Bill Balkwill
We have always valued our woodlot for many reasons. Whenever we were feeling blue, angry or confused, a quick jaunt through the woods never failed to lift our spirits and make our day a bit brighter.
In the winter, by interpreting tracks in the snow, we could see where some animals had been foraging or where a predator had brought a life to an end. A weasel would leave a furrow in the snow where it had dragged the hapless victim's body to a hollow tree or log or a hole in the ground for safe keeping. If a hawk or owl were the predator, we would see where it had pounced on a victim or see fur or feathers blowing across the snow. In the case of a fox or coyote, we would usually see a lay mark, a bit of blood, bits of fur and usually one or more of the victim's feet. We have often observed winter birds foraging for a meal on a cold winter day.
After winter's snowstorms of soft snow, the dark trunks of the trees and limbs are trimmed with white. Drooping branches laden with snow make a beautiful Christmas card scene. The view of the woods after a sleet storm is exhilarating. The ice laden limbs and tree crowns are drooping almost to the breaking point, glittering, gleaming and twinkling in the after storm sunlight.
On cold winter moonlit nights, a walk in the crisp crunching snow, observing the ghostly shadows that dance with the breezes, is a special experience. Glistening snowflakes twinkle in the bright moonlight like a rainbow of coloured jewels. On some night walks we have heard a pair of Great Horned Owls calling back and forth, or a family of coyotes harmonizing in the bright clear night air.
When the warm days of spring arrive, the woods awaken with carpets of flowers, the calls of migrating birds are heard and over wintered butterflies bask in the sun along the trails. Some birds begin to mark their nesting territory.
Occasionally we have seen fawns hiding motionlessly in the underbrush. Several years ago, while searching for a cow and her calf, I spotted a doe nursing a fawn. When I glanced away for a moment, then turned back, they had vanished silently into the undergrowth. In the spring of 2005, as I walked the woodland trails, a pair of newborn fawns appeared in front of me. I believe they thought I was their mother returning from grazing or getting a drink because they came wobbling toward me on their spindly little legs. I avoided them by making a wide circle around them.
Come summertime, there are many species of butterflies and moths. The butterflies range from large swallowtails to tiny hairstreaks. The moths go from large native silk moths to the insignificant.
The fall woods are a kaleidoscope of colours including white, blue and purple asters, yellow goldenrods and fall leaves of brilliant hues.
During pioneer times to the early years of the twentieth century, logs were hewed into squared timbers to frame buildings. Ash, oak and walnut logs were split into rails for livestock fencing. In the early years, pole wood ash and oak were cut for fence and gate posts. Logs were sawn into lumber to make farm gates and sheeting for the roofs of farm buildings. Wooden tongues for horse drawn equipment such as doubletrees, singletrees and neck yokes were fashioned from woodland trees. Firewood heated the homes.
During the Depression wood product sales helped to pay the bills. Firewood in those days had to be of top lumber quality, no limb wood or worm holes or any signs of decay were allowed. Long, straight poles of hickory or ash were brought by commercial fishermen to fasten gill nets to. After the war, use of steel posts became common instead of wooden poles.
White oak posts were cut to build breakwaters. The breakwaters were made by driving two rows of large oak posts into the lake bed and spiking two inch oak planking to them, making an elongated crib that was filled with rocks. Once our father sold a local contractor large tall ash logs to make stringers for a makeshift by-pass bridge while a new bridge was built over Cedar Creek on Highway 20 (now County Road 18). I believe this bridge has been replaced at least twice since then.
We had some logs sawed into lumber to remodel part of the old barn into a cow barn in 1950.
In 1976, on advice of a friend, we contacted what was then known as the Department of Lands and Forests, now the Department of Natural Resources, to mark trees for harvesting. The following year we signed a contract to have the Department of Lands and Forest to manage the woodlot for fifteen years. In that time they would mark the trees to be removed.
The first time they sent in their own crew to girdle the trees to thin the stand. After that they marked the trees to cull and we removed them. We preferred this method as it allowed us to leave or substitute to preserve a species. Their crew cut down a Downy Hawthorn that had a diameter of eight inches and a clean, straight, thornless trunk of more than forty feet. This tree was not marked. Because of the rarity of this species being so tall and thornless, we wish it had been left.
Some serious mistakes were made by us and Lands and Forests. Our mistake was to sign the forest management agreement before we cleaned up the tops of the harvested trees. In doing so we had a lot of dead wood that build a high population of wood boring insects during a time of high stress for the trees due to the shock of the harvest.
Flat headed borers that usually attack only deadwood attacked some of the weakened trees, mostly oaks, killing them. If we had waited a few years until the trees had recovered this would not have happened.
At that time Lands and Forests favoured ash and oak species. Beech and hickory were considered to be of low value and were to be eliminated where possible. The results of this has meant we have very few beech trees, only one known Pignut Hickory and we have lost some very thin shelled Shagbark Hickories.
In spite of these problems, we do not regret the harvest. At that time we were quite ignorant of what species of trees and shrubs we had in our woods. We knew the oaks only as Red, Pin and White Oaks, and hickories as Ridge (Shagbark) and Swamp (Shellbark). To properly manage the woodlot we had to learn to identify species of trees and shrubs after a leaf drop in order to thin the stands during the winter without losing some species.
There was to be a second harvest but we asked to have it not take place and the foresters agreed, thus we ended with a forest of all ages.
During March 2005, the first sign of the heartbreak that was about to follow became evident. The emerald ash borer infected a dozen ash trees on the east side of our woods. We cut and burned these trees, hoping we might be able to slow the spread, but it was of no avail. By February 2006, the emerald ash borer had spread across the woodlot in the low laying areas, infecting mostly Red Ash, Pumpkin Ash, and Black Ash. White Ash at that time did not show the infection.
We had two options. We could do nothing, leave the trees to die standing which could take several years, or to remove the dying trees to chip or burn. We decided to do the latter. We cut the trees at ground level using the wedge and hinge method to direct the felled trees to areas where the least damage would occur. The felled tree is then cut into movable lengths to be moved to the management lanes by wheel barrow or by carrying.
The blocks and brush are then stacked to the side of the lanes to be taken care of if weather permits. If the floor of the woods stays soft, we will have to leave the piles in the woods where they will become shelters for amphibians, reptiles, small animals and some species of birds.
To take machinery into the woods when the ground is soft would damage the tree roots allowing fungi to invade which in turn slowly kill the tree over several decades. The neighboring wood lots are infected and the owners intend to do nothing, so it will be an interesting study which method works the best over the long term.
The reason we are removing the trees is to let the sunlight to reach the floor of the woods to energize the seedlings. The tragic invasion of the emerald ash borer destroys years trying to restore quality specimens of all four species of ash to the woodlot.
We hope the woods will remain for many generations to walk the trails under the cathedral like canopy, to enjoy the beauty and the sounds of nature. We hope that sometime in the future the ash will again be restored to the woods.