The trembling aspen a tree for the prairies

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 03/01/2004 (8040 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

IT’S wood-cutting time in the aspen parklands. Most afternoons will find Caroline and me in the forest, bringing out next winter’s firewood.

Getting the firewood a year ahead of time is standard, so most of our neighbours are also spending time in the bush. The snow is not too deep, making early winter ideal for wood cutting.

Like most prairie wood burners, we depend on aspen. This tree is most abundant here in the aspen parkland of western Manitoba.

We have 130 hectares of aspen on our land. It is often called trembling aspen or white poplar and is the most common aspen species in Manitoba. According to Gordon Gullion’s 1984 book, Managing Northern Forest for Wildlife, published by The Ruffed Grouse Society, the trembling or quaking aspen has the widest distribution of any tree in North America.

The aspen has a few interesting traits that make it quite different from other trees. Aspens come in male and female trees; most other tree species have flowers of both sexes on the same tree. The male aspen is distinguished by very large flower buds compared to the female. These are an important winter food for ruffed grouse.

Aspen grow as clones, meaning a group of trees in one area are probably growing from the same root network. Aspen clones vary widely in extent and can range from a few trees to may thousands. The genetic differences between clones causes certain groups of trees to green in spring at different times. We have one aspen clone that greens up quite a bit earlier than the surrounding forest. We eagerly await her announcement of spring. The larger clones are usual female.

Poplars and aspens belong to the genus populus, which some suggest come from the Latin expression arbour populii, the people’s tree.

Humans have a curious relationship with the aspen. On one hand the tree has been used by people for thousands of years, but they are also viewed as a fast-growing weed that can quickly overwhelm yards, pastures and other trees.

Many wood burners dismiss the aspen as a source of fuel. While aspen may rank low in terms of heat content, it burns well enough to heat thousands of homes on the Prairies. It is almost the perfect firewood. It grows straight and tall with little change in diameter and there are few branches until the top, making cutting the limbs quite convenient.

The trembling aspen is the most wildlife-friendly tree in the forest. Moose, elk and deer browse on the tender tips of the young trees.

Snowshoe hares nibble on any green branch that falls to the forest floor. In Newfoundland, they make “rabbit gardens” by felling green aspens and making a big pile of the tree tops. The green branches are magnets for hares, so you can go to your garden at leisure and get a rabbit for dinner.

Aspen is also becoming a commercial resource, used in the production of oriented strand board. Because aspen regenerate so quickly, forest companies are creating young forests where wildlife can thrive.

Aspen are beautiful. A hillside of trembling aspen in summer comes alive during a breeze as the leaves tremble and dance. For me, I can anticipate spring simply by picking a bud from a balsam poplar and crushing it. The balsam odour that is released evokes powerful images of spring and a reminder of the smells that will infuse the forest in a few months.

Take care of the earth; it’s the only one we’ve got.

sopuckrd@mts.net

Robert D. Sopuck is a vice-president with the Delta Waterfowl Foundation ( www.deltawaterfowl.org) , a member of the Wildlife Information Network of Manitoba.

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