A TREE PLANTING STORY
By Bill Millis
Resource Professional with Baraga, Dickinson & Iron Conservation Districts.

Have plans to plant a few trees or shrubs out at your place next spring? Now is the time to start your planning. They say next summer may be just as dry and hot as it was last year. You remember what happened with your tree planting fiasco last year, don't you?

It seemed to start off well enough, you got your tree order in before the deadline and planned a weekend at camp with your family and a couple buddies to plant the trees spit-spot and then scope out some lakes and streams around the county for the upcoming fishing season.

Well... that's what was supposed to happen anyway. First off, your buddy whom you arm twisted into helping canceled be cause he had to go visit a sick uncle you never knew he had. Then the other one told you he forgot about his daughter's wedding, and as much as he wanted to come he wasn't allowed to (women can be funny that way). Oh well, no loss - they probably would have just embarrassed you in front of your kid by telling those old stories about how you got the nick-name "Bumpy". Then a few days before tree planting day the boss tells you that you're working Saturday morning "for just a couple hours". It is a bit of a set back but, hey, it'll workout because you can have your kid pick up the trees in the morning on his way to baseball practice. You run it through your head and it all sounds good. You'll still be at camp by 1 or 2 p.m. and out in the field planting trees for a few hours before it gets dark. The rest of the trees (if there are any left) can be planted quick as a wink on Sunday morning before you and the boy leave to go check out those fishing spots. Just you and the boy? Hey, where's that wife? Oh yeah, I forgot to tell you, your pregnant wife also canceled.

Saturday comes. It's a bright sunny day, unusually warm for the first weekend in May and you're in great spirits as you and the boy are driving to camp. You've been on the road for about an hour when you begin to think that maybe you forgot something...?????????... the darn trees! Relax, dad, they've been sitting in the car trunk all day. Remember? Your kid picked them up on his way to ball practice.

So you get to camp a little later than expected but it'll still be light for a couple of hours yet. You pop the trunk open and the aroma of semi-baked pine fills your nostrils and makes your eyes water. Pay no mind to it, you tell yourself, it's probably just the kid's sweat socks that he pitched in there after practice.

Its time for tree planting. Heck, this won't take long - you thought 2000 trees would be a much larger bundle. You instruct the boy to grab the trees and a bucket full of water while you get the new planting bars and the root-gel stuff that those folks at the Conservation District suggested because its been so dry this spring. Planting bars ... root-gel stuff? Where are the planting bars and root-gel stuff? You were right, you did forget something. After scrounging up a couple of rusty old shovels from the tool shed the two of you quietly head off in the dusk to the old hay field.

Sunrise broke early the next morning (just like the rotted handle on the old shovel you were using to plant trees in the dark with last night). After listening to your kid complain about how the blisters on his hands were going to raise havoc with his pitching game, you took a quick estimate of the trees yet to be planted. There were roughly 1800 of those little so-and-sos left. Your child then quietly reminded you that mom didn't like for you to swear so much. You did get out to the field fairly early that Sunday morning but your pride in that accomplishment went dim after you spent an hour looking for the spot where you stopped planting last night. It probably wouldn't have taken so long to find the place if the weeds and grass weren't so thick. After your eyes adjusted to looking for the trees in the grass you noticed that the rows put in last night looked like something done by a cross-eyed woodchuck. After a couple hours and only about 100 more trees, your son suggested that things would maybe go a little faster if instead of just putting in one tree per hole two were put in, and it would sure lighten up that big, black, garbage bag that you were toting them around the field in. What a smart kid! Takes after the old man you thought, smiling to yourself. Pretty soon two trees per hole turned to three, then four with an occasional five. By about 6:00 p.m. you were so sick of planting trees and wanted to go home so bad that you put the last 500 in a bucket of water. Surely they'd be OK that way until you could get back next weekend to finish the job.

The next time you made it out to camp was for deer season when one of those wise cracking buddies of yours asked what kind of trees those little red ones in the crooked rows were. "Oh well", you think, "there's always next year".

The point of this perhaps not so fictitious story is that unexpected things always seem to pop up when doing a "casual" tree planting. To make things run more smoothly and have a better survival rate you should try to control those things you can. Its planting seasons like last years that distinguish the good jobs from the not so good ones. Below are a few tips that may be enough to move your next planting job into the successful category.

Match the right species to the site you're planting. For help with this you can ask the nursery manager, a consulting forester, refer to your county soil survey book or call the Conservation District office. Do pre-planting competition control. Methods include discing, plowing, mowing, mulch, burning and herbicide. In most cases the best bang for the buck usually comes from a properly done herbicide treatment applied early in the previous fall.

How are you going to get the trees into the ground? Will you be using a tree spud, shovel, or even paying someone else to do it? Walk over the site you plan to plant. Is it a steep slope or a flat open field? Are there lots of rocks? Will you have problems moving through slash and brush as you plant? These things as well as the number of trees you order all contribute to how long it will take to plant them. Plan to allow extra time, there are always unforeseen problems. Be realistic on what you should expect to accomplish. An average person planting all day can normally put in about 500 trees, if conditions are good. If you think that is more than you can handle consider hiring it out to professional planters.

• Plant as soon as possible. Some folks suggest "heeling-in" the trees if you aren't able to plant immediately -I don't. It always seems to be used as a poor excuse not to do the job right away.
• Don't transport seedlings in a hot car trunk-- it can kill them.
• At the planting site keep the seedlings cool and moist while they are waiting to be planted. Only carry a small amount with you, keep the others in a cooler in a shady spot. The best days to plant are damp, overcast, calm and cool. Wind, bright sunlight and low humidity can quickly dry out and kill your unplanted seedlings.
• Planting more than one tree per hole to save time. Don't even think about it! The seedlings will have a hard enough time competing with the weeds and grass for moisture and nutrients without having to also compete with each other.

For help with planning your spring planting job or for other forestry and wildlife related questions you can contact your county's Conservation District Forestry and Wildlife Program Manager.

NATURAL REGENERATION
By Bill Cook

Most of our tree species regenerate best without people having to plant them. If you take a moment to think about that, it's common sense. Trees have been reproducing a lot longer than people have been harvesting them.

Of course, tree planting is still an important part of forestry. About 30 million trees are planted in Michigan each year. But many millions more are established through forest management and natural regeneration. Natural regeneration comes in four flavors; seeds, sprouts, suckers, and something called "layering." How a tree regenerates is an important factor in prescribing a management system to a forest.

All trees produce flowers and fruits. Tree flowers are usually inconspicuous, but some can be rather showy. Not all flowers have both male and female parts. Many times the separate male and female flowers mature at different times to help avoid self-pollination. Some species even have separate male and female trees. Watch a ruffed grouse during the winter and you'll learn where the male aspen trees are.

The fruits have many names, such as acorns, pods, nuts, catkins, helicopters, cherries, cones, and many others. Fruits and seeds are not the same thing. The fruit is the part of the tree that contains the seed. The seed contains the tissue from which a new tree might grow. For example, an apple is a fruit with seeds inside. A pine cone is also a fruit, with the seeds inside.

The variety of tree fruits and seeds is amazing. Some float on the air. Others must pass through the digestive tract of birds. Fruits ripen at different times. Red oak acorns take two years to mature. Spring seeds take advantage of the current growing season. Fall seeds often require a period of cold weather in order to germinate in the spring. Sugar maple germinates at a temperature of 34 degrees, even under the snow.

However, some tree species have alternative forms of regeneration. Sprouts and suckers begin from dormant buds. Normally, these buds are suppressed by chemicals traveling down the tree. For a variety of reasons, including top death or illness, the dormant buds will grow. Sprouts come from buds around the base of the trunk and suckers shoot up from buds on root systems.

Oaks, basswood, red maple, and white birch are common examples of trees that have sprouts. Whenever you see clumps of trees in the forest, it usually means the tree has compensated for either a stressed or dead top. In Europe, certain hardwood forests are managed and regenerated using this biological characteristic. The presence of tree clumps in a stand sends a message about its past history.

Quaking and bigtooth aspens, and balsam popular are noted for their ability to send up thousands of suckers per acre from root systems. This ability, coupled with the strong affinity for full sunlight, is why aspen responds well to clearcutting. A tree can't tell if the top is killed by chainsaw or wildfire. The root system will respond the same way, and it's what they're designed to do.

The most unusual form of regeneration is called layering. When a branch or trunk comes in direct contact with soil, certain species will grow roots at that point from the branch. This can result in some strange sights in the woods. The U.P. species that layers is white cedar, and even that is not common. Layering is more a feature in humid tropical forests.

Tree reproduction employs a wide range of strategies and requirements. It is one of several critical biological characteristics that foresters must be aware of as they match forest types to management systems. Knowing these sort of things is part of what makes forestry such a rewarding profession.

As an MSU Extension forester, I provide educational programming for the entire Upper Peninsula. My office is located at the MSU Upper Peninsula Tree Improvement Center near Escanaba. The Center is the headquarters for three MSU Forestry properties in the U.P., with a combined area of about 7,840 acres.

Bill Cook, Forester MSU Extension, Upper Peninsula
6005 J Road , Escanaba, MI 49829
906-786-1575, voice • 906-786-9370, fax Forestry
Info? Try http://forestry.msu.edu/msaf/default.htm

Michigan State University programs and materials are open to all without regard to race, color, national origin, gender, religion, age, disability, political beliefs, sexual orientation, marital status, or family status.

THE COLOR SEASON
By Bill Cook

The Autumn season has certainly begun, even though we still have warm days, most of the leaves remain green, and the sun has not quite yet migrated south of the equator. But, the geese are moving, the gardens are producing, and most plants and animals have begun their annual preparation for the winter.

The usual vanguard of stressed trees began their color change in August. Red maples in the swamp have gone scarlet. Individual aspens, black ash, sugar maple, and other species that logged a poor season are checking out early. But the bulk of the trees will turn during the end of September and into October. The leaf-peeper season is just around the corner.

Despite the droughty summer and first frosts, the internal clock that trees use to change colors has little to do with weather. Weather is far too unpredictable for trees to use as an indicator of seasonal change. It's the photoperiod. The relative number of hours of light and dark in a day.

Tree species comply, more or less, with their biological clocks, but not everyone uses the same clock. In general, it's the photoperiod that affects the timing of leaf drop, not nut crops, or woolly bears, or bird migrations.

There is a lot of biochemistry related to the annual leaf drop. The process is part of what trees undergo to make themselves hardy for the cold and dryness of winter. Northern trees have some astounding and fascinating adaptations.

While timing is largely controlled by photoperiod, the intensity and visual quality of the Fall colors can be impacted by weather. Tree stress might precipitate a more effective or quicker re-absorption of the green chlorophyll molecules. The compounds with red, yellow, and purple pigments may be brighter, or persist for a little longer. Frost can also have influence on the quality of Fall colors, too.

This year, many trees were forced into producing a second set of leaves. A variety of insects munched away at the forests and many of us will remember the forest tent caterpillar for years to come. While these are normal occurrences in the life of a forest, the stress may contribute to an earlier Fall color change in some parts of the Upper Peninsula. But it's dangerous to predict color change patterns.

Most of our hardwood, or broad-leaf, forest consists of maples, aspens, and birches. We eagerly anticipate the crimson and gold of maples, which pretty much knocks the socks off color changes in other parts of the continent. Our aspens also turn a lively yellow color, especially with the right weather conditions. Birch are much the same way. A bright yellow canopy over a snow-white paper birch stand is an experience not soon forgotten.

But, let us not ignore the softwoods, or evergreens. Although they do retain needles year-round, they don't retain them all. The older needles, nearer to the trunk, fall off every year. The only exception to this is the glorious tamarack. Not only does it lose all its needles each Fall, but it typically departs the season in a flaming blaze of gold!

Every season hosts a multitude of changes in the forest and all that lives there, including we humans. Fall color is arguably the favorite of all seasonal changes, and without doubt the outdoors is teeming with interesting events this time of the year. What new things might you discover hidden amid the kaleidoscope of Fall?