New England and the Great Lakes

Intro to Northeast US/Great Lakes Region

• Maine is most forested

• 42% of North U.S.’s land is forested

  • Most species are also found in NC

• 32% of North U.S. is timberland

  • More than a third of the US wood volume comes from the Northeast US

• 41% of North U.S. population

  • parts of this region are also densely populated

• Most forestry is through natural regeneration

Northeast US/Great Lakes Region

• Oak-Hickory Forest

• Maple-Beech-Birch Forest

• White pine-Hemlock-Northern Hardwoods

• Spruce-fir

• What factors change as you go north?

Environmental factors predict forest type

• Climate

  • temperature

  • precipitation

  • growing season

• Geology and soil

• Disturbance (or lack of disturbance)

  • natural

  • human

• time and space (geography)

Glaciation

• Landform features and “young topography”

• primary succession and soil development

• more on this with boreal forests next lecture

Today’s Tree Trivia

• How high is the summit of Mt. Katahdin, the northern terminus of the Appalachian Trail?

  • 5260 ft

• Why is is treeless, when the summit of Mr. Mitchell (6684 ft) is forested?

  • Climatic treeline is about 400- ft (latitude)

    • Climatic treeline: the elevation above which trees cannot survive year round—due to a combination of factors including short growing season, snow depth, and extreme winter temperatures

  • Mountain ranges: Northern Appalachians, Adirondacks (NY0, Green Myn (VT), Berkshires (MA), White Mts (NH, ME)

Northeast US/Great Lakes Region

• Major environmental factors that influence the region’s forests

  • Precipitation (drier than NC)

  • Temperature (growing season and winter severity)

  • Past glaciation (Affects soils and site index for forestry)

  • Disturbance

    • fire on a 100-300 year interval

  • Threats: invasive species that have impacted many forest species

Oak-Hickory Forest

• An extension of Oak-Hickory Forests in NC—Geography

• Appalachian Range

• Fuelwood harvested through coppicing established stand

• Old field pine cut in the early 1900s, releasing the oaks that were in the understory

• Species: northern red oak, white oak, black oak, scarlet oak, chestnut oak, overall species diversity lower than in NC, older stands develop a more complex structure

  • older trees fall, allowing gaps in the canopy that allow early successional species to establish, resulting in an uneven-aged, more diverse forest

Maple-Beech-Birch Forest

• Similar to northern hardwoods in the Southeast

• Much has been converted to agriculture

• Canopy: sugar maple, beech, and yellow birch

  • sugar maple is a northern species, source of maple sugar, 40 gallons of sap = 1 gallon of syrup

  • beech has beech bark disease, scale insect transmits/triggers fungal Neonectria which causes cankers, forests are resprouting but soon re-infected

  • also paper birch

  • black cherry: highest-quality wood from central/western PA

• Mesophytic forest type recognized to the south, similar to cove hardwood

• What species from our (southern) northern hardwood forest is missing?

  • buckeye

• Also, note sub-type Mpale-Basswood Forest in the Lake States

• Basswood fun facts: fibrous inner bark used for fiber by Native Americans. Soft, light, easily worked wood once used for prosthetic limbs.

  • Basswood has a super-cool fruit dispersal method, where the seeds are in an umbel and are attached to a bract that acts as a wing, which makes it spiral around like a helicopter and fly further. See it fly off a bridge in this video!

White pine-Hemlock-Northern Hardwoods

• Transitional type, between

  • deciduous forests to the south,

  • boreal forest to the north,

  • also slightly different in the Lake Statees

• Key species (New England)

  • eastern hemlock

    • stream-loving species

    • decimated by the hemlock woolly adelgid; most old-growth is gone

  • eastern white pine

    • easy to age—puts on one flush of growth each year, early successional, responds to disturbance, thought to have a 100-3000 year fire interval

    • vs yellow pine:

    • 

    • Pinus lambertiana and Pinus monticola are 2 white pines

  • northern hardwoods (beech, northern red oak, red pine, sugar maple, yellow birch)

• Key species (Lakes States)

• Eastern hemlock, eastern white pine, jack pine, red pine

Threats

• Invasive species have impacted many canopy forest species (American chestnut, white pine, beech)

• Overpopulation of white-tail deer has impacted forest understories and forest regeneration

• Development

• Climate change and range shifts