restoring the farmstead there to its condition in the 1880's.  Doug knew (and knows) a lot about woodworking, and was really good at making just about anything from historic bridges to period furniture.  He also knew quite a bit about trees, and noticed that the natural succession taking place on the nearby abandoned farmland was not growing trees that would ever be useful to a woodworker.  Oak, hickory, walnut, and tuliptree, his favorites were few and far between, with virtually no small ones around.  Doug proposed planting these hardwoods into a designated timber management area to produce lumber for future generations.

In 1991 we designated about 20 acres for this task and the farm staff had the ground plowed and disked up.  For trees we went to see my dad, Gervais Nolin, in Fairborn.  I knew Dad had LOTS of acorns in the fall and to him disposing of them was a big nuisance.  We went to his place and hauled off many bags stuffed with acorns of white and bur oak and took them back to Carriage Hill.  The acorns were mixed with some black walnuts and hand broadcast over the field.

The first few years we could see some little oaks sprouting, but mostly very tall goldenrod and other herbaceous species.  Then we started noticing that rabbits were chewing the little oaks in the winter, sawing them off like little beavers.  At the same time white-tailed deer were having a population boom, and they loved eating the oaks that got by the mice.  Should any oak have the temerity to withstand this browsing they inevitably were used by bucks to rub the velvet of their antlers.  As a result the trees were cut, eaten, or de-barked every year.  This was pretty discouraging so we admitted defeat and pretty much gave up on the project.  A few years later the staff at the farm decided they needed some more ground for crop production and plowed up much of it for that purpose.

Conservation Technician Rob Ligas standing in thick stand of white and bur oak planted  by seeding in 1991.

Fast forward to 2010.  Conservation Biologist Mike Enright was laying out zones for the new controlled bowhunting program at Carriage Hill.  One day he came into the office and asked if anyone knew where all theyoung oaks out there came from.  What?!  How many?  Oh at least a couple hundred.  We went out there soon after that and I was delighted find it just as he said, several hundred bur and white oaks ranging in size from 2 -20 feet high.  Some had obviously been chewed, eaten, rubbed many times only to sprout again.  Many had multiple stems, and the whole area had become overgrown with shrubs, particularly Amur honeysuckle and autumn olive.  Mike and his staff went to work clearing out the invasive shrubs and found that many more stunted survivors were out there.

Since then the trees have been pruned to allow one lead stem, additional tree species have been planted (and protected by tree shelters), and the failure has turned into a least a partial success.  It could have been a much greater success if we had not given up and allowed it to be plowed for crops.  Oh well, live and learn.  In this case, don't give up!

Direct Seeding Efforts Completed

Seed collected from the successful "Go Nuts" campaign http://www.metroparks.org/Reforestation/GoNuts.aspx
was planted at Carriage Hill MetroPark on November 9.  A twenty acre field at Carriage Hill MetroPark was plowed and disked by a local farmer.  MetroParks Conservation Staff Steve Sherman, Alyssa Balter, and Matt Parker distributed the precious harvest. Sherman drove the ATV in lines across the field while Parker and Baltar flung the seeds from the back.  The farmer then disked the seed into the soil.

Matt Parker and Alyssa Balter fling the harvest while Steve Sherman drives.

The seed was worked into the ground by disking

Planting area at Carriage Hill MetroPark

Mixed mast harvest from "Go Nuts" campaign

The seeding rate was about 4 gallons of mixed seed per acre.  The buckets of mixed seed contained white oak, bur oak, swamp white oak, chinquapin oak, pignut hickory, shagbark hickory, mockernut hickory, shellbark hickory, flowering dogwood, Ohio buckeye, and blackhaw viburnum.

This was the first try at large scale direct seeding for MetroParks since the 1990's.  That planting was at first deemed a failure.  In fact it turned out to be rather successful, which just goes to show that land restorers should not write off a project too soon because the results are not visible right away!  The next post will be about that interesting effort.

Successful Seed Collection!

Five Rivers MetroParks had a very successful seed collection season.  The agency initiated the "Go Nuts" campaign to inform and galvanize the public to collect oak and hickory seeds to be used for reforestation.

Volunteers came in all ages!

Freshly collected seed

It was a great mast year for white oaks and hickories, and enthusiastic supporters did not let us down.  Volunteers were encouraged to collect the seeds from natural areas, do the "float test" to determine if the seed was viable, and turn them in to one of two facilities for processing.  .  At Cox Arboretum Hort Tech Meredith Cobb and her team of dedicated "Tree Corps" volunteers put in many hours work to sort, test, bag, and label the seeds.  Altogether about 200 gallons of viable seed was collected.  Most seed collected was oak and hickory since these important canopy trees are not spreading well.  Species collected in bulk were white oak, bur oak, chinquapin oak, swamp white oak, shagbark hickory, pignut hickory, and bitternut hickory.  Lesser quantities of mockernut hickory, shellbark hickory, red oak, and shumard oak were also collected.  Many other species were collected in smaller quantities, particularly native shrubs and understory species such as spicebush and  flowering dogwood.

About 1/3 of the seed collected is being kept at Cox Arboretum to be used in late winter to propagate about 14,000 seedlings for the popular and successful Forest Foster Tree program.  This program gets the seedlings started, then distributed to volunteers who care for them at home over the summer.  They are then planted at MetroParks restoration areas the following spring.

Mixed seed ready for planting

The remainder of the seeds are being used for an additional reforestation technique, direct seeding.  Two small 5- acre fields (Germantown and Carriage Hill MetroParks) and one large 20 acre field (Carriage Hill MetroPark) were prepared for planting. Seeds from the fall collection were mixed together to match the soils of each site.  On October 26 and 27 volunteers planted the two smaller sites with specially made acorn dibble sticks made from pvc pipe.

Nut planting with pvc dibbles at Germantown MetroPark

The larger site is going to be planted with a tractor mounted salt spreader in the next couple of weeks.  I'll post about how that goes.

Time to Plant Some Oaks!

Chuck Chambers measures a big white oak at Englewood MetroPark

Oaks as a group are a very important part of our mature forests.  MetroParks cover map data reveal that oaks as a group make up 25% of the canopy of our mature forests, the largest component.  They are long-lived, slow growing, commercially valuable, produce big crops of food for wildlife, and most are drought and fire resistant.  Oaks are shade intolerant.  This means that they have to have sunlight and cannot grow in the shade of other trees.  Acorns and young oaks are designed to colonize open areas where they can get the sunlight they need.  Around here we have eight species: northern red (Quercus rubra), chinquapin (Q. muhlenbergii), bur (Q. macrocarpa),  Shumard (Q.shumardii), white (Q. alba), swamp white (Q. bicolor), shingle (Q. imbricaria), and black (Q. nigra).

Strangely though, its pretty difficult to find a young oak out there.  The big ones in the woods still produce big crops of fall acorns, but almost none of these seeds become a tree.  This phenomenon and problem is not unique to southwest Ohio, it is happening all over the eastern and midwestern United States.  It seems we are destined to lose some our most valuable and important forest trees.  This chart shows the components of young forests in MetroParks, note the lack of oak.

What is happening to oaks?  The three main things that are preventing oak reproduction around here are:

Dull Woods Conservation Area:
 A very nice fragment.

1. Fragmentation-  Acorns are spread mostly by squirrels and blue jays.   Squirrels carry acorns a short distance and bury them individually for snacking later.  Fortunately for oaks the squirrel's memory must not be that great and some acorns are forgotten.  If they were buried in an open area they have a chance to grow into a mature tree.  Because of this, oaks seeds don't disperse very far from the parent tree.   Unfortunately for oaks, our local forests have been reduced to small patches and isolated woodlots.  Therefore, only a fraction of the landscape, the part that is near an existing mature oak, is open to oak colonization.


2. Too Many Deer-  White-tailed deer love to eat acorns, and they especially like oak seedlings.  Any oak that does manage to take root in a good spot is likely going to be eaten by a deer.  Oaks and deer have always had to co-exist, but with densities these days of over 50 animals per square mile, oaks don't have a chance.

3. Lack of Fire-  Oaks have evolved such that trees and their seedlings are resistant to fire.  Prior to about 1930 fire was a common occurrence in many of the forests of the United States.  In the eastern United States the Native Americans, pioneers, and early settlers commonly used fire to create and maintain open landscapes and forests.  Fires around here were not the big crown fires that we see on television out west.  They were low ground fires that burned up the leaves and sticks.  They also burned up the seedlings of most trees.  But oaks had an edge, they could withstand this, and their reproduction was good.  Nearly all of the large oaks that we still see today likely had their start after one of these fires.  Smokey the Bear was very effective though, and fire is no longer part of woodland management around here.  As a result, seeds of other trees such as black cherry, locust, and sugar maple are the ones that get a start.

How can we help oaks?  In more forested parts of Ohio the most common method is clearcut logging.  Openings are created in existing forests containing oak by removing all the trees in a small area.  Acorns and existing young oaks are then free to grow in the sun and make a new oak forest.  This works especially well in hilly, wooded southeastern Ohio.

Young Oaks Thriving Thanks to Tree Shelters

 Around here we don't have much forest land, and clear cutting what we do have would not be a good idea.  What we can do is plant oaks into old fields and other open areas where it would be good to have them.  If a young oak can get above the competition and browsing deer it will do fine.  In fact, given the drier weather we have been having it makes even more sense to plant oaks.  I'd recommend figuring 4 dollars per oak seedling though.  Good bare root seedlings can be purchased for about a dollar a tree, but you'll also need a tree shelter and stake to protect it for the first several years.

If you want to volunteer to help grow and plant oaks on the MetroParks go to
www.metroparks.org/forests
 and sign up!

Upper Twin Puts the Ahhh in Cahnservation!



Fall at the UTCA

 Yesterday I walked the Upper Twin Conservation Area (UTCA).  This 470-acre area lies in Jackson and German Townships along Twin Creek (upstream from Germantown MetroPark).  The UTCA is the closest thing you can find to wilderness in Montgomery County (at least).  There are no traffic noises, very few homes around it, and no developed facilities.  It contains the finest stand of mature upland forest I know of in the county (Markey Woods), large areas of bottomland hardwoods, young forest, meadows, recently abandoned farm fields, and beautiful Twin Creek flowing throught he middle of it.



Three Valley Conseration Trust Executive Director Larry Frimmerman at a private forest tract in the UTCA protected by MetroParks and TVCT

 The UTCA is greatly enhanced by the presence of 1711 acres of surrounding private land that is in permanent conservation easement.  These easements were purchased from the current owners and require that the land be kept in its current conservation or agricultural condition.  These easments have been completed in partnership with the Three Valley Conservation Trust (TVCT), a land trust based in Oxford, OH  http://www.3vct.org/home_20.aspx.  TVCT is great at obtaining federal and state grants to cover most of the costs of these easements.

Protection efforts in the UTCA started in 1999 with a 92-acre conservation easement along Twin Creek donated by the Schaeffer family.  The first purchase was a 172-acre buy the next year.  The land and easements were acquired steadily through 2009.

It is hoped that MetroParks can extend the Twin Valley backpack trail north from Germantown before too long.  If done this would be a great addition to the TVT.

Natural Succession is Broken

Many people have heard about the concept of natural succession.  This is the process by which nature restores a forest on land that has been deforested.  After the fire/windstorm/clearcut the land grows into annual grasses and flowering plants, these give way to perennial plants and seedlings of shrubs and trees.  The shrubs and trees grow and compete for light.  Shade tolerant trees and plants then recolonize the young forest.  Some trees get big, layers develop, and presto, new old forest.

Young forest choked with amur honeysuckle

Dominant Trees in Young Forests of Five Rivers MetroParks

This process still works pretty well in heavily forested areas, but here in sw Ohio I say it is busted.  The forest land has been reduced to isolated fragments, many of which were impacted by livestock grazing and high grade timbering.  Invasive shrubs, particularly Amur honeysuckle, autumn olive, multiflora rose, and now callery pear spread rapidly and cover disturbed areas in impenetrable thickets.  Native trees such as oaks and hickory's that have large seeds and grow slowly cannot spread more than a short distance from existing mature trees.  Those that do grow are munched like snickers bars by over-abundant deer as well as rabbits and mice.  Trees that do spread well tend to be ones that have berries, such as hackberry,  or winged seeds such as ash that are spead by birds or the wind.  Now our most successful young forest trees, white and green ash are all dying from Emerald Ash Borer.  Most young forests regenerated since the mid 1960's are not diverse and have no realistic chance of gaining in diversity without help. I've decided to stop telling people about the miraculous process of natural succession, it's just not working  in sw Ohio.   We still have fertile soil, sunshine, and abundant rainfall.  Something is going to grow, but the forests of tomorrow are shaping up to be a shadow of the what they were.  Many people may not care, but to me its like eating spam when you are used to eating at the Meadowlark.

A young oak emerging from a tree shelter: hope for future forests

People of all ages want to help

Okay, enough gloom and doom.  There are plenty of conservation groups around the world that are doing great work and would put your contribution to good use.  But if you want to do something more personal here is your chance. Five Rivers MetroParks has made forest restoration and renewal a priority.  To learn how you can contribute go to www.metroparks.org/forests.  Help plant trees in the spring, collect seeds in the fall, become a reforestation leader by taking the Master Silviculturist course, adopt some trees for the summer in the Forest Foster Tree program, or learn how to plant a tree in your yard.

Maybe if we act now we can grow more forests like this