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fwg is a long-term project of the ottawa field-naturalists' club |
Ash Woodlot
Unlike a natural forest, our woodlot had only one layer - the canopy (photo right). When the FWG project began, the first priority was to stop mowing the grass under the trees. Leaves were collected each fall and spread through the woodlot to try to build up a thick layer of organic nutrients (see Tomlinson plan below).
Seedlngs, including a shrub layer, began to appear as envisioned by Tomlinson. However, it consisted mainly of non-native species, such as Norway maples, buckthorn, and honeysuckle. A number of red elderberry shrubs also appeared, possibly from plantings for the botanical garden between 1967 and 1984. In 1995, we were delighted to find that almost all the introduced wildflowers had survived the winter and had started to spread. We added more, along with more leaves and as much rotted wood as we could find (or transport). By fall, mushrooms and fungi began to appear. This was a good sign; it showed that we were successful in raising the proportion of decaying organic material in the soil.
The ice storm of January 1998 caused considerable damage to the ash trees in our woodlot. We managed to put the many downed branches to good use, however, by making brush piles in and around the woodlot. The birds seemed to love these jumbles, and they were acting as edge cover until natural growth occurred. In the spring, we planted a number of nannyberry and high-bush cranberry shrubs on the south and west sides of the woodlot and scouts planted ash seedlins in the semi-circle. In the fall, we were lucky to receive a number of "hard maples" through Project ReGeneration (organized by the Evergreen Foundation and sponsored by Ontario Hydro). In 1999, we continued to weed out invasive species like garlic mustard, motherwort, and dog-strangling vine (DSV). We replaced buckthorn shrubs with several dozen young sugar maple and beech trees. With help from our excellent crew of volunteers and an enthusiastic group of baccalaureate students from Colonel By Secondary School, we were also able to establish several stands of trembling aspens at the edges of the woodlot. In 2001 and 2002, we made a concerted effort to remove the buckthorn that was beginning to dominate the understory. Volunteers Dale Crook, Malcolm Leith, and Tony Denton made great progress by using a weed wrench to pull out both Common Buckthorn and Glossy Buckthorn trees by their roots. At the same time, other volunteers weeded out the DSV that is a ubiquitous problem on our site.
Over the next few years, we continued to remove invasives - garlic mustard, DSV, buckthorn - as well as several Manitoba maples and many honeysuckles. Although pulling DSV seemed to be of some help, many plants grow back every year, from remaining roots or seeds. Digging is more effective, but difficult to do without disturbing everything else. Our general strategy is to pull out DSV growing near "good" plants every year. In small areas, we've been digging it out or covering an area with a tarpaulin until the DSV is dead, then planting native species. In 2005, we planted a variety of small trees donated by Albert Dugal. These included blue beech, sugar maple, basswood, pagoda dogwoods, white ash, white spruce, butternut, bitternut hickory, and American elm. Other plants included sedges, ferns, bloodroot, mayapple, and white snakeroot. In 2006, we removed a lot of buckthorn trees and seedlings, all garlic mustard plants that bloomed, some motherwort, and some DSV. We continued to plant woodland wildflowers and other plants, including 2 sugar maples.
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THE ASH WOODLOT HABITAT at the FWG consists of about 60 ash (Fraxinus pennsylvanica) trees, all planted at the same time, about 50 years ago, interspersed with red oaks (Quercus rubra) of about the same age and an assortment of coniferous trees (white spruce, Norway spruce, Scots pine, and white pine) which were planted, probably in 1967 or shortly after, along the east and west sides of the "lot."
By 1994, enough mulch had accumulated in a few areas to begin experimenting with woodland species like trilliums, trout lilies, violets, foamflower (photo), ferns, mosses, etc. Thanks to donations from club members' gardens and a couple of rescue operations, we were able to plant a variety of woodland wildflowers and ferns typical of our region.
In 1996, we concentrated on the shrub layer, both in and around the woodlot. We planted native tree seedlings on the north and west sides of the main lot. Under the ash trees, we replaced some of the weed species with native ones like hobblebush, striped maple, hemlock, and beech. When we discovered a native growing naturally (red-berried elder, maple, oak, black cherry, dogwood), we helped it along by weeding back any non-natives in the immediate area.