Starks Dendrology Tour Preview

1

Apple (Malus pumila)

This apple has a prominent place in front of the house but if you keep your eyes open you will see that these trees are scattered all over the property. I love apples though most aren't native they provide excellent food and cover for many of my favorite species in New England including Ruffed Grouse and song birds here in Starks and Eastern Cottontails in southern NH.Also the folk stories of Johnny Appleseed are fun!

2

Northern White Cedar (Thuja occidentalis)

Northern White Cedar can be found growing all over this area but this large specimen behind the multiflora is a nice specimen and a Ruffed Grouse drums on a log just behind this cedar on spring mornings.Northern WHite Cedar are lovely shaped tree and no wood sounds better when split or burning in a fire well enjoying watching the sun set!

3

Multiflora Rose (Rosa multiflora)

These Multiflora Rose line the edge of the property at this residence, providing thick cover for Ruffed Grouse, Woodchucks and many small bird species.Multiflora are an interesiting species that is considered an invasive but can also provide benificial cover many species that require early succesional thick cover.

4

Red Raspberry (Rubus idaeus)

This area is mostly goldrenrod and sedges but has cultivated Red Raspberries along the edges.The fruit of Red Raspberries is edible and delicious to people and birds! They are also easy to propogate which is great since they will provide habitat as well as a food source for birds and us!

5

Black Raspberry (Rubus occidentalis)

Not grown as frequantly as Red Rapsberry but added to give variety to this corner of the property with the Red Raspberries and nearbye Highbush Blueberries.They are an eqauly delicious species that also provides excellent cover and food for birds along the edges of this field area.

6

Highbush Blueberry (Vaccinium corymbosum)

These Highbush Blueberries were planted behind the Black Raspberries and Red Raspberries along the edge of some spruces.These bushes though not providing the same excellent cover as the raspberries provide lots of awesome fruit for birds and humans alike.

7

Fox Grape (Vitis labrusca)

This is a line of spruces with the blueberries and different species of balckberries on the other side and a grown up field behind me. Grapes grow all throughout this border providing great food for Ruffed Grouse.Grapes are an awesome plant because they have delicious fruit that the birds also love and they make big tangled messes that is great for wildlife!

8

Balsam Fir (Abies balsamea)

This part of the property is heavily wooded with conifereous White Pines, Spruces, Cedars as well as these Balsam Firs all standing up above the stream on a ridge edge. Balsam Fir needles are lovely smelling and it can be quite a calming expereience to stand under the Balsams and breath deeply.

9

Popple (Populus tremuloides)

This area on the lower edge of this strip of woods is filled with popple and alders and is quite grassy and brushy.Popples in all their different stages make important cover for Rufed Grouse, Snowshoe Hares and Woodcock young trees provifing excellent cover and older trees providing catkins for food.

10

White Birch (Populus alba)

This is a hillside between two hayfields with many hardwood oaks and maples as well as ash and these white birch.White birch has a fascinating history with the human race, Native Americans, nomadic herders in Scandanavia and tribes in the Amur region of Russia have used the bark from different variaties of white birch for thousands of years to build bowls, baskets, canoes and have used it as paper and also fire starter!!

11

Hawthorn (Crataegus spp.)

This is a brushy row between a hayfield and a smaller field that is kept mown for ease of access and is filled with Alders, Apple Trees, Blackberries and this Hawthorn.Hawthorn are an interesting slower growing tree that has long spines growing from its branches and an edible red fruit that is frequantly eaten by Ruffed Grouse.

12

Northern Red Oak (Quercus rubra)

A wooded are between the hay field and the stream filled with maples, Black Ash and some Northern Red Oaks.These oak are probably the most important hard mast tree in this area, the acorns being consumed by squirrels, deer and turkeys!

13

White Spruce (Picea glauca)

The edges of this field are lined with spruces, mostly White Spruce, mixed in with Gray Birch and Alders.The White Spruce is a common tree in Maine and provides excellent cover for wildlife in the winter but shouldn't be brought inside to be used as a christmas tree as they have a noxious skunky odor. A tree that just has to stay wild!

14

American Basswood (Tilia americana)

The American Basswood is a prominent tree on the edge of this property and visible out the front door of this private residence, the hallows are used by squirrels and many birds perch in its sweeping branches. The Basswood is interesting because you can eat its leaves when they are young in the spring.

15

Tamarack (Larix laricina)

There are Tamarack scattered as lone individauls and small clumps all over this property but this one stands as the head piece to the driveway. Tamarack are an important trasitionary food for Spruce Grouse and Spruce Grouse are awesome!

16

White Poplar (Populus alba)

This is a nice country dirt road bordered by hay fields, cattle pasture and woodlands. These White Poplar are in a mixed hedge along the edge of a hayfield mixed in with Gray Birch and maples. White Poplar are an interesting tree because they are nonnative and have leaves similar in shape to the maples.

17

Speckled Alder (Alnus incana)

A common species that grows along the edges of pastures and along the sides of the roads in this area.This is an interesting tree because of its importance to Woodcock and Ruffed Grouse when in its younger stages of growth, the many shoots creating a thick belt of cover that provides protection from predators.

18

Alternate-leaf Dogwood (Cornus alternifolia)

This area in the back of cow pasture is grown up in thickets of dogwood with some Apples, Red-Osier Dogwood, Spruces and Junipers in this area as well.Alternate-leaf Dogwood like many of the dogwoods provides an important dense cover for many species and provides edible shoots, foliage and berries for many bird species as well as deer and hares.

19

Balsam Poplar (Populus balsamifera)

This is a early to mid succesional edge with quaking aspen, serviceberries and these Balsam Poplar a cool species that is one of those trees that is often the first to stake a claim and grow in areas that have been disturbed through cuttings, fire or mining.

20

Black Willow (Salix nigra)

Black Willow are a large tree that is short lived and grows in wetland areas surrounded by cattails, alders, dogwood and marsh grasses. Willows are a quick growing species that can be planted using their shoots cut in the spring and stuck in the soil. This makes a quick and easy way to stabilize banks and increase shade iver vernal pools and along stream banks helping to protect riparian areas.