WILDLIFE HABITAT – TROUBLE IN PARADISE

As America’s economy has shrunk, so has production of forest products; paper, lumber, wood composites, and energy from wood fueled power plants. Many of their production facilities are being cut back, shut down entirely and some being scrapped for short term quick bucks, never to start again. With all this comes a reduction in forest harvest, the wellspring of grouse, woodcock and the bulk of other wildlife habitat regeneration. This evolution is one to be viewed with alarm. Other than everyone’s personal effort to restore America’s competitiveness in the world marketplace, not everyone is in a position to do anything about this, but if you are, switching your home and maybe your neighbor’s to wood heat is worth considering. By managing your wood harvest methods you can do a better job than many industrial harvesters do for habitat regeneration.

For habitat regeneration a prime choice for firewood is aspen, which is severely under harvested. Much of our aspen acreage is being lost to forest succession which favors more shade tolerant species.

Unfortunately in many circles aspen has a bad reputation as a firewood but I would like to take exception to that misconception. For one, I have heated my home for years here in west Michigan, largely with aspen and would like to toot it’s horn to those with an open mind. True enough, it is slightly less dense than some of the favored species so if you buy it by the cord you’ll get less bang for your buck. However on a per pound basis aspen is equal or even slightly above the favored species in heating value. If you cut your own wood as most do, aspen is a good choice. Another common criticism is that it buns to quickly. When winter wind is howling under your eaves that is exactly what you want happening in your firebox! Take a close look at your neighbor’s no-aspen wood pile. Almost without exception you will notice their wood has all been split, adding many man-hours to their wood pile. If you ask them why, the answer you’ll get is that it burns better, to which I say, “Yeah, just like aspen!” The only split wood in my wood pile is that too large to fit through the stove door. A large variety of wood diameters in your wood pile is an asset heat management, superior to draft management of your stoves heat output. When you have to cut back on you draft your fire burns less efficiently, giving off carbon monoxide, creosote, smoke and other unhealthy fumes and attendant wasted heating value. Large diameter wood is useful in not so cold weather since it burns more slowly. We also use it in cold weather when we will be out of the house for long periods, a single popple log will last up to twenty-four hours when started on a bed of coals.

Another bonus of aspen is in kindling production, a labor intensive portion of your woodpile. The branches are stiff and brittle with much kindling being produced just in felling the tree. Dead branches can be reduced to kindling just by walking over them or wacking them on anything solid, far faster than you can wield a saw or wood splitter.

Aspen is low ash firewood, about one percent. Others are mostly higher, as much as 10% ash, which will increase the frequency that you will have to shovel out your stove.

Other species are certainly useful in your woodpile. It is desirable to clear out other species when you are doing an aspen clear cut since their shade will suppress soil temperature which will reduce aspen suckering and hence habitat quality. I particularly like to burn apple and cherry for their pleasant smell when I’m going to be working out around the yard.

Clear cuts are best done in the dormant season since this minimizes the window of opportunity for weeds and brambles to spring up which will shade, and reduce aspen regeneration as detailed above. When you have completed a clear cut the important final step is to inspect it for any small aspen trees or suckers too small for firewood. These should all be cut as well since their presence sends a signal the root matrix not to sucker as vigorously. This step is typically not attended to by commercial cutters so you should do it on your own if that is the type of harvest you are having done.

Mike Hradel
Cold Stream Farm LLC
Freesoil, Michigan