VIsit us on Facebook...
Highland Conservancy
  • HC Blog
  • Home
  • Who We Are
  • How You Can Help
  • Related Groups
  • Contact Us

YOU CAN'T TELL A BOOK BY ITS COVER by Jim Lloyd

2/14/2014

0 Comments

 
Picture
I can’t separate my interest in historical preservation with my interest in natural history.  I have long been fascinated by the huge trees that line many of our “less remodeled” roadways.  When European settlers came to this part of Michigan (primarily from upstate New York) beginning in the 1830s, Oakland County greeted them with a diverse mix of oak/hickory forests intermixed with modest open areas of native tall grass prairie now known as “oak openings”.  Also, there were numerous lakes and wetlands that had their own wetland complex vegetations.  In less than 100 years, the settlers had cut down and logged nearly every tree in the state.  Up until the 1960s, agriculture was king and the landscape was largely devoid of any trees.  After that, agriculture was replaced with land speculation and urban sprawl which allowed many of the forests in our community to regenerate nicely.  Many oak species have a life expectancy of 300 to 400 years, so we can be quite sure that there are but few survivors.

Today most of our oldest trees line our roadways, most of which our European ancestors laid out on surveyed section lines.  But there is the occasional roadway that was originally a Native American Indian trail.  These can be spotted as roads that do not adhere to the section line grid.  In as much as I gasp when I see one of these trees cut down (remember that Oakland County was named after the magnificent oaks that the settlers found), at the same time I am fascinated to discover the age of the tree.  Fortunately, the modern, huge professional chain saws that it takes to cut one of these beasts are usually well maintained and leave a pretty smooth cut that lets me closely inspect the growth rings.

In December 2013, one of these trees was removed on White Lake Road (which originally was the Shiawassee Trail) in White Lake Township.  I rushed over there in bitter cold weather to get a peek at the trunk rings that would allow me to document the age of this tree.  This tree had an irregularly shaped trunk section indicative of a tree that had grown in the open much of its life and had huge low branches.  I measured an approximate diameter of 60 inches and an age of 170 years.  Many of the growth rings in this tree were quite thick, typical of a tree that grew in the open and never had to compete for sunlight or nutrients. 

 
Two years prior, I documented another Oak tree that had blown down in a very wet site in a very old closed canopy forest.  This tree measured only 24 inches in diameter with a very round trunk section and 30 feet of clear wood to the lowest branch which is typical for trees grown in a forest environment where they must compete for sunlight by reaching upward relentlessly.  The rings of this tree were extremely tight (24 per inch in the oldest layers) providing a visual demonstration of why old growth lumber is so strong, stable, dense and highly prized.  Young plantation grown trees produce lumber that is much different in appearance.  Although this tree was only 24 inches in diameter, it was 146 years old.

Even though these two trees were approximately the same age, they were dramatically different sizes due to their different site conditions.  Even the larger at 170 years was well short of the life expectancy of an oak tree and the trunk had only slight distress.  It also was only a small seedling in 1843 when the first European settlers were cutting down all of its ancestors to build their homes and barns, burn for fuel and clear the land for the European version of agriculture.  I will never see an original native oak tree because there aren’t any.  Such is the legacy of man.


Picture
0 Comments

Rare Skipperling Butterfly Spotted Locally by Carole Gannon

2/1/2014

0 Comments

 
Picture
A tiny butterfly, the Poweshiek skipperling, (Oarisma Poweshiek) is likely to be designated as an endangered species by the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service this year.  Once found in eight states and in Canada, the Poweshiek skipperling’s population has precipitously declined.  Michigan holds the world’s largest population of the insect.  With most of its habitat now gone, it's only found in a few places, including isolated fens.  Michigan Nature Association this month reported only seven active sites known in our state - and two of those sites are very close to Dunham Lake, where I live.  Dunham Lake straddles the county line of Oakland and Livingston and comprises part of the headwaters of the Shiawassee watershed. 

The Poweshiek skipperling is dark brown with a light orange head with a one-inch wingspan.  When resting, the undersides of its wings appear, showing its white veins, which make the wings look striped.  The caterpillar is pale green with a dark green dorsal band outlined by cream lines.  This insect spends its winters in caterpillar form on the ground, emerging in the spring and developing into an adult butterfly in late June to mid-July.  The adult only lives one or two weeks, mating and laying its eggs.  One of its preferred foods is Shrubby Cinquefoil nectar.

I first learned about this tiny near-endangered butterfly this fall from our land steward consultant, Rick McAvinchey, as he wrapped up his study of the Dunham Lake Greenbelt.  As Greenbelt chair, I conferred with Rick for much of 2013.  A major greenbelt concern was in protecting the wetland in the south end of the lake where North Ore Creek flows.  We looked for the elusive Shrubby Cinquefoil and Prairie Thistle plants, identifiers that this was in fact the remnant of a prairie fen. No luck, but the grasses, sedges and forbes were amazingly varied and the tiny insects hopped and fluttered about in abundance. 

Finally, a lead DNR wetland botanist, Mike Penskar, volunteered his time to assess our wetland.  Within two hours, he identified nearly fifty plants, including indicator plants of prairie fens.  In Mike Penskar’s final summary he said that our prairie fen remnant, though small, is a rich, sensitive natural community that should be conserved and protected.’  The wisdom of Penskar’s advice was soon underscored by the news that two sites were habitats for the Poweshiek – one south of Buckhorn Lake in Oakland County and the other west of Bullard Lake in Livingston County.  These two sites, on either side of Dunham Lake, are within a few miles of each other.

I contacted MNFI lead conservationist for the study of this insect, David Cuthrill. He is interested in including our fen in his study.  Small fen areas are apparently promising habitat for the Poweshiek and may well support other endangered insects such as the Lake Huron leaf hopper, an even rarer insect.  He stated, “If you are saving the Poweshiek, you are saving a whole suite of species, some that we don’t even know about yet” 



0 Comments

    Author

    This is our ongoing blog with articles on the environment, local news and events, and issues related to land conservation. 

    Archives

    October 2020
    August 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    December 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    July 2019
    April 2019
    December 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    April 2018
    February 2018
    August 2017
    July 2017
    October 2016
    June 2016
    April 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014
    November 2013
    September 2013
    January 2013
    October 2012
    December 2011
    October 2011
    September 2011
    June 2011
    March 2011
    February 2011
    January 2011
    December 2010
    November 2010
    October 2010
    May 2010

    Categories

    All
    Conservation
    Earth Day
    Endangered Species
    Environmental News
    Local Events
    Science

    RSS Feed

Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.