Are Oaks In Trouble?
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- čas přidán 28. 05. 2024
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I'm in NYS with 20 acres of unplowed farm fields that I've been converting to wildlife habitat land w native trees for 40 years. Been visiting old forest areas & collecting buckets of acorns from beneath trees I feel are exceptional every September at acorn drop. Planting 3 acorns per hole in November. I now have several stands of large red & white oak plus oak lined walking trails. Beloved by many species- mine are getting acorns now. I also do this with basswood and shagbark hickory trees. My land is now a self sustaining treasure.
I live in northeast New Jersey in a semi urban area and last fall was one of the heaviest mast seasons that i can remember . Was it the same by you ?
Blessings to you!
@@paulfolding9021 Yes! Absolutely. My most prolific tree was covered so heavily that the branches were pointing straight downwards. Glad to hear you got to experience this event also. Wonderful. I wonder if it was cyclical/similar throughout our geographic region? Very interesting.
Christychristina, your comment made me so happy. Thank you. Have you read the classic "the man who planted trees" by Jean giono? I'm guessing you receive it as a gift on a regular basis, as it sounds like the story of your land.
I do not know if Cycles are the same for all trees? But I noticed apple trees have a 7 yr Cycle, where they load so heavily!
If you believe in Creation by Almighty Father? And IF you know His Laws? He states every 7 years, you should allow your land to Rest, to rejuvenate itself, NO Gardening. I just places the apple tree Cycle with this Law. He is Creator. Promises you will NOT go hungry.... So if you observe the year of heavy harvest? The next would BE the Rest Year.
I imagine the same applies to ALL Plants.... Same Creator!
I moved an oak seedling out of my woods and into my front yard four years ago and it’s currently my favorite tree to watch grow. So far this spring it has grown 35 inches and isn’t slowing down. I probably won’t get to see it as a mature tree, but it sure is fun to watch and cultivate.
How did you move it without killing it? Every time I try, they don’t do well. I get as much taproot as I can
@@nikkireigns I just move them when they are very small so the roots fit in a big shovelful of soil.
Red oaks are a much faster grower than most other oaks (in case you want to see them grow up). Oaks don't transplant well... baby oaks have have a decent shot at success if transplanted immediately after leaf drop in the Fall, with as much original soil as possible. Check soil preference for different varieties, etc, etc, best information resource is doing it wrong frequently 🤪
@@nikkireignsI collect acorns and push them point-first into soil in a large fabric pot. A few are big enough that they need to get put in the ground, and devise individual cages to keep the deer off them.
@@jturtle5318 ditto, but the property is surrounded by mature maples, which produce hundreds of thousands of 'helicopters' every spring. Slowly making headway in increasing the diversity.
I have a white oak not native to my area , but my Grandad planted it here in my yard in the mid 70s as a sapling, and it finally produced acorns for the first time in 2017 at the ripe age of 41 years old
I have 5 varied species oaks in a small suburban yard. They have been producing acorns since I moved here when they were 10ish years of age. I think you white oak is an exception.
I used to love walking in the woods around where I live. Touching the trees and watching the undergrowth come up and fruit. There was even wild trillions coming up. Those were the days that I long for. But now I am wheelchair bound from a badly done back surgery, and can not go into the woods without a path. Be thankful for your legs because they can take you places that are wonderful.
Well if you live in SW Michigan I would be more than happy to take you.
Where are you located Leda?
Massachusetts, maybe?
Id take you if you are in NY, I have experience with handicap
I’m a simple man. I see trees, I click like.
I ❤ motorcycles, but been climbing trees since even before I started riding.
❤
I am simple Orc see trees mentioned in comments and give a thumbs up 👍
I live in Louisiana, and several of my mature oaks developed weeping cracks in the bark running from the base to 15-20 feet up the trunk. There was said to be a serious fungal disease spreading, so I thought they would die. Now 15 years later, they seem to have fully recovered. They're resilient trees that just need a little leg up to thrive.
Not to mention Beech trees, also in the Fagaceae family, are suffering from the newly discovered Beech Leaf Disease that is absolutely sweeping throughout the state. We were surprised to find it in Delaware County last month, but I have since seen it everywhere in Sullivan, Tioga, Forest, Erie, and Clarion Counties as well.
Here's a recent video I filmed on beech leaf disease: czcams.com/video/shRMwiBsDg8/video.htmlsi=ENqH7JTF1fosnlv2
Tell it to stay out of ohio also those dancing aphids love beech trees in michigan
I hated to give this a thumb's up.
My gorgeous beech trees have begun to show the orange color on their bark. These are 90 feet tall and there is nothing I can do to help save them. I have huge black cherry tree that has its center pith it’s not well and I need to have it cut down so it does not smash my home , over 200 years old. And 80 feet tall
The Beech here in CT seem to be getting hit hard.
Well things not looking good here in Mi. I have a huge White Oak on my property out back. In the 1980's I had a Forestry guy from a nearby University come in and look at that tree. He and his wife came in and did a bunch of measuring and GPSing. When finished he said "That tree is between 485 and 500 yrs old. He said it is the 2nd oldest except one tree older in the region in Saugatuck Mi. A former Forestry logging town in the 1800's early 1900's.
So I have been in awe of that tree ever since. Sorry to say it has been dying slowly for a couple years now. This spring a huge branch bigger than an average oak tree fell off. Now Oak trees surrounding it have been breaking off midway up the trunk. The whole area looks like a tornado went through. Not only on my property but throughout the whole region in this area of sandy semi fertile soils, trees/ branches litter the ground everywhere.
I have been trying to figure out what the hell is causing this. Then about 60 days ago I ran into a retired Dept. of Natural Resources guy. I ask him if he had any ideas. He said yes there is a disease called Oak Wilt going around. I looked it up and this is what it said. It's most prevalent in White Oak, and its a fungus. It is transmitted by the root system of the infested tree to other trees and on and on. Plus, there is a beetle that eats the fungus and spreads it to other Oaks as well. It's a disaster in my mind, and makes me sick thinking that Old Oak is older than when Columbus landed. And there were many Indians around here who likely walked by that Oak when it was young. About 200 yds1 to the South is the site of an Indian trail that is now a modern 2 lane roadway called Red Arrow Hwy. That Indian trail was converted to a stagecoach line and then an Auto Hwy that goes through many small towns and on too Lake Mi.
My forest is now serving many Maples of several varietys. It will be all Maple this decade for sure.
We lost our sugar maples to black spot disease, and the town where I went to school has had a Maple Festival for decades, and they had to cut down all their maples. The area still produces a lot of maple products, so not everyone was affected.
It's just sad thinking of all the grand trees we lost to Dutch elm disease, black spot, birch borers that killed our white birch trees, emerald ash borers, and now this oak fungus is heartbreaking.
I'm sorry for your grandfather tree, the loss of that much history is always hard.
@@jturtle5318 I guess it's just the balance of nature. When I was a child I remember the spraying of DDT that went on for Dutch Elm disease. My Dad had to cut down a huge Elm next to our house. Only good thing that came out of it was Morels loved it.
White oaks are more resistant to oak wilt than red oaks, although all oaks are susceptible to it. No way to treat it other than remove infected trees and burn them as soon as you notice symptoms as they’ll spread from fruiting bodies of fungus or root grafts. Trees growing close together of similar species almost certainly are connected via root grafts
@@coolestdude11111 The DNR guy called it White Oak Wilt.
@@AdrepKeithhe may have called it that, but oak wilt affects red oaks more and can infect both red and white oaks. The fungus that causes it is Ceratocystis fagacearum. The majority of oaks I’ve seen with oak wilt and heard other foresters talk about have all been red oaks. A property owned by a university I worked for and went to had to harvest all red oaks in a 35 acre section of a larger 200 acre property because 7 trees had oak wilt and it would likely spread quickly to the rest. Trees can be infected long before they show symptoms. Here’s a short forest service article if you are interested.
www.fs.usda.gov/Internet/FSE_DOCUMENTS/stelprdb5347329.pdf
Got my 25 little acres of mature bush. I spend my time chopping out invasives (like buckthorn), caging and helping along any burr oak seedlings I find, clearing sections of brush/junk, and planting hardwoods like walnut and Shagbark hickory, making birdhouses and brush/log piles for animal hidey places.
I planted one white oak, and the rabbits figured out how to get it through the wire?? These Burr oak are the prize of my bush. Plenty of mature red oak and hemlock too. Great trees, but nothing can touch the white oak for being a treasure of the forest.
Ten cheers for you friend, carry on!
Land management is 100% necessary when invasive species are prevalent, I've seen the ground under my oaks, hickory and walnut transform within 2 years of removing Bush honeysuckle. It's went from an invasive monoculture to the natural balance of a native habit. It's amazing how fast it bounced back really. It's sad to see local nurses still selling highly invasive plants.
The early US Navy ships were made from white oak which was about 50% denser and stronger than European oak. Old Ironsides USS Constitution could not be penetrated by the cannon of the smaller British frigates in the 1812 to 1814 war.
✌️💚🍉
Ugh, my husband and I have literally been pulling up oak saplings all over our yard in my flowerbeds. I should have left them!! Or at least potted them and replanted...will from now on...we have tons of them from our big trees!
Sell the surplus or offer them to gardening clubs for their plant sales as other options.
Have no fear. Oaks are fine. We just have a lot to learn about managing our landscapes over the long term.
For the past 3 years I've planted acorns and sycamore seeds. I've tried fall planting, and storing in the freezer over winter, then spring planting. So far not one has germinated.
On the other hand, I pull up maple seedlings like weeds all summer long every year for 30 years.
@@savage22bolt32
I plants tree seeds in the fall. It will provide the best conditions for adding germination. Freezing overdries them. Refrigerating is correct way to provide chilling hours.
How are you fall planting them? You may need to score the outer shell on one side before planring, as well as change planting depth.
I have a volunteer sugar maple and white oak in my yard. Every year I struggle to keep more from popping up everywhere. I do live in a very old neighborhood in Northern Illinois (we have a number of 150+ year old hardwoods on our suburban block) so maybe that why oaks and maples are relentless here. Our forest preserves are also heavy with oaks and maples.
Ash trees, Hemlocks, Beach trees, now oaks. It's so very, very sad.
And before them was the chestnut.
Well plant some.
Thank you for another informative and well presented video. Recently, I saw a video which was about lands in the Catskill Mt in NYS that were cultured by Native Americans. An old forester floated the idea that where the oaks grew today is where the Native Americans used fire to support their environmental culturing of the landscape. Your video presented parallel ideas on fire and oak establishment in the forest.
So grateful you are taking on the topic of fire in the life of oaks and seeking to learn the right role of humans in our beautifully complex ecosystems. I'm most familiar with the fire/oak/human relationship in the central coast area of California where, before my family came here in the 1800s, Indigenous people had figured out how to keep oaks (a staple food source) healthy through use of fire. They understood the complexity of this intervention: their timely gentle fires did more than remove overgrowth that contributes to both over-shading of seedlings and today's mega-fires. Their burns killed disease pathogens like those that cause today's devastating Sudden Oak Death. They nourished the soil and encouraged a whole range of food and medicine species that had evolved with fire. In other words, the human role in ecosystem balance--as they practiced it-- was far more nuanced than simply clearing unwanted trees. It had taken thousands of years of observation to develop in all its complexity and was immediately suppressed by settler fears of fire. (Upon statehood in California, controlled burning actually became a crime.) I was struggling to understand these issues as I wrote "Inherited Silence: Listening to the Land, Healing the Colonizer Mind.". ("Colonizer mind" is partly about thinking you know how to handle a situation when you don't know the half of it.)
It's good for me to learn more about the oaks in other parts of the continent. And, Adam, it would be cool if you could engage some Native ecologists in the course you are teaching. There are many very knowledgeable ones out here like Ron Goode of the North Fork Mono Tribe. www.pbssocal.org/shows/tending-the-wild/clip/cultural-burning With the magnitude of changes afoot, we need all the wisdom we can get.
I have 15 years experience herding goats to groom land. I work alongside them and create burn piles with about 5 to 10 burns a year for about 5 acres. The goats are drawn to smaller trees that aren't in harmony and they work at taking them out by debarking and bashing them. They dont mess with younger oaks because they don't like the bark. After about 5 years the land reaches a homeostasis from what Ive witnessed. Thanks.
Who knew there was something goats did not like? :)
@@shalacarter6658 They love oak leaves of mature trees, yet not the bark or saplings. Oak leaves are like a steak dinner to goats. By far the most nutritive and filling. Thanks.
Thank you. This is useful wisdom. I will see what I can do with this.
Where do you work?
Overpopulation of white tail deer is a big issue. They eat the oak seedlings. When these 100 year old trees were sapling there were very few deer in North America compared to the millions today.
Probably the same with squirrels. Lack of predators in so many areas has repercussions.
I learned that the first time I planted red oak acorns.
Now I have a fenced area for my trees, because they also eat redbud, dogwood and of course apples.
I plan to use fencing scraps to protect them when I finally put them out, I have a flat acre of recovering horse pasture but have an electrical transmission line running through the long way and have to keep it accessible to their repair trucks.
@@voxxiigen7797 absolutely the squirrels have an impact. Our research showed that squirrels simply walk around forest nipping off the seedlings.
There were more oaks. A lot more
I don't think that's necessarily true. On my property, there's at least 150-200 large oaks of varying types. In the areas where they're most visible around the house, acorn production is never consistent year to year. Some years, the acorns are minimal. Other years, like last year or back in 2017, we were overwhelmed by acorns. So much so that there's oak sprouts everywhere, even deep into the woods. I believe it is called masting. It seems to be sort of a natural survival mechanism for the species to over produce some years. I have plenty of deer, squirrels, and other critters. There's no way they can consume all of the acorns during these large production years.
I liked the way you handled the video. Glad to hear "I don't know". Stay interested. Stay aware. Stay humble. I enjoy nature. When my observations go against narratives, I am ostracized by herd following nature group individuals. I rarely get defended.
Same here, across multiple themes. I try to practice the tree’s point of view - slow, expansive, containing millennia. We are attracted to Learn Your Land because he is practicing this similar approach. Cheers!
Try being a disabled 60 year old woman picking up acorns and crabapples on the side of the road, including people's yards. I start them in fabric pots behind an 8 foot fence, the oaks do well in them. I have some big enough now that I need to make cages to keep the deer out and turn them loose on my property.
You are a regional treasure for those of us in the mid-Atlantic!
Forrest was greatly enlarged from the earthworm introduced in north america in 1615ad.. Jamestown had tobacco plants brought from Indonesia which had earthworm in rootball. They say it changed ecologically almost overnight 😮
So NA didn’t have earth worms until then? Or just not the same species
We didn't have earthworms anywhere there used to be glaciers. They pushed all the top layers of soil south when they came in &, for whatever reason, no Worm species ever moved back north & repopulated.
I saw this dude leg-sweeping people in the moshpit of a Powerman 5000 concert back in 07. I'll never forget it.
They were still around In ‘07? Good for them. 😅
Tree huggers get down at concerts, we have to unwind somehow.
😂
He was a force
No kidding?!
Where I live in Norway, for the last few years I've been planting acorns from my town's oldest oak, and a few other oaks. As well as some horse chestnuts. In areas where older trees have been cut down. So far many of them have survived and are doing well. I'm also removing saplings and seedlings of faster growing trees around them so they have a better chance, as often as I can.
I have 136 acres in the Piedmont, about 80 of which is old growth oaks (some I estimate to be 200 years or older). In this part of the south, sweetgum trees and wild grape vines are especially nasty, and have clearly existed in my forests for maybe 100 years or more (some of the grape vines are 8 inches in diameter). I am working feverishly to turn the forests back over to the oaks and pines, but most has been done by hand. Expect to be purchasing forestry management equipment in the near future to expedite the process.
Vitis riparia is fully taking over everywhere! I never noticed how invasive it was as a kid and I wonder if it was because I was an oblivious kid or if it's gotten worse. Wildlife fodder, sure - but they choke out everything else and attract the junebugs to my intentional grape plantings.
I live in jackson, I'd love to come give you a hand sometime.
Great video! I'm an old guy, but I continue to learn from you, Adam. Thank you for your efforts.
We've noticed that here in West Virginia. Our large healthy looking Oaks are blowing over. The root systems seem to be suffering from the wetter conditions, and other trees are taking over. We've been going into those blowdown areas and taking out all but the oak seedlings.
Excellent video, I see this on my central Ky property consisting of mostly chestnut, white & red oaks that are being replaced by tulip poplar, Virginia pine, maple & eastern red cedar. It is interesting that in the early 1970’s a wildfire burned a few hundred acres (including most of my property) which were then clear cut in the 1990’s and in these areas there is a lot of natural oak regeneration, which is definitely not a coincidence.
Thanks for putting the word out. I planted a native oak recently. It is very slow growing. Leaving it for the next generation. Love you Adam!
80-100mph straight line winds in Texas took out a lot of our oaks recently.
Weather manipulation is hurting our trees everywhere. The rain is toxic and the increase in high winds/tornadoes are contributing to the decline.
The areas suffering the worst from climate change seem to be the most determined to deny that there's a problem.
The Texas power grid is still out of date and not adapted for the freezes the the polar vortex wobbles bring to them, and people die from power outages every time.
The permafrost is melting at rates no one predicted, and releasing tremendous amounts of methane.
In the austral summer of 2019 - 2020 large parts of Australia burned, including a swamp that formed when Australia was part of Gondwana that had never burned during those countless eons since. It was the only swamp on the planet that wasn't adapted for occasional fires.
Adapt or perish. Those are our options.
I'm a forester from eastern PA. I remember talking to a forester in Canada that was building a mgmt system for their forests in BC. He was working on a 400 yr rotation. Our mgmt system tends to be on a 75 yr system, at best. That isn't enough for a total rotation of all forest systems, starting from pioneer to climax forests.
I was also seeing some mgmt practices in the forests in Germany. This particular mgmt system centered on managing the different strata of the forests. The upper level, mid level and the understory. The upper level were the more tolerant species of beech and white oak. They managed to a 36" dbh. They were the more valuable species. Mid levels were the small timber stages. The lower levels were copiced for fuels.
When looking at a forest stand today, you have to take into consideration of past land uses. I've been on many stands that were farms back in the 1800s. These are stands that went through the pioneer stages of aspen and red cedar and into intermediate stages of chestnut, oak and tulip poplar. The chestnut died off and released the oaks. Future harvests were usually diameter limit harvests, which knocked stands back pretty hard with plenty of sunlight reaching the forest floor. This allowed the oaks to regenerate both from seedlings and stump sprouts.
I always found that a good inventory makes for the best mgmt decisions. Basal area is a good indication of what you're going to get in the future. A shelterwood cut where you remove the portions of the understory that you don't want in your next crop. That allows your seedlings to be released. That's pretty much what the fires would accomplish. But the fires also destroy the oak seedlings. If you want an oak forest, you're going to have to get the basal area down to about 60-80 cu ft/acre. This allows the seedlings to get established and to grow. Anything heavier will result in the maples, beeches and other tolerant species to take over. For hardwoods, anything over a stocking level of 120 will result in slowing growth rates. Eventually the forest growth will stagnate and mortality will equal growth.
If I remember right the Germans are very big on clean forests. They remove a lot of dead fall and you can walk easily through their beautiful forests.
Very well researched and concisely written. Easy to listen to you!
We have massive Oaks in our communities public palace.
Trees are all protected !
A BIG hello from the UK 😊👍
An if you don't have younger Oaks. Then when the Old ones are gone, you Won't have Any!
Same here in Northern Ireland ❤
@@jessemills3845 we have 4000 year old oak forests (endangered). We have some time.
"Communities" is plural, and "community's" is singular possessive. Why do all of you NPC's struggle with possessives and plurals?
@@jessemills3845What's with the random capitalization?
Thanks for the heads up, Adam.
Oak seedlings require full sun in their first 5 years of life or they will die off. Forests are dynamic systems and do not naturally remain the same. This is where forest management comes into play. Also, one should notice that oak seedlings do best and are prolific on the edges of mature hardwood forests. Red oaks have only a lifespan of about 100 years whereas the white oak may live as long as 400 years.
Red oaks are among the most commonly planted trees by cities.
and when branches fall on cars, they really f people up
Red oaks are not limited to 100 years; what rubbish.
In the Midwest, Pin Oaks are the most common urban Oak planted. But, Silver Maple are the most commonly planted urban tree. Which guarantees smashed houses and cars.
@@curiousbystander9193 Silver Maples are so common in cities that they cause a lot of damage.
Red oaks live just as long as white oak generally. Slightly less.
Further, they can persist under shade and in the south where competitors are shade intolerant, this is the only place they can exist. Although it must not be closed canopy, generally intermediate light works in the south. Up north, the competitors are shade tolerant and open sun benefits the oak.
Excellent recap of what is happening to oak forests. Thanks!
Thank you for the learning opportunity! I always look forward to your videos. Have a great day 🙂
Sad but fascinating situation. Thanks for all your efforts.
Another interesting and informative video! Thank you Adam for keeping us informed! 👍👍🌲🌲
Man I just learned a whole heck of a lot in the last 12+ minutes. And I'm a life-long tree lover. So glad I found your channel. Can't wait to delve into all that beautiful information. It looks intense. Thank You!
I've noticed that same condition here in northwest Indiana. The understory of the mature oaks have a variety of trees and shrubs, but oaks are not a well established population among them
Beautiful forest you're in. Interesting presentation.
Excellent report. Thanks
What a terrifically informative presentation. Thanks!
Great, video. Thank you!
Thank you for caring, let alone making this fantastic informational video. I will do what I can to help my local oaks, both on my property and elsewhere in my community if possible. They cannot go the way of the chestnut.......
Hey Adam good to see a new video from you, always loved your work thanks for sharing!
In my part of NH, we've lost almost all the ash trees; many roadside sugar maples have succumbed to road salt; on my property, most of the mature beech trees are gone. I'd hate to see oak follow them.
The emerald ash borer killed off a lot of my ash, but I see regeneration happening.
Nice to see an nature/ecology video that doesn't talk down to the audience. Keep up the good work.
My town here in north eastern NJ has so many huge oaks...I subscribed to your channel a long time ago, and was especially drawn to this one. Thanks for all your videos 😀👍
Thanks for another great video Adam.
Thanks for this content. Oaks in Minnesota are also in trouble, but for different reason. Oak Wilt is a huge problem that kills a lot of mature oaks. Invasive buckthorn is very well established and takes over as the oaks die. Once established buckthorn is pretty much the only thing remaining.
Thanks Adam for another informative and timely video!
Great piece, many thanks.
Really great videography of the forest, it's amazing how you capture the natural world
Very interesting, I’ve not heard about this. Thanks for sharing!
Thank you! I've noticed a lot of my oaks are dying on my property. 5 down in the last 2 years here in Texas. I didn't know if it was weather changes that did it. But I appreciate the info. Only one of my oaks actually put out saplings which are now a little over 2 ft tall
Thanks for an informative video ❤❤❤
Great job Adam.
I love to learn my land 😊…. What a wonderful, interesting, and inspiring podcast this is.
Thank you. We live in Michigan. We have 200 acres. We do work with a land manager to manage our wood and in particular our oaks. Our focus is on the generations to come. We have started many oak trees and have a section of our garden area set aside for future trees. Mainly White Oak. Oak wilt is a concern as well. We would REALLY like to have a controlled burn - however, getting a permit to do so is nearly impossible and the cost "insurance" is extreme. Active management is our desire for the future generations. This land is a 5th generation legacy land.
Super interesting and well presented topic.
This is like what happens to fire specialist plants like certain pines can overtake a forest compared to non-fire specialist species such as oak. According to one botanist, these trees can overgrow the other. If there are no fires the non-fire specialist will thrive; if there is a fire the fire specialists will succeed.
Great and sad information. Thanks for sharing!
Oaks in my NY area are dying as if they are drying up. They are covered with lichen, leaves brittle and dropping. A line of 7 trees was removed a few years ago because they were drying up and covered in lichen. These trees were along a river bank.
Same in Florida. The trees sound hollow. Continuous spraying of chemicals drying up the land , day and night
They were already dying which is why that happened.
Because lichen is self-sustaining, it does not need to take any nutrients from the tree that it is on, and therefore is not harming the tree. Lichen is also found on rocks, the ground, even tombstones and statues. It just needs a place to grow.
Glad
excellent work!
It's interesting that oaks seem to be some of the most prolific as far as the number of mycorrhizal species that they grow in association with it, but need circumstances that are not favorable for mushroom production to regenerate effectively
How deep in the soil does the heat from brush fires penetrate? Obviously the fruiting bodies would get burned, but shouldn't they regenerate?
I live in Missouri, born and raised in Southern Arkansas. I enjoy your information very much. Pennsylvania has an older forest canopy that is beautiful. I’m partial to cathedral pines and junipers. The white oak always seems to find me and sings along in the winter. Thanks for the info.
Thank you for watching!
I agree. I am seeing the same thing in northern Ohio. We have mostly burr oak in my area. I am doing what i can to propagate them because the deer will not allow them to grow on their own.
What a great video.. love watching your videos
Thanks for the concise and informative video. I have 10 acres that I’m trying to restore back to an oak forest/oak savanna. Lots of work. My problem isn’t maples, it’s invasives such as honeysuckle and buckthorn.
Back in the Sixties, here in Maine, we used to burn off fields on a regular basis. Sometimes we would let that peter out into the woods. The fire would remove low growing brush species and ticks were not a big problem. In fact, we rarely worried about ticks.
Thank you Adam. I've been seeing a lot of diseased beach trees here in CT.
We have lost 4 huge Oaks around our camp on the river. They are a hazard to the houses and worst of all, it is sad to lose them. I have been driving my family crazy because i seem to be the only one noticing how many trees have been dying around Pennsylvania 😢
Same here in S. Wisconsin friend, sympathies
I went to the local department of agriculture office and spoke to a forester. He said bacterial leaf scorch was taking out my oaks, first the red oaks, then spreading to the white oaks.
He recommended logging my land before all the valuable trees died.
I don't want to do that.
2-4D and Dicamba
In Pennsylvania, if you have a timber harvest in an oak stand and place a tall fence enclosure around half of the harvested area, oak will grown inside the fence. Zero oak will grow outside the fence due to heavy deer pressure. What you said about fires is true but the major contributing factor to no oak regeneration on the forest floor or mid canopy is due to higher deer numbers today compared to 70+ years ago.
breh, this is such a nuanced problem. this DOES NOT OCCUR in florida. Wanna know why?
1- different oak species
2- Our deer are more susceptible to diseases.
3- we have an actual population of people who hunt just a little bit.
4- you have a bunch of weird hunting laws.
Higher deer numbers than ever before in history. Suburbs create the perfect environment for deer to thrive. Much more so than the natural forests that once covered most of the east.
When I was doing tsi about 15 years ago in an oak hickory Midwest forest. The majority of the cull trees we where after ended up being sugar maples. They loved that understory. Some areas when we left where completely opened to the sunlight as mature maples had completely out competed all understory trees and most ground plants. I see the same with Bradford pear trees now, and honey suckle, can’t forget that old friend. I need to go back to those forests and check on them, but I’m afraid of what I might see.
I saw this yesterday and it really seemed relevant to me. I live on 5 acres in a heavily forested area of Fairfax County, Virginia. I just discovered a black cherry growing on the edge of my woods and have all the other trees you mentioned. I took a walk out there today and it’s exactly as you said. Tall oaks, dead oaks, many oak seedlings, no medium sized oaks, but lots of tulip poplars, American beech, maples plus hollies and one native azalea. Wow. This gives me a new perspective and I’m very grateful to you for this information. This land was part of a dairy until the 1950s. Probably had been a farm of some sort before then. But I imagine it’s been a long time since a fire came through.
Now … what to do about it?
Thank you for bringing this forward for us to learn.
Foresters in the eastern hardwood region have known forever that precluding disturbance from early succession types like mixed oak will favor shade tolerant replacement. This is why selective cutting doesn’t sustain mixed oak forest. The disturbance has to be large enough to let sunlight hit the forest floor and overcome edge effects. Patch clearcuts immediately following heavy acorn crops is successful at perpetuating mixed oak provided you can overcome the stigma associated with clearcuts and the greed or economic necessities of cash flow irrespective of acorn yield. Timing is everything.
Yes, we have to actively manage oak stands. Here in Wisconsin, on state and county lands, we use 2 part shelter wood cuts combined with scarification and/or fire. Oak is thinned until it reaches 75-85 years old, then the first stage of a shelter wood is done. This requires marking the stand down to 30-60 BA. First, the stand is marked, then a dozer with a special blade attachment goes through the stand to disturb the soil. This part is done on a good acorn year, and we definitely wait until that happens. Then the logger can come in and harvest the trees. And we actually use a special paint color when we mark because we actually mark the good crop trees that we plan on leaving to throw out more acorns.
Then, we wait anywhere from 5-7 years and do a seeding survey. If there are at least 10000 seedlings per acre, the entire over story is removed. Sometimes we wait longer, it depends on a few factors as to how fast we get good regen. Equipment and falling trees do not kill the seedlings. They will regrow. In fact deer can chew on seedlings and they will regrow. After the trees are harvested, the stumps will also sprout new trees. This is called stump sprouting.
After having grown up out east, including Western Pennsylvania, I know our soils and most of our trees species are the same. Although I do wish we had tulip poplar here, it's such a pretty tree.
We have oaks because we have squirrels. They are hard working acorn planters and we have good luck putting up chicken wire around new seedlings. We also sprinkle a little soil from the base of mature oaks around the seedlings and it helps them thrive.
Interesting video. I've shared it with my warershed stewards group on the Chesapeake in MD. I'm definitely observing mesophication in my area as well as sudden oak death.
We're now experiencing sudden oak death in my community. We lost several mature oaks that were about 30 years old over the last two years. It's unclear if it is a single disease or multiple stressors together: heavier swings in wet and dry weather, landscaper use of turf herbicides and fertilizers near trees, lawnmowing equipment moving over tree roots, annual edging and replacement of mulch around trees, use of mulch from tree companies which might be from diseased trees, fungal disease, and insect disease. We've observed evidence of all of the above.
I just love you! Thank you for dedication to teach
I have an almost two acre property on eastern Long Island...half of which is forested with oaks. While I do have some large, older oak trees, I have lots of mid-growth and seedlings, too. I leave all of the trees...big and small...and don't thin anything out.
I also don't do any pruning during the growing season, but wait until the trees are dormant in early winter before I cut any unwanted branches. I heard that cutting branches during their growing season leaves them susceptible to disease.
I also leave the ground below the trees uncleared, so the leaves turn into a mulch that keeps their roots cool in dry weather.
I hauve a cleared area on the north side of my property where young oak trees are growing. My soil is sandy, but there is a good 12" of leaf mulch there. I'll die of old age before I see any mature growth there...and the next owner of my property might clear all of the oaks away to put in a tennis court. 😝
Super interesting. I learned something tonight.
Love it, thanks Adam
thanks for oak talk. "Oak, The Frame of Civilization" by William Logan is easy read, informative book. Have worked on several projects in Benton County Oregon in preserving Oregon White Oak savannas. Some of the large oaks are 3 to 400 years old. The prescription is to limit encroachment of Douglas Fire trees which shade out the oak by harvesting some and creating snags by tree topping. Deal with invasive ground plants etc is also done. One learns about the larder holes that the acorn woodpecker creates to "farm" insect larvae.
I love woodpeckers, but never knew that any "farmed" insects.
I did learn that the eastern woodpeckers like to drum on cedar clapboard shingles, and it's quite loud from the inside, lol! They're impervious to snowballs and any entreaties about working the night shift.
Crazy I never thought about this. I live in NH and the second you mentioned it I thought of my own yard and named all those same trees. The ones I didn’t know you named and that’s them.
Thanks, always super cool information.
They were our favorite tree to climb, because you had to find a big one who's branches bent down to the ground and crawl up the branch to the crown a good 20 feet off the ground.
If they grew a little straighter Osage Orange have a fascinating color and hardness for lumber. Wear down tools though.
This is so fascinating and informative and I love that you include scientific data in many of your videos. I really appreciate you! THANK YOU>
We had our trees sprayed for spongy moth, but the damage is still extensive. I am hoping we don't loose our oaks.
Get ahold of Tradd Kotter at Mushroom Mountain. He has a strain of fungi that specifically targets spongy moths and does no harm to any other organisms.
DuPont corporation bought, copywrited, and then shelved the application so it cant be advertised as a pesticide, but no one can own mushrooms so you can purchase it.
The company is in South Carolina, Tradd has a website with great educational content.
Thanks for sharing
I'm on the west coast, but our oaks are also declining from things like wildfires, fungal diseases and lack of regeneration too.
I'm lucky to have a huge, ancient blue oak in my yard, probably close to 250-300 years old. It's left several little saplings on my property, and while most dont survive ive done my best to ensure that at least a couple of them are cleared of weeds and kept in a good spot to grow up.
It's principally fire suppression that causes the decline of oak trees.
Regular fires kill their competition but leave the oaks. Infrequent fires allow intense fires to kill even the oaks.
So wildfires*, but not really wildfires.
Are Eucalyptus a problem as well?
Good wildfires are important for oaks. Lack of fire hurts them. But you want high frequency low intensity fires.
There has been fire suppression in the west for so long, with little push to reintroduce prescribed burning, that the wildfires burn so intense they are destructive. We need to push management to create a smart fire program and educate people on the importance of fire. I’m from the east but lived in California for awhile and I’ll say, I’d take the 2 days of smoky haze from the a good prescribed burn over the weeks of crap air from an out of control, overdue wildfire any day!
@@megangannon2894 Sometimes, those of us who do not live in California wonder if there is anything left to burn,.
That's fascinating. Now that you explain it, it makes good sense, but it never would have occurred to me otherwise.
I live in Western Pennsylvania, and I have been saving as many oaks as I can as I landscape forests while creating food forests.
As a person with a Masters Degree in forestry, it smacks of amazing hubris to think we understand the tree succession process of North American Hardwood Forests. 100 year old Oaks are mere teenagers. Maples and other midstory species are just that, midstory. As these oaks get into their second, third and even fourth century Oaks will dominate the upper canopy of which Oak regeneration is largely focused around canopy breaks where singular trees fall down, open up the canopy to light hitting the ground and then Oak seedlings filling in the gap over time. We just have not been studying or have enough data on North American Hardwood Forest ecosystems to make genuine determinations. Its like saying we know everything we need to know about human maturity based on observing children 10 years old and younger.
You're right about this, we pretty much destroyed the ecosystem before we could study it. We aren't talking about something measured in a hundred years
Thanks for the video again
Brown Creeper @3:56 ❤
Thank you for bring up this issue and providing such detailed information with sources. Makes me want to see if there are any active programs addressing or considering mesophication in my state of Michigan, and dig into how the Quercus population is doing on the western half of the continent given the recent relative increase in wildfires.
I have wondered about that while walking in the woods. Good to know I'm not the only one, sad to think one day some of my favorite trees won't be around but won't have any replacements
It is Simple! You need LESS SHADE! then do SELECTIVE LOGGING of the area!
It's called FOREST MANAGEMENT!
Sound great but inept gubment put boot in way ~but the fires will return and inept government will be gone forever
Selective logging only helps with one aspect. Fire helps with many. So sure log as you need to, but neglecting to allow fire on soil in North America is a recipe for disaster. Fire was the tool that shaped this land and we cannot forsake it because it’s scary.
@@interestedperson7073 I live in wetlands and have no interest in contributing to forest fires on my property. But artificially, it helps to know I should clear certain trees for personal use to help oak growth.
Wow! I learned something very interesting and also a little worrisome. Makes me want to continue to encourage my volunteer oak saplings to keep on growing. :)
Many of the big old oaks in our area are hollowed out and falling apart so they are harvested while they still have some value. Most are on tree lines between farm fields or edges of dirt roads.
I'm in Australia, where most of our native trees need fire to germinate. In Feb 2009 we had an horrific bushfire here, just north of Melbourne, Victoria, now known as Black Saturday. It killed a lot of people and incinerated several towns. One of the towns worst hit was Marysville VIC. The fire was so hot, cars and metal infrastructure MELTED. I couldn't bring myself to visit Marysville for 3yrs, because I dreaded seeing the devastation. When I did finally go, I was shocked how much of the surrounding eucalypt forests were DEAD. Eucalypts are made for fire, and usually look like hairy sticks with leaf growth a few yrs after a bushfire. Most of this was literally dead. Skeletons. Sure there was growth coming up from the ground, but the trees were all dead.
What really shocked me was all the European trees that had survived while the natives had not! Oaks, elms, maples, dogwoods! Trees that had been planted by the early (English) colonists in an attempt to bring a bit of 'home' to the foreign land. Their colour in Autumn has been a huge draw to the town for as long as I can remember. And still is! And our native animals, especially birds/parrots seem to thrive on them.
After our Black Summer bushfires of 2019/2020, I wonder how much of our pyrophytic forests will survive.
Thanks for your video!