A Review of Viabililty of Commercial Thinning of the Bush

At the Confer Management Workshop, I became acquainted with a Forester/consultant who seeks out woodlots for commercial thinning. He gave one of the talks at the workshop. I approached him indicating that according to my Managed Forest plan that I am due for a thinning.

He came by today to examine the forest. The assessment that he gave was that the white spruce (Sw) plantations were probably eight to ten hears away from a first thinning. The red pine (Pr) is ready for a thinning but there is not a large enough plot to make it commercially viable.

Both the Pr and the Sw were planted at the same time yet their growing behaviours are quite different. The Pr will grow at a continuous rate regardless of the conditions while Sw will tend to slow down when the conditions are poor such as poor soil, poor drainage or poor light. Hence Sw also tends to be self-thinning.

The forester recommended that I thin out the Pr and especially take out the damaged trees. Many of the Pr were damaged by porcupine which caused the trees to grow into “Y” shapes.

Fletcher Wildlife Garden Visit in Ottawa

In the interest of learning to be able to definitively identify two very invasive plans I visited the Fletcher Wildlife Garden in Ottawa to see the live weeds. In particular I was curious to learn more of the “dog strangling vine” or Black swallow-wort [Cynanchum nigrum] and the Garlic Mustard [Alliaria petiolata]. The garlic mustard was pretty well under control through active volunteer weeding programs, however the swallow-wort situation was another story. According to my colleague, at the FWG this weed is actually pale swallow-wort[Cynanchum rossicum], not black, and it has literally taken over the forest floor. I was personally amazed to see such a phenomenon. It has completely choked raspberry bushes for example, and is even taking over tall standing grass. The term “dog strangling vine seems to be applied to either species (Black or Pale) of Swallow-wort. Pale swallow-wort has become a major problem in up state New York as described at this website: http://www.swallow-wort.com and also in Ontario such as the Don and Rouge Valleys in the middle of Toronto.

I arrived on time today to be volunteered to weed some garlic mustard, which I did willingly. Identifying the plant now is pretty well ingrained. I do not yet know of any occurrences of these weeds on this property and feel confident that I will now be able to identify either weed at a glance.

Visit of the Vultures

Today we were visited by turkey vultures [Cathartes aura]. They are quite impressive and graceful at soaring. I had read some time back that vultures have a keen sense of smell, especially of decaying flesh. Yesterday I had found the decaying carcass of a starling under some tin sheets left from an old barn that had collapsed. I had uncovered the tin from the carcass so that it remained visible to the open air. To think that the vultures were able to smell this small carcass even when there is a reasonable breeze. Quite extraordinary I would say. As soon as they spotted me they left after some low level hovering.

I wonder if they ever located lefty’s carcass?

I have been an active birder back in the late 60’s and early 70’s and at that time the turkey vulture was unknown in these parts and yet now they are quite common here. In fact the older bird books that I have such as BIRDS OF NORTH AMERICA, by Robbins, Bruun, Zim and Singer [1966] (ISBN was not yet available at time of printing), clearly shows that this bird did not venture north of Lake Ontario in the east. A newer book entitled FIELD GUIDE TO BIRDS, EASTERN REGION by Donald and Lillian Stokes, [1996] ISBN 0-316-81809-7 shows the turkey vulture ranging this far north.

This phenomenon is also noticeable in other bird species. Hello to global warming.

Workshop on Conifer Plantation Management

April 16, 2005

The Ministry of Natural Resources through the Ottawa Stewardship Co-ordinator put on this one-day workshop at the Fred Barrett Arena in Gloucester Ward. The City of Ottawa Municipality also sponsored the event. It was a good opportunity to meet some local woodlot owners or persons interested in woodlot management. Through casual contacts I was made aware of an interesting supplier of machinery that might ideally suite my scale of operation.

This workshop covered many of the basics of woodlot management, and like any event there is always something new to be learnt.

The programme ran from 8:30 to 15:00 hrs:
1. Introduction to Plantation Management – Gleaned titbits; the bible of silviculture management is available from www.mnr.gov.on.ca entitled: Silviculture Guide to Managing Ontario Forests for a very reasonable $25.00. The Ontario Woodland Improvement Act or WIA operated from 1967 to 1995. Our property was planted through that program in 1973. The first thinning should occur in 25 to 30 years. Thereafter subsequent thinnings are to occur every 8 to 10 years. It is proposed that every fourth row be removed and every 5 or 6th tree in adjacent rows.

2. Forest Operations – Titbits; when hauling trees out to minimise collateral tree damage, cut trees to 16 feet (4.88 M.) before hauling them out that is don’t pull out full-length trees.

3. Timber Sales and Marketing – Titbits; there are three types of tree sales: Stumpage, Roadside, and Delivered. Stumpage is the sale of the uncut tree; for Roadside the trees are stacked ready for pickup by the buyer; and then Delivered means the transaction is at the sawmill. Stumpage is usually priced per unit or at a lump sum. As good fences make good neighbours, good contracts make good friends.

4. Biodiversity and Wildlife Values – Human impact will reduce more species in the next 25 years than natural selection during the last million years. To encourage biodiversity thin plantations near hardwoods first.

5. Field visit by bus: conifer plantations to be thinned and/or recently thinned) Visited three plantations in various states of management.

American Woodcock on Soggy Ground

Last weekend there were patches of bare earth peaking out through the snow. This weekend we have a few patches of snow remaining on bare earth. The last 24 hours we have had a very intense rainfall estimated around 2.5 cm (1. In.) in a day and this deluge has contributed considerably to the disappearance of the snow.

In my short walk today I flushed out an American Woodcock, [Philohela (1) minor (old scientific name) Scolopax (2) minor] a very orangy-brown coloured bird in flight. It was interesting to flush out something other than the usual ruffed grouse. The ground was quite soggy everywhere throughout the forest floor other than those few patches where there was still some ice and snow on the ground. The streams are all overflowing. The fields in the adjacent lots are completely flooded in many cases. For example one field west of here in the next concession, is a solid lake. The Canada geese will come down into these fields for a stopover. At night you can hear the cacophony of honkers. There are also several small coveys of pintail ducks.

1. Field Guide to the Birds, Roger Tory Peterson, 1947 and Birds of North America, Robbins, Bruun and Zim. 1966.

2. http://www.enature.com/flashcard/show_flash_card.asp?recordNumber=BD0234 and other current webpages.

A new Turkey joins the Crowd

This morning, at the usual time we had a new visitor, a second Tom. This resulted in considerably more strutting on the part of both males. And there was a fair amount of chasing going on as well. I had to break up the contests as I had to leave for work.

X-Rated Turkey

The turkeys arrived today at the crack of dawn, which is becoming a usual event. At first they all partake in a feeding frenzy but the Tom soon starts to strut his stuff. This morning he was strutting as usual when he hid behind a tree and all I could see was his tail feathers flicking up and down. It looked as though he was standing with difficulty and needed help balancing. I looked around the tree and here was Mr. Tom standing on the back of a female who was crouched on the ground. While seeming to balance precariously he proceeded to make steps on the back of the poor female. This seeming abuse went on for a good 10 minutes or more. The process seemed quite futile, until suddenly the female’s tail flicked straight up. The Tom immediately squatted onto the female and most likely culminated the mating ritual.

The Tom then jumped away and the female went off with ruffled feathers. I guess we can be expecting some more turkeys this summer.

Report from MNR

MNR replied within half an hour after the start of business Monday on the possibility of rabies in the porcupine. I was informed that it is highly unlikely that the porcupine has rabies. MNR of Ontario has not received a report of a porcupine with rabies since 1982. So I have returned the carcass to the forest to let nature take its course. I was none-the-less curious about quills, so I plucked and collected a dozen for future analysis. Porcupine quill embroidery is in high demand. A little box decorated by quills can go for as much as $300.00 or more. Quill embroidery is a common art of North American Aboriginals in the Great Lakes area and especially popular before the arrival of beads.

Lefty didn't make it.

I went out in the middle of the afternoon to check up on the Porcupine, and sadly it had perished. I was now able to better examine the carcass. It was not malnourished which was the first thing I questioned especially in the middle of winter. It was likely sick. I will report it to the Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources (MNR) Monday morning as soon as the office opens since it may be rabid. I was initially planning to let nature take its course but with the risk of rabies, I would not want to spread the disease to other local carnivores like the coyotes or fisher. Rabies is a very contageous and always fatal disease that can be spread to humans and is carried through saliva or tears and usually caught through a bite or a scratch from the rabid animal. I wrapped the carcass up in a heavy spent grain bag and put that inside a garbage bag. The quills still stuck through.

I then buried it under a foot of snow for freezing and safe keeping in case MNR want to pick it up.

I found Lefty

I took a short walk through the bush near the house this morning. The snowshoe trails that I created last weekend made an excellent path to walk on since I did not sink into the snow on the crusted and hardened snowshoe track. Off the tracks however was another story. There the snow was still deep and quite soft.

Just as I was about to arrive at the house I found Lefty, the porcupine that I had spotted earlier in January – see Jan 30th report. He or she was now sitting in the snow and was not moving much. Lefty is in pretty bad shape. Looks like a very old porcupine. It is blind in the left eye and its nose is heavily worn. It has two very significant orange coloured incisors, like a beaver, and the characteristic claw on its left front foot was bent upwards. Its fur is very matted. I thought that its foot might be stuck in a branch but that was not the case as I was able to move it away with a stick.

Renfrew Chapter AGM

I attended the Renfrew Chapter of the Ontario Woodlot Association at the Legion in Eganville, 2 hours and 156 km. drive from here. The group only recently joined OWA but were in existence for at least nine years as the Renfrew Woodlot Owners Association.

The meeting began with normal AGM business including President's reports etc. followed by two presentations.

Wade Knight, Exec. Dir. of the OWA gave a presentation on an update on MFTIP. There are plans by the Province, Minister of Finance, to revisit the assessment of Woodlots and to treat them the same as farm properties.

Dave Gallagher and Vincent Csunyoscka then gave a report on a new initiative entitled The New County Private Woodlot Stewardship Committee. It was quite interesting since it promotes a volunteer approach to promoting woodlot management. I think a lot can be learned from that presentation that can be helpful for the City of Ottawa.

The Chapter is doing some excellent work with respect to educating youth on forests and woodlot management.

Flushed a Ruffed Grouse

After completing my set tasks for today I rewarded myself with a walk in the woods. I started walking but the snow was quite difficult to walk through so back the house I went and put on my snowshoes. The snow by now has a good crust on it but with today’s warmth the snow softened considerably. In clearings the snow was easily half a metre (1½ feet) thick. In the woods it was quite a bit less ranging around 15 cm. (½ ft.) thick. There was lots of activity according to the tracks. The porcupine tends to plough through the deep snow and create paths that it sticks to. These paths often sink down 15 to 20 cm. down in the snow. There was lots of snowshoe hare activity, coyotes have been scouring the area, and the fisher seems to have a hard time hobbling through the deep snow. There are some solitary deer tracks. On my way into the woods I flushed out a ruffed grouse. This was probably the closest I have ever come to one. Snowshoeing in that thick and heavy snow was a good workout.

Changes with the end of winter

Our daughter left us with a white spruce seedling last fall. It was part of a cancer fundraiser at Loblaws (a local super market) with the tree provided by Ferguson Forest in Kemptville. It was too late to plant it so we put it in some water in a cup and kept it on a windowsill for the winter. It is wrapped in a narrow plastic sleeve. Recently the plant started to produce moisture or condensation on the inside of the plastic. Might it be that the seedling has awakened and is starting active photosynthesis? All winter there was no moisture to speak of as there is now, and there has been no temperature change inside the house. The only real difference is that the days are getting noticeably longer, that must be the trigger.

The dozen turkeys are becoming regular visitors. When we are not near the windows to spook them, they even just hang out in our door yard.

Ontario Woodlot Association Conference and Annual General Meeting

Today Carroll and I attended the OWA Conference and AGM in Acton Ontario. Acton is a lovely small town just west of Toronto. The conference consisted of five presentations.

The first was entitled Land Trusts and Conservation Easements. I found it interesting as is spoke about the legal vehicles that exist by which one can ensure that one’s property is preserved in a particular way with certain conditions. For example a common wish is to conserve the property for perpetuity. This usually means that an agreement is established with a recipient stewardship organisation such as Ducks Unlimited or the Nature Conservancy.

Several excellent examples i.e. Mud Lake in or near Oak Ridges Moraine north of Toronto were presented.

It was an interesting talk since the content was well balanced and realistic demonstrating the advantages i.e. potential income tax benefits etc. as well as the risks.

The second paper was on Tree Marking. By Martin Streit of Domtar, Cornwall (soon to close apparently).
This was a very practical and informative session. It was basically an introduction to forestry practices and touched upon what I would call rules of thumb about timber harvesting. It was an ideal paper for the small woodlot owner who would not normally be able to hire a forester.

The third presentation was about Old Growth Forests presented by a very enthusiastic Bruce Kershner, Botanist from Manhattan who has been studying and seeking old growth trees for over 20 years. Near Niagara Falls he found 280 year old trees in Clifton Hills. As we go north we tend to find more old growth trees. He distinguished primary old growth from secondary, secondary being forests than have grown where land was once settled. He found OG pine trees that generated seed that grew faster and healthier than seed from younger trees, leading to the argument that preserving OG protects the gene pool and also has economic benefits.

The fourth presentation was entitled Building a Case for Sustainable Management of Private Woodlands.
This was quite revealing with the most prominent point being that a well managed forest can provide considerably more income per acre per year than farming. Several actual case studies were presented and the economics of each woodlots harvest compared to comparable farms in the area.

The fifth and last session was on Forest Health. The more prominent recent pests and diseases were presented. These included:
The emerald ash borer – a devastating pest to all ash trees, of which I have many
The Long horned beetle
Pine shoot beetle
Beech Bark disease
Hickory Bark beetle,
Pine false webworm
Spruce budworm,
Redhumped Oakworm
Ash anthiacnose (spelling not sure)
And the Butternut Canker.

The conference and AGM was interesting with a very good turn out, apparently more than in previous years.

There you have it. Carroll and I took Friday off to travel down and made a long weekend of it.

Turkey's and local seed supplies.

We had the pleasure of another visit of 12 turkeys. This is great - the numbers are increasing. Last year it was 8, now we have 12. In the past we were not able to discern any males among them, but this year there is definitely one tom with the characteristic "beard". This beard is a rather odd looking tuft of stiff thick hairs , sort of like the tip of a big paintbrush. He is also quite a bit larger than the others whom I presume are all hens. The turkeys love the cracked corn that we spread out on the snow for them.

We used to get our birdseed, - usually sunflower seeds and cracked corn - from a local feed store called Agri-West in North Gower, about 6 km distant, but unfortunately it is now permanently closed. The Agri-West store in Kemptville has also been closed but was bought out by a new owner so the service is still there, but 16 km away. A 50lb bag (yes this was still measured out in imperial units) of black sunflower seeds is a reasonable $19.95 ea. Fifty lbs is 22.73 kg. Now a 40KG. (88lb.) of cracked corn is $9.65. We found that these two types of seed were the most popular with the birds so we do not buy the mixes anymore since many of the other seeds remain behind in the feeder.

For the best price in town for these two seeds see Kemptville Feed & Seed Ltd. 306 Van Buren St. Kemptville, ON, K0G 1J0. (613) 258-0585.

The Gray Owls In Wisconsin

My thirteenth cousin, - yes that is true, found this out through a genealogy study on the internet - and name sake, brought to my attention this link to an interesting website describing the unusually high number of sightings of the subject owls in Wisconsin and the reason for this unusual migration.

A Grey Coloured Owl

Arriving into a clearing in area 10A I heard an owl launch from a branch, that is I could hear the claws releasing the branch - it may be that it was attempting to turn on its perch to fly in a direction away from me. Once aloft it flew ever so silently away. The body was a noticeable and strikingly even grey. It was too far away to detect any better detail. The body was about 30 cm (1 foot) long but other than that there was insufficient information to confirm which species it was. I have heard that there have been more than normal sightings of Great Grey Owls in the area. The Great Grey was previously quite uncommon in this area 20 odd years ago and existed in more northern latitudes in western Canada.

The Large Tooth Aspen

Huge aspens heavily wood the areas 10A and 10B at the very back of the property right next to the swamp. There are many fallen trees that have either blown over and have most of their roots pulled out of the ground or have the trunks snapped off. These create many obstructions and make the area quite difficult to walk through. The diameters of these trees are quite considerable. I released a white spruce by cutting one of these giants. With the setting sun I had to quit for the day, and tomorrow I plan to return and get the age of the tree by counting the rings and measure the length; and yet this was not the tallest of the trees - others were easily 6 metres (20 feet) taller. It seems that once trees reach a certain size then tend to slow down in growth in crown and height. These trees tend to exhibit an increase in girth and yet have a very small size for its canopy, as did this tree.

I was puzzled as to why there were almost all aspens in this area and no maple trees. There is one huge maple tree in the 10D area that is extraordinarily large in girth and very tall. This maple was noticeably tapered while the aspens tended to maintain the smaller decrease in girth with the height. One would think that this maple tree would have provided a suitable seed source for the area. According to a forester this is likely that a past farmer on this land had let his cattle graze in the forest. Since maple shoots are sweet and poplars bitter, the maples were selectively picked while the poplars remained untouched. This would be a prime example of unintentional genetic cleansing.

So with yellow hardhat, goggles, ear protectors, trusty Model 026 Stihl Chainsaw, and steel-toed boots, off I went clearing several hundred metres of trail along the snake rail fence I was at last weekend, as well as in the back. The back area remains very difficult to walk through for the dense underbrush made up of mainly glossy and European Buckthorn, and some ash saplings.

Sensitive Fern and Hoarfrost

In area block D10, picked some fertile leaves (also called frondes) of the Sensitive Fern, [Onoclea sensibilis L.] that were sticking out of the snow. The ferns have either infertile or fertile leaves. Infertile would be like regular leaves of any plant, and the fertile leaves are like a seedpod but in this case bearing spores rather than seeds. Indeed this " fertile leaf" which looks more like a brown stick with a bunch of beads stuck to its branches in rows. It drops small brown specks, which can be seen when taped onto a sheet of white paper. I presume that these are spores.

This morning we have ice fog that leaves hoarfrost on all the trees. Looks like lacework among the branches, quite beautiful really. I imagine that this is caused by high humidity, and indeed it is currently at around 95% relative humidity outside, and the temperature well below the freezing mark which is now at –10 degrees Celsius or 14 Fahrenheit.
For an example of hoarfrost that is very similar to what we are looking at today see:

http://flickr.com/photos/oubliette/3340857/

Reference: A Field Guide to the Ferns and Their Related Families of Northeastern and Central North America with a section on species also found in the British Isles and Western Europe by Boughton Cobb, Houghton Mifflin Company, Boston, 1963.
This is Number 10 in the Peterson Field Guide Series at the time of printing.

Speckled Alder and Cattails

Took a walk all the way to the far property line, which is across the old riverbed. This is area D10 in the grid plan described earlier. The whole area is frozen over and thus easy to walk. The snow was only about 4 to 6 cm (2-3 in.) deep over the ice. The entire river bed section that I walked was covered in cattails which indicates that the swamp is shallow. Cattails do not tend to grow in deep water. I also came across speckled alder [Alnus incana ssp. rugosa] along the shoreline where the water is too deep for the buckthorn. Otherwise buckthorn tended to dominate. Came across tracks in the snow of man [Homo sapiens] on foot following the shoreline of the swamp. There were two sets of tracks and one was much larger than the other.

Came across frequent Fisher tracks even near our house right up to the bird feeder wich is no more than a dozen metres from our door. It was probably in pursuit of the red squirrel that enjoys the sunflower seeds in the bird feeder. There is still one red squirrel feeding today, so it is one (life) for the squirrel and zero (meals) for the fisher, this time.