ForestryA beginner’s guide

Trees

Anatomy of a Tree Outer Bark- This keeps water and nutrients in, and pests

out Inner Bark- A pipeline for food the tree needs Cambium- The growing portion of the tree, shows age Sapwood- A pipeline For water the tree needs Heartwood- The dead portion of the tree that gives it its main support

Tree Types Study on your own! You’ll need to do

some identification at the competition and sometimes the transition between black and white pictures and an actual leaf is confusing, so for more common trees you might want to look up real pictures online.

Tips for Identification Carefully study the tree you want to identify. Look

at leaves, twigs, buds and any flowers or fruits. When the leaves have fallen, you can still identify

trees. It takes careful study of their twigs, buds, leaf scars and bark, and a little practice.

Individual trees vary in their characteristics. The amount of sun a leaf receives affects its shape. And bark often varies with the age of the tree—younger trees are often smoother and more lightly colored.

Important Hardwoods Red Maple1. Red maple’s light-colored wood has many uses,

including furniture, paneling, moldings, doors, turnings, and musical instruments.

2. Red maples are the most common trees in Pennsylvania.

Black Cherry1. Uses for black cherry wood and veneer include high-

quality furniture, cabinets, paneling, moldings, flooring, musical instruments, carvings, and turnings.

2. Black cherry is also a fairly common PA tree.

Important Hardwoods Northern Red Oak1. Its wood and veneer uses include high-quality

furniture, cabinets, paneling, moldings, construction, coffins, and floors.

White Oak1. Uses for white oak are similar to Northern red oak,

except it is also excellent for outside applications, barrels, and ships. Its wood is resistant to decay and impervious to liquids.

Important Hardwoods Yellow “Tulip” Poplar 1. The wood, which has a light greenish-yellow color, is

useful for a variety of construction purposes. Uses for the wood include furniture, veneer, cabinets, doors, paneling, plywood, turnings, and carvings.

Sugar Maple1. Prized as a strong, shock-resistant wood, maple

makes solid furniture, moldings, veneer, paneling, tabletops. cabinets, woodenware, rifle stocks, handrails, doors, bowling alleys, and floors.

Important Hardwoods Chestnut Oak1. Chestnut oak wood, often marketed as white oak, is

similar in appearance and properties to white oak. The tree’s bark is rich in tannins and was once used to tan leather. The current uses for the wood are similar to those of white oak.

White Ash 1. Baseball bats, hockey sticks, boat oars, and tool

handles are all manufactured from white ash. White ash wood also makes fine furniture, paneling, flooring, doors, moldings, turnings, and cabinets.

Important Hardwoods American Beech1. American Beech is suited for furniture, flooring,

paneling, brush handles, ties, and food containers (because it has no odor or taste). The smooth bark often invites carving, which defaces the beauty of the tree.

Hickory1. It makes fine flooring, tool handles, ladders, dowels,

and sporting goods. It is useful in furniture and cabinet making as well.

Forest Ecology

Forest Types

Forest Types according to The United States Department of Agriculture-Forest Service

Percentage of Forest Types

Forest Growth Over Time

Grass/Forbes Shrubs/Saplings Pole Stage Mature

Wildlife and Succession The type of wildlife in an area depends

on the stage of succession a forest is in. For example:a) Shrubs/Saplings: Deerb) Mature Forest: Birdsc) Pole and Mature: Aquatic Life

3 Factors that Determine Forest Types Temperature1. Minimum winter temperatures and the length of the

growing season between the last spring freezes and the first frosts of autumn.

Rainfall1. We average 42 inches of rain per year which encourages

forest growth. Topography1. Elevation, slope and the direction a slope faces all effect

what types of forest types are in an area. Trees that need more moisture are at the bottoms of slopes because they get more moisture, trees that need more sunlight live on the south of slopes because they receive more light.

Biodiversity

Ways We Benefit from Biodiversity Economics1. Biodiversity is necessary for things we use almost

everyday- food, fiber, medicine, paper and plastics. Also, many medications require certain things from nature.

Environmental Benefits1. Biodiversity is the basis for life sustaining ecological

services such as nutrient cycling, photosynthesis, decomposition, soil creation, climate regulation, removal of pollutants, and insect control. All these processes contribute to the stability of the earth’s environment, on which we rely for the air we breathe, the water we drink, and the food we eat.

Ways We Benefit from Biodiversity Personal Values1. People want to preserve the environment and they

are undisturbed when nature is balanced. Enjoyment1. Biodiversity contributes to our enjoyment of natural

beauty, outdoor recreation, and peace of mind. Some people are drawn to nature to escape the hurried pace of city life.

Loss of Biodersity How are we losing biodiversity?1. Extinction-2. Habitat Loss/Destruction3. Introduced Species4. Pollution5. Poor Management Practices- improper timber

harvesting can cause adverse environmental effects, such as soil erosion and stream sedimentation, damage to residual stands, long-term regeneration problems, and low species diversity.

Lost PA Species Mammals: gray wolf, timber wolf, eastern cougar, moose, bison,

lynx, wolverine, mountain lion, pine marten, eastern elk, Delmarva Peninsula fox squirrel

Birds: Bachman’s sparrow, lark sparrow Fishes: mud sunfish, long jaw cisco, lake whitefish, skipjack herring Mollusks: butterfly mussel Insects: American burying beetle, precious underwing moth,

Karner blue butterfly, northeastern beach tiger beetle Plants: flame azalea, Carolina petunia, American barberry, small

white lady’s slipper, eastern prairie fringed orchid, Virginia spiraea, crested yellow orchid

Reptiles: eastern mud turtle, midland smooth soft-shell turtle Amphibians: eastern tiger salamander

Tools for Measuring Trees Biltmore Stick Diameter Stick Clinometer

Biltmore Stick

Clinometer

Forest Resource Management and Protection

Forest Management Silviculture—the art, science, and practice of

establishing, tending, and reproducing forest stands. Thinning—removal of trees to encourage growth of

other selected individual trees. Clearcut—a regeneration technique that removes all

the trees, regardless of size, on an area in one operation. Clearcutting produces an even-aged forest stand.

Seed tree method—a regeneration technique where mature trees are left standing in a harvested area to provide seed for regeneration of the cut-over site.

Forest Management Selection method—a regeneration technique designed to

create and perpetuate an uneven-aged forest. Trees may be removed singly or in small groups.

High-grading—a type of timber harvesting in which larger trees of commercially valuable species are removed with little regard for the quality, quantity, or distribution of trees and regeneration left on the site.

Diameter-limit cut—a timber harvesting treatment in which all trees over a specified diameter may be cut. Diameter-limit cuts often result in highgrading.

Salvage cut—the removal of dead, damaged, or diseased trees with the intent of recovering maximum value prior to deterioration.

Things that are Going Good Pennsylvania’s forest land area is stable with some parts gaining while

other parts are losing forests. The State’s 16.7 million acres of forest land consist mostly of mixed-oak

(54 percent) and northern hardwoods (32 percent) forest-type groups. The current distribution of timberland by stand-size class reveals

continued build-up of sawtimber-size stands. All of the rising trends in wood volume described in the 2004 report have

continued during the period from 2004 to 2009, with few exceptions for the major species or species groups.

The overall net growth-to-removals ratio was 2:1 for both forest land and timberland, indicating the forest is growing twice as much wood than is being harvested.

Red maple, black cherry, and northern red oak remained the top three species by volume; sugar maple and chestnut oak are tied at fourth place.

Current Issues The loss of forest land in Pennsylvania is due primarily to

the conversion of forest land to development (67 percent), essentially nonreversible.

The State’s forests continue to show signs of aging with nearly 40 percent of the forest land being 80 years or older.

Private landowners control 70 percent of the timberland acreage and consider forest management as a low priority.

Gypsy moths along with other pests, native, nonnative, and especially exotic or from foreign lands, have become entrenched.

Conditions for regeneration aren’t favorable for some trees.

Role of Trees in Watersheds Canopy Interception and Filtration1. Canopy blocks and slows rainfall and can take in up to

18 inches of rainfall Trees Consume Stormwater1. Trees need water inside them and absorb thousands of

gallons of water in a year Pollutant Removal1. Removes nutrients and contamineants from soil and

water Streamside Forest Buffers1. Reduces pollution in streams, regulates water

temperature, and keeps banks stabilized.

Insect Threats- Emerald Ash Borer

• An exotic beetle from Asia was discovered in July 2002 feeding on ash trees.

• Jagged holes excavated by woodpeckers feeding on pre-pupal larvae may be the first sign that a tree has become infested.

• When a tree has been infested for at least one year, the D-shaped exit holes left by emerging adults will be present on the branches and the trunk.

• Bark may split vertically above larval feeding galleries.

Insect Threats• The Asian longhorned beetle was first

identified in North America in New York in 1996.

• Larvae of the beetle feed in the stems and branches of many hardwood tree species.

• Signs of Asian longhorned beetle infestation include dieback of the upper crown, sawdust around the tree, and dime-sized, round emergence holes.

Insect Threats- Gypsy Moth• It is fairly easy to identify gypsy moth because colors

of caterpillars, adults, and egg masses are so distinct.

• Also, egg masses are large compared to those laid by most insects.

Insect Threats- Hemlock Wooly Adelgid The hemlock woolly adelgid is a

sap-feeding insect that attacks hemlock trees throughout eastern North America.

The insects appear as white sacs clinging to hemlock twigs, resembling the tips of cotton swabs. These sacs are on the underside of the twigs at the base of the needles, making them hard to see at first.

Invasive Plants are not native to North America; spread, reproducing by roots or shoots mature quickly; if spread by seed,

produce numerous seeds that disperse and sprout easily

are generalists that can grow in many different conditions

Autumn Olive Introduced to the United States from

East Asia in the 1830's

Bush Honeysuckle Eurasia (Japan, China, Korea, Manchuria, Turkey and

southern Russia); introduced to US for use as ornamentals, for wildlife cover and for soil erosion control.

Garlic Mustard From Europe

Japanese Barberry From Japan

Japanese Knotweed From Japan

Multiflora Rose Eastern Asia (Japan, Korea and eastern

China) introduced for ornamental purposed in the mid to late 1800’s.

Tree of Heaven Eastern and central

China

Wildfires Wildfires are unplanned, uncontrolled fires

burning trees, shrubs and other vegetation on wild, uncultivated lands well as in the forest.

They need…1. An available fuel source, such as grasslands

or fields.2. Dry conditions, including the fuel source.3. An ignition source — some way for the fire to

start.

Wildfires Ninety-eight percent of our wildfires are caused

by people. Our greatest danger of wildfires is in the spring

months of March, April and May, and the autumn months of October and November.

As winter slowly recedes and the sun climbs higher in the sky, the days become longer and warmer. The trees are bare during this time allowing the sunlight to reach the forest floor warming the ground and drying last fall’s leaves.

Community Forests Can… Boost property values Support retail activity Improve municipal health Protect water quality Reduce stormwater runoff Counter climate change Manage temperature Provide wildlife habitat Ensure roadway safety