Its a serious question. Most everywhere I look lately the trees are dead. Just bare sticks standing, or laying down. Like the bare bones of a long dead skeleton. Maybe the decade of extreme wet years we had killed some. Others I just don't know. A lot of my evergreens have dried out and dead lower branches that I have cut off. Needles all over the ground as the higher ones dry out and fall. Some are dead right to the top and only waiting to fall in the next big wind.
Cutting dead poplars off where they have fallen on the fences is a yearly task. All summer and fall. The past few years have been very dry so maybe that killed some.
Disease? Herbicide drift? I look back on photos I took ten years ago and marvel at the thick impenetrable walls of poplar bushes all over the farm. Now, a lot of dead sticks that are going to fall. I miss them. Will they grow back? Probably. Poplars are like a weed when you don't want them to grow. Hopefully soon.
It could be the weather, or it could be natural mortality as they age in stands too thick to support them all.
ReplyDeleteIts getting to the point I am even letting the volunteer carragannas grow as they are better than nothing even if they are almost a weed.
DeleteI thought that poplars were a colony rather than a single tree
ReplyDeletePoplars are the most common tree here in the parkland. Their technical name is "Trembling Aspen".
DeleteYou mean, aside from all our land-greedy farmers?
ReplyDeleteOh yeah.. it's obvious when *they* do it. Every friggin' thing is bulldozed so there's no tree in sight. So irresponsible, so disgusting. Grrrr Rzzzl Frrzzzzl.
I've assumed all the dead standing trees I've noticed over recent years are due to the flooding we had and although it's sad to see, I haven't thought more about it. Now that you bring the possibility of other causes to my attention, my next thought is climate change affecting everything, including the insects that could be moving into our province or expanding their territory here in the first place, and doing damage. I don't imagine this summer's heat and drought helped any, either.
Here's hoping and praying Nature survives us.
-Kate
Yes, land clearing is like a disease spreading around here. Farm the ditch right up to the road side and don't leave a tree standing. I'm hoping its just another die-off like we have seen in the past. There was a similar event in the sixties that left a lot of dead trees to clean up. I'm just waiting for the day our "green" government programs start to pay those of us who keep some trees for carbon sequestration.
DeleteIt is a conspiracy
ReplyDeleteAfter I started running about 80 fainting goats on my 40 acre woodlot ten or so years ago the valuable timber began growing with a vengeance . I harvested 104 Black Walnut trees at $40 K 5 years ago and have another batch ready now . Waiting on the high prices to return . Goats eat the weak and promote the strong trees . Goat poop is good !
ReplyDelete