Buckthorn experiment part 2

Summer is about over and what I have learnt from my fight with the buckthorn is that buckthorn is a tough opponent. Many of the stumps sprouted vigorous growth so that by late summer it was a significant bush. I removed the suckers from many of the stumps but today at the end of September when I revisited locations where I know I removed the suckers, the buckthorn is regrowing once again. I'll have to go around again removing suckers. Perhaps eventually the roots will expend all their energy and have a hard time coming back in the spring. In the picture below you can see a couple of the buckthorn stumps regrowing as small bushes. They are surrounded by the branches and small trunks of the bushes that were cut down in the spring. While a lot more light is getting through the understory canopy, not much has started growing among the brush piles other than the stumps.

My little experiment this spring with buckthorn cuttings piled on grass demonstrated that the buckthorn cuttings did effectively supress the grass. When I moved it, I found the earth was mostly bare under the loose branch pile (see below). I'm not sure if it was simply because of the lack of sunlight or if there is a chemical component to the grass supression.

Buckthorn experiment part 1

I've spent a fair bit of time this past month cutting back the buckthorn in the 1995 area. It had half taken over the understory so I decided to cut them back in areas to give other trees and bushes a chance. In doing so I've made quite large piles of twigs and branches and I wonder if it is good for the other plants to have such piles decomposing around them. Here I've made a crude experiment where I've left a pile of buckthorn on some grass outside the forest. The above image was on June 4th when I first piled it there. The image below is today the 30th of June after it had been sitting there for a month of mostly dry weather. I'll check back on it and see how the grass under the pile survived at the end of summer. If buckthorn as it decomposes gives off toxic chemicals perhaps the grass will die back from the pile of twigs.

Natives and invasives

 

These Trilliums have been here for 13 years since they were rescued from an area in Kanata that was to be developed. There were 6 flowers this year, about the same number as I started out with but there are a bunch of plants with small leaves so maybe in a year or two if the rabbits don't take an interest there'll be more. For the past few years it seems like one gets felled each year by a rabbit that has to relearn that trilliums don't taste good. This year the rabbit ate half the flower bud from one plant, which is at least better for the plant than taking it down at the stem.

This year I removed some buckthorns from around these trilliums in order to give them a bit of light. I've recently learned that European Buckthorn is alleopathic, meaning they produce a chemical that supresses the growth and germination of other plants, so I've become much more willing to intervene and remove the buckthorn. I've noticed that buckthorns are pretty effective at suppressing grass. Where they form the edge of the forest the grass dies back from under the bushes. Other trees and bushes are not nearly so effective at keeping the grass at bay; for instance grass can happily grow under sumac.

This flower is Creeping Charlie, an invasive from Europe. I planted this patch, inadvertently, about 6 years ago when I planted a black locust in the 2009 area. In contrast to the trilliums, the creeping charlie is spreading quickly as a dense mat in the shade of the blacklocust. That part of the 2009 area still has grass although the black locust is growing quickly. I expect the creeping charlie will eventually disappear when the grass loses out to trees and bushes. Creeping Charlie seems to like growing in tall grass (there is more of it on the north side of the berm in the long grass) but I've never seen it growing in a proper forest's leaf litter.

One Week Later

 

Bitternut Hickory

This Bitternut Hickory seedling has been growing at this spot for 13 years.  Each year it had struggled, appearing from its pit (it had been poorly planted) only in early summer.  I had given up on it about 6 years ago and planted a black locust twig close to it.  The black locust has grown by leaps and bounds and is now a proper little tree.  The hickory had its first good year in 2022, perhaps due to the extra shade the locust provided, and if it survives the winter looks set to reach for the sky.

I have hesitated to positively identify this fellow until now as there are multiple species of tree that have pinnately compound alternate leaves and often a seedling's first leaves are not typical of the species. One identifying feature the tree books point out for bitternut hickory is the yellow naked buds.  Below is a close-up of one of its buds that definitely has a yellowish tinge.     

Activity this year:

• I planted 3 apple trees on the edge of the north side of the berm.  The larger one did very well this year and grew about three feet.  If it survives the winter it will have a good start.  It doesn't have a lot of sun being on the north side but I wanted a location away from the road.  The two smaller seedlings had a harder time against the grass.  Hopefully next year will be their year. 
• I also planted 10 yellow birch  in the 2010 area and within the forest to the west of it. I  planted them in the fall.  Rabbits seem to like the taste of them as most of them got damaged by browsing before I put plastic protectors around them.
• I delimbed several large cottonwood poplar trees that fell from the derecho. The trees would have been over 80 feet high. it was good exercise but I mainly did it so that the city wouldn't feel the need to send in people to clean it up.  When they go in with their chainsaws they often leave a large swath of destruction.   
• I spent a fair bit of time in the fall clearing dead standing trunks and branches from the 1995 forest around the 2009 and 2010 area.  I hadn't gone into the area to the west of the 2010 plantings much in the past few years and it was a bit of a mess.
• The bush west of the 2010 planting area has been taken over by buckthorn and honeysuckle to a significant extent.  While cleaning the place of standing dead wood I got more and more aggressive against the buckthorn that has come to dominate the understory in the area.  I recently read of their allelopathic nature of  chemically suppressing competitors.   

Derecho

The May Derecho windstorm did a lot of damage in Manordale and the surrounding areas. Many large trees came down. Pinhey forest to the south-west will not be the same in my lifetime. Acres of trees came down where the loose sandy soil did not give enough purchase for the trees to withstand the winds. Some parts of the 60+ year-old pine plantations toppled like dominoes one after another. One blow-down just off Woodroffe south of Slack Rd. must be about 20 acres.

The roadside area this blog follows was relatively fortunate; a couple of the large cottonwood poplars came down but otherwise it got off quite lightly. The picture above was a large 100foot high popular that fell length wise along the berm. It damaged several smaller trees as it toppled. I cleaned up the limbs that were hung-up against other trees leaving this long trunk. It will be a barrier and landmark for many years, I imagine, as it is still a few feet off the ground. I also spent several hours going around with a handsaw clearing other smaller standing deadwood in the 1995 woods. The forest really needed a clearing out as the ash trees that fell victim to the emerald ash borers were left standing and only now have finally rotted away enough to be easily pushed over.

Fall 2021

The trees in the 2009 and 2010 planting areas have grown up and together this summer and it is starting to feel like a part of the forest now. There are a few open areas where the grass is holding on but under the thicker canopy and the evergreens the grass is pretty sparse. The 2011 and 2013 planting areas are still very open. Many of the seedlings planted by the cub scouts had a good year and are getting to be able to hold their own against the grasses and vetch.

I haven't made any posts to this blog this summer as I was unhappy with the camera on my old phone, so the following are some notes about the summer that never made it into a post:

• The patch of trilliums is hanging on, but not getting larger.
• I saw bats and fireflies one evening
• I saw a few monarchs fluttering along the Avenue.
• I attacked the dog strangling vine patch again. It is just as big a patch as it ever was.
• The path that the mower had cut through the sumac last year filled in as predicted with a thick covering of young sumac.
• A squirrel was hanging out in the old birdhouse. It had stuffed the hole in the back wall of the house with grass to make a more comfy home.
• I took off the lowest branch from the big oak tree this year. It is now quite a handsome tree.
• I also limbed up some of the poplars to try to get some light down to the slower growing maples in the 2009 and 2010 areas.
• I planted a maple and a spruce seedling on the north side of the berm with a couple of stakes to protect them from the mower.