Woodland Restoration

[gnmcmartin]

ENTS, and perhaps special attention for Don:

  There is a 20 acre, or so, woodland at what I have been calling the Virginia Arboretum.  Perhaps the official name, as required by the conditions set by the original donator of the land, is the Blandy Experimental Farm. The property is owned by the University of VA. It is along Route 50, about 10 miles east of Winchester, VA.  I have posted some pictures from this place two or three times in the past, including some of the Norway spruce, and a few from the woodland in question.

  This woodland is in terrible shape, but has great potential because of the wonderful soils.  It is all class II forest soil, except for one patch which is something very, very rare around here, a class I upland soil.

  OK, sorry for the long prologue.  This forest is in desperate need of restoration.  It is choked with vines, mostly bittersweet, but also evergreen ivy in some  portions, and just a bit of Japanese honeysuckle.  The deer population is massive, so the understory is mostly spicebush.  There is no reproduction of any native trees to speak of.

  The forest is a typical oak--hickory type, with black oak the most common tree.  Upwards of 30% of the black oak are dead and more are dying, I assume from oak wilt disease, but I have done no diagnosis. Next to the black oak, white oaks are the most common large tree.  Many of these are beautifually well-formed and vigorous trees--they are a real treasure here. There are a few--very few northern red oaks--and a very few scarlet oaks.  There are a lot of hickory, but not very many of these are in the upper canopy. Most of the smaller ones have been ruined by having their crowns pulled down or distorted by the bittersweet vines.

  I have been doing a volunteer project this winter to cut the vines from the better trees.  The bittersweet in some cases is all the way to the top of some of the trees, shading a large portion of the crowns,  On a great many it is up as high as 100 feet in trees 110 to 120 feet tall.

  Where the bittersweet and the ivy are not high up in the trees, they cover the ground and are all entangled with the spice bush. In some places it is hard to walk through this mess. There are few if any native plants on the forest floor.

  So here, finally, is my question?  What can be done, if anything, to fundamentally restore this woodland?  My project is protecting the great trees.  Is there a way, and/or a preferred way to restore this woodland.  I would like to make a proposal to the Arboretum's director, but I have no idea what to propose.  Any ideas?  Or any ideas where I could find an expert to advise me?

  I would hate to see the surface scraped by heavy machinery in an attempt to remove the exotic species. Would spraying by roundup be a way to clear out the understory so things can start over?  Or what??  It is hard to imagine that work by hand to dig out or pull out the offending plants would be possible.  The labor involved would be incredibly huge, or so I would imagine. If the noxious plants could be removed, then some planting could be done in the openings, with the planted trees protected by wire cages.  Of course if deer could be excluded, natural reproduction could take hold.

  Well, any help here would be much appreciated.  This woodland could be an absolute treasure.  There is very little woodland preserved in any fashion whatsoever around here, and this site is absolutely tops for soil.

  --Gaines

[James Parton]

Gaines,

I see woodlands around here like that. They are all too common.

[Joe]

Methods have been developed to eradicate the invasive species but it's expensive. Chemicals need to be applied by people with a license to do that. Some species need to be removed roots and all. In some parts of the country state and federal agencies provide money for this kind of work. The problem with doing all this is- there is nothing preventing those species from returning. I think about the only long term solution is to have the native trees close their crowns and shade the ground. This is one reason, as a forester, I prefer light harvesting- it's where you have heavy harvesting that get more invasive species. Also, when any harvesting occurs- it's a good idea to scout around the area and eradicate invasive species that could spread into the cut area.

I went out to the Quabbin Resevoir here in Mass. with a forester, Don Wakoluk, who spent a few years studying invasives there. He pointed out a common occurance- that if invasive species are along streams that are upstream from an area to be cut- the seeds will fall into the stream and flow down to the cut area- so the upstream areas need to be looked at.

Unfortunately here in Mass. and many other states- there is a push on to cut heavy- for biomass and with the excuse that heavy cutting is great for wildlife- so I expect a lot more problems with invasive species.

Perhaps whoever is responsible for the property is not aware of the problem. You should talk to them and see if they're interested in an effort to battle the invasives. it could become a "show piece" on the problem. Perhaps if you live close enough- you could document the battle.

Most likely your state university has a specialist in invasive species who could help. Let us know how this develops.
Joe

[DonWakoluk]

Gaines,

The Oriental Bittersweet that has contaminated the lower canopy is your greatest threat on upland soils. Soil hydrology, slope and "openess corridors"(where light penetrates to the forest floor in proximity to man-made artifacts like stone walls, dirt roads, trails, drainage ditches/stream banks and at Blandy esp. old field edges) are the key parameters that induce spread with invasives.

Step one: map the populations with GPS and start a database/treatment log in the attribute pages of an Arcview GIS map noting site conditions, pop. density and acreage. Avoid mechanical removal methods except for the highest density areas. Chemical treatment of low density areas will yield the quickest results for the overall stand. Shifting forest floor composition should be the long term goal with White and Black Oak regeneration being signs of success.

The Honeysuckle, remnants of the old farm fields and the presence of access roads mowed with brush hogs, are dealt with by cutting large stem populations and following up immediately by "painting" the stumps with a strong systemic herbicide that contains Trimec, such as "Brushmaster". You need a licensed pesticide applicator to apply it so you might consider doing the project in stages, first mapping Hi,Med, and Low density populations.

Second, develop a mechanical treatment "threshold". Say "we'll only brush hog the highest density populations that are reaching 0.5-1 acre in size, but all other populations will be chemically treated or if heavily shaded by healthy trees, not at all."

Third, start a chemical/biological control treatment protocol. Apply chemical treatment by spraying low density populations of invasives with some mechanical assistance. Use a power pole saw with a shearing head mounted instead of a chain saw head, to cut away the vines around your big upper canopy oaks and expose invasives for spraying. You want to encourage oak regeneration by selectively clearing/cutting everything that competes for light that's woody stemmed. Cutting with power pole saw mounted shears won't kill these native competitors and they'll recover, eventually aiding the oak seedlings by acting as attractive browse for deer. You can protect oak seedlings in spring by applying "Ropel" and utilizing protective plastic tubes until they reach a few feet in ht.
Once you've established areas around your big oaks that contain regeneration continue to move outward marking new regen sites at oaks with DBH >35cm or at the mast producing age class, sort of like islands/coverts of oak regen. I often had to rely on a chainsaw for bigger OB vines and invasive shrubs. Pulling with a root wrench is a waste of good volunteer labor. Make friends with some off road ATV folks and use brush pulling tongs and logging choker cables to mechanically pull vines from trees and the ground when accessible.

Biological control results from "Propagule pressure" referring to native seedlings and forbes like ferns that deer browse but don't eliminate from the lower canopy, which compete for sunlight with invasives. You'll note mediom populations of the shrubby invasives seem to be static in spread under the shadiest sites, while low density invasives in open sites race down openess corridors in a single season.
Mapping the invasives with GPS?GIS is the smartest use of volunteer labor, it'll give you a handle on the scope of the project in short time and give you an idea of what the real costs of intiating oak regeneration will be. Utilize NRCS funding to combat invasives when possible. Their soils maps will be part of your GIS database and they will have some good invasives people to help form a stategy.

good luck,

don wakoluk

[gnmcmartin]

Joe and Don:

  Thanks!  I have called NRCS and started the ball rolling.  It turns out that there is no funding assistance becuse the land is owned by a public institution, but they will come out and do an evaluation and help develop a plan.  Right now the NRCS people locally who would help are busy until sometime in March, but after they come out and do a site evaluation, I will report back. The Virginia Arboretum at Blandy Experimental Farm (the official, complete, correct title) has as its primary focus native trees and plants.  In fact, they have now ceased the planting of any exotic tree species.  So it seems to me that this woodland is a perfect opportunity to further this focus on native trees and plants.  What would be better than a native woodland to be a real focal point for their collections! Maybe I can get something really good started here.

  --Gaines

[Joe]

Gaines, perhaps you can enlist some volunteers? Since the property has such a severe problem- it would be cool to clean it up- and maybe make it an example for others- get the story in the media. Let us know how it goes.
Joe

[gnmcmartin]

Joe.

  Yes, I think I will be able to get more volunteers.  In VA there is an organization called Virginia Master Naturalists, and the members, as part of their membership committment, are asked to do regular volunteer work.  Located at the Arboretum, is another organization which may want to become involved, The Virginia Native Plant Society.  I am not sure how much volunteer "work" help this organization may provide, but they could be the heart of any attempt to re-establish native plant communities in the woodland, once, and if, we can get it "fit" again.  And in addition the Arboretum has a volunteer program and a more or less--or so it seems--full time volunteer cooridinator. Maybe I can get some good general support for this project.

  We may also be able to get some donations--I will have to look into this possibility once we have a plan and a cost estimate.  I will be willing personally to chip in. We have a daily newspaper in Winchester, and not a bad one at that (except for their excessively conservative politics--hah!).  I am sure i could get some articles placed there.  Of course, I am getting ahead of myself here.

  Anyway, the idea that this woodland could possibly be a kind of demonstration project, and ultimately a kind of showplace for native trees and woodland plant communities. is exciting for me.  BUT, and this is a big "BUT," the woodland is in rather poor shape.  I may have used the word "terrible" in a previous post.  Well, maybe not so bad, and because as far as invasive exotics go, we have to contend primarily with just one species, the job may be dooable.

  If we can get somewhere with this, I will have a wonderful place to take woodland walks--something very scarce, if not completely absent in this community.  Boy oh boy do I love the wonderful white oaks there! Talk about the high arching vaults of a forest cathedral--the groups of white oaks there provide that wonderfully. I have severed the vines going up almost all of those already! Lots more to do for all the other trees, but I just had to do the white oaks first!!

  --Gaines

[edfrank]

Folks:

  Here are some pictures of the trees and vines at Blandy.  The first two are of a nice white oak before "treatment."

               

                       

                                               

DSC00560.gif (146.81 KiB) Viewed 831 times

               

               

               

                       

                                       

               

  Here is a picture after treatment.  You can see my tools laying over the cut vine sections.  This tree took me about an hour--I wanted to create a clear gap that would take a bit of time for the new sprouts to bridge, and which would make it easy to identify and cut them.

               

                       

                                               

DSC00562.gif (154.23 KiB) Viewed 831 times

               

               

  Next are a couple of pictures of a tree that presented an easier situation--basically one vine going up instead of the many, many small ones in addition to the larger ones on the first tree I pictured above.

               

                       

                                               

DSC00564.gif (151.88 KiB) Viewed 831 times

               

               

               

                       

                                               

DSC00565_edited-1.gif (126.92 KiB) Viewed 831 times

               

               

  Now here is a tree with the ivy.  I have cut it off up to as high as I could easily reach.  the "stick" leaning up against the trunk is a section of the vine, showing how thick they can be.  I must have removed over two dozen vines from this trunk.

               

                       

                                               

DSC00569.gif (154.43 KiB) Viewed 831 times

               

               

  Finally, here is a picture of what may be my favorite of the white oaks.  I posted a picture of this once before--it has nearly perfect form, is about 120 feet tall, and is free of vines, except for poison ivy, which I am prohibited from cutting, it being native.

               

                       

                                               

DSC00563_edited-1.gif (174.64 KiB) Viewed 831 times

               

               

  If you look in the background of these pictures, you can see more of the general problem, but not how the bittersweet is choking the forest floor, especially in the openings where there is more overhead light.

  --Gaines

[tomhoward]

Gaines,

This is a beautiful forest and even with all those invasive vines the White Oaks are glorious. If you wish to see a Forest Cathedral of White Oaks, I'll be happy to show you the Wizard of Oz Oak Grove here in North Syracuse, and this is an oak cathedral with no invasive problem. A similar cathedral of old White Oaks, and, also, practically free of invasives, is the nearby North Syracuse Cemetery Oak Grove.

Tom Howard

[edfrank]

Gaines,

Nice description of the site.  I like the photos of the vines.  I think the vines are interesting, but do agree that they should be removed.  This page http://www.nativetreesociety.org/dendro/ents_maximum_ages.htm shows some ages for vines that Bruce Allen measured in the Congaree (near the bottom of the list).  I would be curious about the ages of the bigger vines you might cut.  The problem may be that the rings are not always distinctive.

Ed