Aspen Sprout.zip
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There are root like structures coming out of the ground in my yard. Do you know if they are normal or if they need treatment They are making the lawn look weird. There is a large aspen tree nearby. Thanks a lot!
As you know, aspens put out sprouts along their roots that have a stem above ground and roots below. The resulting plant is clonally produced, so it is genetically identical to the original plant. Regular mowing will keep these sprouts from growing and forming new trees. However, stems will try to form at certain spots along the roots, and will attempt to grow over and over, forming a zone of disorganized growth at the soil surface that becomes woody and that gets larger over time. You can get them out by pushing a sharp spade into the ground all the way around the growth and then cut any final roots that are going down by using the spade as a lever.
Waterton Lakes National Park (WLNP) protects one of the last tracts of native fescue prairie habitat in the Parks Canada system. Native Fescue grasslands are an important element of biodiversity in the park, as well as an endangered ecosystem in Canada. It is not just aspen encroachment that is a concern, but also the increasing density of existing aspen stands. Aspen sprouts (aspen < 2.5m height) and shrubs adjacent to grasslands will be removed through prescribed burning of grassland areas, with the goal of increasing the area of fescue grasslands in the project area's prescribed burn units by 2019 through removal of 5% of 2014 shrub and aspen sprout cover. Remote sensing technologies are used to asses this measure.
Aspen is an early successional species that is within many different foresttypes. Aspen forests are most often found in northern Lower Michigan and the UpperPeninsula and are dominated by trembling (quaking) aspen and big-toothed aspen, both ofwhich are shade-intolerant, fastgrowing, and short-lived. Other trees associated with the aspen community include whitebirch, balsam fir, pin cherry, red maple, and white and red pine.
Historically, aspen and birch were found in openings of many different forest typesscattered throughout northern Michigan, particularly in the upper Peninsula. Overall,aspen birch forests covered less than one percent of Michigan in the mid 1800's. Aspen andbirch established themselves in both small and large forest openings created by naturaldisturbances such as fire, windthrow, insects, and disease. When aspen and birch matured,they would provide shade for more shade tolerantspecies such as maple, beech, hemlock, and basswood. Eventually these species would becomethe dominant trees in the upper canopy until the next disturbance created another opening.On some sites, disturbance was so frequent or severe and soils were either very wet orvery dry that aspen was able to maintain a foothold and create dense stands. This commonlyoccurred in red and white pine forests on dry, sandy, south facing slopes and lowland conifer forests on shallow soils.
The logging era, which began in the mid 1800's, brought significant change to themature pre-settlement forests that covered Michigan's landscape. Entire forests werecleared for lumber and the remaining slashwas piled up and burned. This intense burning altered soil chemistry, and combined withthe forest clearing, created a very harsh environment for plants to reestablish. Plantsthat thrive in open disturbed conditions, such as aspen and birch, however, were able tospread relatively quickly across the state in areas that were previously beech mapleforests, red pine white pine forests, jack pine barrens, conifer swamps and other forestcommunities. Between the early 1900's and 1966, aspen forests steadily increased fromapproximately 290,000 acres to a record 4.2 million acres, or a 14 fold increase from themid 1800's. Aspen forests increased during this period by colonizing open disturbed sites,and through active timber and wildlife management. Natural resource managers discoveredthat aspen responds very positively to cutting. In fact, once aspen is cut, its rootsystems respond with a rapid production of 5,000 to 70,000 suckers per acre. However,between 1966 and 1993, aspen forests have declined by approximately 1.5 million acres or36 percent. The primary reason for this decline is that many forests in northern Michigan,particularly those on private land, are maturing and succeeding to more long-lived speciessuch as oak, maple, and pine. Today, aspen forests occupy approximately 10 percent ofMichigan's landscape.
If aspen is not cut, it will eventually convert to either more shade tolerant species,species dependent on the forest type it is in, or it will die and grass and/or tag alderwill appear. Left undisturbed aspen will be replaced by more shade-tolerant species suchas maple, beech, balsam fir, or spruce, depending on the soil nutrients, moisture, andseed sources. On poor quality sites, grasses and shrubs may replace aspen. This processmay take 50 to 70 years. If your goal is to regenerate aspen on your land, you must cutit. On the other hand, if your goal is to convert it to another forest type, you need tolet it mature and die.
Therefore, when managing aspen for wildlife there are usually two management options toconsider: even-aged or mature stand management. Each type will be described in more detailthroughout this chapter. However, it is important to realize that administering eithertype will benefit some wildlife species and harm others. As has been mentioned in manyprevious chapters and will be mentioned in many others after this, there are alwaystrade-offs within wildlife management. The landowner must decide what their goals are andwhat type of management achieves those goals while in turn producing the least amount ofdetrimental impacts to wildlife. Before engaging in aspen management on your property werecommend speaking to a wildlife biologist or forester to discuss your options in moredetail.
Aspen forests support a wide range of plant diversity over the stand's life span of 50to 70 years. Different growth stages in aspen forests result in different ground cover,fruiting shrubs, and competing tree species that advance or retreat. It is this plantdiversity that attracts many different species of wildlife.
Youngstands of aspen saplings are lessthan three inches in diameter, 10 to 20 feet in height, and less than 10 years old. Thesesaplings attract the chestnut-sided warbler, mourning warbler, indigo bunting, andgolden-winged warbler, which is a species that is quickly disappearing in Michigan. Otherspecies that use this stage of the aspen forest as habitat include woodcock, deer,cottontail rabbit, snowshoe hare, and ruffed grouse.
When the stand grows to pole size, it will be 10 to 40 years old, 20 to 70 feet high,and contain trunk diameters of four to nine inches. Species that use this stage of theaspen forest as habitat are the least flycatcher, yellow-bellied sapsucker, ruby-throatedhummingbird, red-eyed vireo, ovenbird, pileated woodpecker, woodland jumping mouse,porcupine, deer, and ruffed grouse.
When diameters exceed nine inches, foresters classify the stand as a sawlog forest.Tree heights may exceed 70 feet, and the stand will be at least 40 years old. Speciesattracted to this stage of aspen forests include the black bear, porcupine, flying squirrel, white-footed deer mouse, pileatedwoodpecker, veery and--where conifers are mixed in--the American redstart and pine marten,and fisher.
As mentioned earlier, there are two ways to manage your aspen forest stand--let it growto maturity, or subscribe to a series of planned even-aged timber harvests. Ifyou decide to cut your forest, you must decide between a short rotation period that willproduce ruffed grouse and deer habitat, or a long rotation period to grow sawlogs thatwill produce habitat for bears and porcupines. The other option is to allow natural succession to occur which willconvert your stand to a different forest type that would benefit other wildlife species.
Mature stands of aspen will contain many trees that are dead or dying (mature aspen isvulnerable to hypoxylon canker disease). These trees host an accumulation of insects,which in turn provide food for many kinds of wildlife. As the forest matures and moretrees die, other species will eventually replace the aspen and dominate the stand. On goodto high quality sites, shaded areas provided by the maturing aspen likely help to increasepines, oak, maple, beech and other shade-tolerant species. On a poor site consisting ofdry, sandy soils the aspen will often be replaced by grasses, forbs, shrubs, and a few scattered oaks orpines. In areas that previously supported northern hardwoods, beech-maple forests, whitepine-red pine forests, or savannaopenings, it may be possible to successfully manage for these forest species.
Letting theforest mature will result in a very diverse array of species composition. With each changeof vegetation, the habitat for wildlife will also change. For example, if the aspen isreplaced by an oak forest, it will attract the fox squirrel, wild turkey, white-breasted nuthatch,black-capped chickadee, and downy woodpecker. If you continue to let the forest mature,and the oak is replaced by a maple-beech forest it will attract the broad-winged hawk,red-shouldered hawk, black-throated blue warbler, and northern goshawk. If instead, theoak is replaced by a stand of uplandpines it will draw pine warblers, black-throated green warblers, crossbills, redpolls, andred squirrels.
If you do not want your aspen to be replaced but wish to maintain a mature aspen standon your property, instead of a young stand, you will need to do small amounts of clearcutting. Without some type oflarge disturbance, such as clear-cutting, some successional change will happen. If you cutthe stand when at least half the aspen is in healthy condition, then the site willregenerate to aspen. On many sites, this would need to be conducted before the stand is 80years old. To help maintain the stand as a \"mature\" aspen forest, make smallclear-cuts of one to two acres each scattered within the forest. The regeneration that occurs willprovide diversity and give healthy, young aspen a chance to replace older, dying aspen.Also, shelterwood or seed-tree cuttings thatpromote a mix of conifers, oaks, beech, or maple will add diversity to the stand. For moreinformation on these timber harvesting methods, see the chapters on Timber Harvesting. 59ce067264
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