Trees

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What is your favorite kind?

I have a big interest in trees.  I know, I'm a nerd.  And a tree hugger.  I love planting them and watching them grow and sitting under them in a hammock reading a book on a warm summer day.  There's nothing better than the smell of a pine forest as the wind whispers through the needles.

My favorite is Eastern White Pine.  They are the kings of the forest around here.  They can grow to 200 feet tall and live for centuries.  Unfortunately, we have done everything in our power to reduce this tree to a shadow of its former self.

Through fire suppression, hunting of large game that competed with deer, who love white pine seedlings more than any other thing, and the importation of white pine blister rust from Europe... the tree struggles to become dominant in Minnesota, thanks to the abundance of Quaking Aspen which grows rapidly and shades out pine in the absence of fire, the way overpopulation of white tailed deer that kill the seedlings, and the cool, humid late summers that are perfect for the maturation and spreading of the blister rust, which girdles the trees and often kills them completely.

Here are white pine trees left standing to act as seed trees.  The ground has been scarified in order to expose mineral soil that will allow the pine seeds to germinate and get a good start.  This, or burning of slash around selective cut areas (where large seed trees are left standing) is a sustainable way to regenerate pine stands.


My other favorite is equally endangered:  The American Elm.  It is such a graceful tree.  It is literally the perfect street/boulevard tree as it grows upwards into a massive vase/umbrella shape that leaves the bottom open while shading a massive area.  The strong wood resists breakage in high winds and it stands up well to salt and pollution.

Unfortunately, Dutch Elm's Disease has killed most urban elm trees in the U.S. since the 1930s.  Here in northern MN, our climate is too cold for the invasive European Elm Bark Beetle, which is the best vehicle for the spread of DED.  The American Elm Bark Beetle can still spread the disease, but many street trees and wild elms have survived thanks to lack of exposure to DED.



A street lined with large elms that have been protected from DED in Fargo, North Dakota.

My last one is the state tree of Minnesota:  The Red Pine (or Norway Pine as many call it here).  It is a hardy tree that grows in a straight form and is an exceptional self pruner (meaning that lower branches die and fall off quickly, nearly eliminating any evidence that they were ever there).  The result is a beautiful open forest floor dappled in sun.

Red Pine are the most planted tree for forestry products in Minnesota.  They are exceptionally drought tolerant, but almost require fire to reseed naturally since the seeds must fall on exposed mineral soil in order to germinate and are very shade intolerant.

Here is a mature stand of red pine (some 300 years old) at Preacher's Grove in Itasca State Park (the headwaters of the MIssissippi River).  A derecho storm system in mid July 1995 that caused major damage at our family resort all the way to Itasca twisted many of the 300 year old pines like toothpicks (it also destroyed 2 of our docks and sunk many boats and knocked down 14 trees over our half mile driveway).

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we have a ton of Northern Red Oak and Northern Pin Oak around our cabin.. the northern red oak can turn an almost purple color in fall in good years.. the pin oaks turn deep red.. almost maroon.  They are stunning against the orange sugar maples, red red maples, and gold birch.

My grandparents live in a mature maple forest that is beautiful in the fall.  The most beautiful time/place in Minnesota is along the North Shore of Lake Superior in late September when the massive maple forests turn color.

This photo you can see the maples all turning with the Aspen/Birch/Spruce/Fir forests still green.