Fallen Tree Mystery

I stopped by one of the fallen tree areas to have a seat on a log.  There are enough good sitting logs here to accommodate a bus load of people. 

As I prepared to sit, I sighted along the tree trunk and saw how the lower trunk had fallen between two closely spaced trees and the tree top had fallen between two others.  It reminded me of the path of a croquet ball through the wickets.

Then I noticed that the base of the tree was several feet to the side of the stump hole.  Since falling trees seldom bounce or roll, the base of the tree is normally located right at the stump hole.

When I stood in the stump hole, I couldn’t see how the tree could possibly have fallen the way it had.  It could have gone between the first set of trees, but that would have put the top of the tree far from the second set of trees.  I always love finding a little mystery when I’m out walking.

The tree had been dead for many years before falling, so there were very few lateral roots left on the stump.  The amount of soil still clinging to the root ball indicates that the tree has only been on the ground for a year or two.  It definitely did not fall and then have trees grow up around it.

The scar on this ash helped explain the events that took place as the tree fell.  The side of the fallen log that ended facing up was the side that would have faced the ground if the ash had not intervened.  As the tree fell, its bent section connected with the ash and caused the tree to make a 180 degree twist in the air.  This put the top between the two trees outside the original line of fall and left a long scar on the side of the ash.

The twist occurred with enough force to flip the lower part of the trunk away from the root hole and smash the base of the tree opposite the ash. 

The fall would have been a neat thing to watch.  This is a good example of why you want to keep plenty of distance between yourself and a falling tree.  You never know for sure what direction it’s going to go.

Fragrant Sumac in the Prairie

Being a native plant doesn’t mean that the plant cannot also be invasive.  I consider a native plant to be invasive if it becomes established in a desired ecosystem and has the ability to replace the existing plant complex with something else.  The invasive designation is based on management goals.  This means that a single species can be both a desirable native plant and an invasive plant depending upon where it is found at Blue Jay Barrens.  A good example of this is the Fragrant Sumac, Rhus aromatica, shown here invading a tall grass prairie, but growing a hundred yards away as a desirable native understory shrub.

This process of ecosystem replacement is called succession and is a natural and perpetually occurring event.  Grassland is taken over by brush – Brush gives way trees – Trees grow into forest.  If the process was never disrupted, all we would have is forest.  The idea of ecosystem management is to inject intentional disruptions that hold succession at a particular stage. 

The Fragrant Sumac forms a dense stand of branches that eventually eliminates the tall grasses and prairie forbs.  The branches of the sprawling shrub can be overtopped by the tall grass, so the incursion is often hard to detect until the sumac is well established and expanding its territory.

I find a lot of value in Fragrant Sumac when it grows in a field edge or shaded understory situation.  These buds will develop into early spring flowers that are visited by a wide variety of butterflies, moths, flies and beetles.  In my management activities, I try to leave plenty of these shrubs in a condition to bloom.

When a patch of Fragrant Sumac gets out of control in the prairie, I work to reduce its vigor or eliminate it entirely.  This clump of sumac was mowed and will be sprayed in the spring.

There’s very little left in the way of prairie vegetation at the heart of the sumac infestation.  The green grasses are bluegrass and fescue, both of which are non-native and undesirable in the prairie.  I’ll eliminate the grass along with the sumac.  Deciding what must go and what can stay is one of the hardest jobs of ecosystem management.  When you get to the point of actually eliminating a species, you just hope that your decision to take that action was correct.

Cedar Bonsai

Annually mowing a young Eastern Red Cedar stimulates growth and causes the tree to become thick with branches.  I’ve removed a couple of side branches from this small cedar to show the area cut by the mower and the resulting profusion of branches.

I think of the result as a cedar bonsai.  The mower doesn’t display the care and planning that a bonsai master would use in shaping the tree, but you get a sense of the bonsai when you see the tiny tree.

A normally growing tree would display just one top.  The effects of mowing have left this cedar looking like a thick shrub.  It should be no surprise that this growth phenomenon occurs.  Junipers related to the Eastern Red Cedar are commonly used as landscape plants because of their tolerance to pruning.

This cedar is old enough to be head high by now.  Somehow it was missed in my earlier cedar removal efforts and was trimmed by the mower on at least two separate occasions.

The mower cuts the cedar off at a height of about four inches.  This removes the upper growing points, but doesn’t bother the side branches.  The result is a cedar that gets continually wider with each cut.

The cedar can end up with some ridiculously thick growth.  If it had been left to grow naturally, this portion of the trunk would probably have been without branches.  Instead, it developed a tight mass of branches that was quite effective in shading out surrounding growth and claiming a spot on the prairie.  If I ever run out of things to do, I may go around the field and create some little Prairie Bonsais.

Unstressed Deer

The stress of winter is supposed to be one of the primary factors in reducing the deer population.  This winter has been so easy on the deer that I think they’re still putting on weight.

The doe with the injured leg is not only still alive; she’s lost that gaunt look of two months ago and appears as healthy as the rest.  At this rate, she’ll survive the winter and go on to have two or three fawns in the spring.

I’m beginning to wonder if she’s got some other worldly force helping her.  Those eyes definitely look possessed.

The Crows aren’t afraid, but they prefer not to have the deer facing them.

Apparently, it’s much safer to stay behind the deer.

The maturing fawns are still showing the cuteness of youth.

 

This youngster is already showing signs of his maleness.  Those bumps behind the eyes are the buds that will become antlers late next summer.

Removing Fallen Tree Top

Temperatures have been cold enough at night to freeze the surface of the ground.  I’ve taken advantage of this condition to do some work in sensitive areas that would suffer damage if I tramped around on them while things were soft and muddy.  The ground tends to thaw by late morning, so I don’t have a lot of time to accomplish these tasks.  I mentioned earlier that I had to remove this fallen tree top from one of the barren areas.

The debris will be going on top of what’s left of the brush pile created during my 102 degree clearing.  Fortunately, I wasn’t carrying any fever when I decided to remove the tree top.  The remains of a cedar cut for the log in its trunk was the original base for the brush pile.  The old stump can be seen in the upper right of the photo.  Decomposition has greatly reduced the pile, but there are still branches that will take a few decades more to disappear.

Tiny Leavenworthia uniflora plants are scattered all over the area of the downed tree top.  A clean up job is always more interesting when you have to watch where you put your feet.  An inadvertent twist of a boot sole could wipe out a dozen of these uncommon plants.

I began work by removing the main trunk and then the larger branches.  From there I gathered the arm loads of small branches and twigs.  As I worked through the mess, I tried to bundle branches so I could minimize the number of trips across the barren to the brush pile.  I was also trying to hurry, because the crust of frozen ground wasn’t very thick and I was afraid it would soon thaw.

Here’s an example of why it’s a bad idea to be running around in the woods when it’s windy.  When the wind brought down the tree top, branches stabbed several inches into the soil.  They would have gone deeper if they hadn’t hit bedrock.  Falling branches could easily spear a person who happened to get in their way.

This ought to be a little more attractive to brush pile dwelling wildlife. 

The tree top is gone, so the Leavenworthia can grow unhindered and I can search for trap door spiders without falling over branches.  While I was working, I noticed some small cedars that should be removed, but that will have to wait until the ground either refreezes or dries up.

Fence Row Work

I had the idea years ago to save management projects near the house for those occasions when I didn’t have time to drag my tools out to some distant project.  That scheme didn’t work as well as I had intended.  It seems that I would still favor the distant projects over the close, because I knew that I could always pop out in those odd few minutes and work close to the house.  This old fence row is one of those close projects that I chipped away at for many years.  One end is almost to the corner of the barn, so all I had to do was carry the tools out of the barn and start to work.  The fence row was a solid screen when I began, but I made so little progress that the openings would grow closed faster than they were created.  A couple of years ago, I decided I would just have to declare this to be a legitimate project and give it the time it deserved.

The most persistent shrub in the fence row is the Fragrant Sumac.  Its flowers provide a valuable early season nectar source, so I’m not trying to entirely eliminate the shrub.  I just try to keep it short and contained to one area.

Fragrant Sumac reacts very favorably to mowing.  The cut shrub will respond by producing a mass of rapidly growing shoots.  The flowers develop on year old growth, so blooms are lost for the coming year.  To mitigate this loss, I only mow a portion of the shrubs in any one year.  This patch will have two or three good flowering years before it again needs to be mowed.  Fragrant Sumac spreads by sprawling branches that fall to the ground and develop roots.  To keep it from spreading, I cut the sumacs before the long branches develop.

No matter how thoroughly you search for trash, there’s always more to be found.  Ceramic insulators are a pretty common find in the old fence rows.

Old rolls of wire fence are also common.  This is going to be a chore to remove.  Grape vines have penetrated the center of the wire roll and will need to be cut away.  The bottom part of the roll has been anchored to the ground by tree roots. 

The odd thing about this roll of fence is that it was never used in this fence row.  The close spacing of the bottom wires identifies this as poultry fence.  This was originally used to fence a poultry yard associated with a chicken coop located in the center of the field.  When the coop was removed to allow farming of the field, the rolled wire was carried over and placed here.

The fence row is now open enough to allow prairie vegetation to enter the gap.  Indian Grass has already begun to grow in close to the trees.  I think I’ll reduce the shade further by removing some of the horizontal branches reaching out into the field.  It’s nice to look out the window and see a successfully completed project.

January Rain

This could pass as a typical January photo of Blue Jay Barrens if that was snow obscuring the view instead of rain.  Thunderstorms and 60 degree temperatures are not the norm for this area in the middle of January.  A quick moving storm front produced about an inch and a half of rain, most of which fell within an hour.  That certainly erased all traces of the snow storm from a few days ago.

Here is why I mow wetter areas first.  Once the spring rains begin, the ground is just too soft to mow without causing damage.  In normal years, the spring rains tend to arrive in months like March or April that are more traditionally identified with spring.

The upland water was moving away fast, so I splashed my way down to the creek to see what flooding was occurring.  This certainly isn’t the gentle flow I was admiring a few days ago.

If obstacles won’t move, the water goes around.  This curve will be a little bit wider by the time the water subsides.

The walking trail crosses the creek here because it’s usually just one long step to get across the water.  This definitely isn’t a good time to be crossing.

This bridge is the least susceptible to being moved by flood water.  There’s still a bit of clearance underneath, but the water appears to be striving to reach up as it passes beneath the bridge supports.  From here it looks like there are two creeks converging above the bridge.

The actual creek channel is in the background of the photo.  The curved section can’t handle the water fast enough and the excess has left the channel to travel overland.

The next bridge upstream is in a more precarious position.  It won’t take too much more water to change the structure from a bridge to a raft.  A large portion of the watershed for this creek is located upstream of Blue Jay Barrens.  Differing land uses allow more soil erosion to cloud the water with sediment.  Even so, this water is cleaner than the average stream of comparable size and the almost sediment free water from the Blue Jay Barrens tributaries improves the quality even more.

The bare soil areas that partially define the barrens look like they would be easily eroded, but the runoff water they produce is clear.  A healthy biotic crust of algae, lichens and mosses combines with a well defined soil structure and a pebbly surface to create an erosion resistant landscape.

The result is clean water leaving the barrens.  But, the integrity of the barrens soils is easily disrupted through disturbance.  This is why I have issues with the deer and turkey that trample and scratch the soil surface.  Damage caused by these animals can easily result in an active erosion situation that could be difficult to correct.  Management is just a matter of watching and reacting properly to changes.