Progress 10/01/11 to 09/30/15
Outputs
Target Audience:This project will help entities managing sugar maple forests better understand sugar maple borer attacks and epidemiology. Maple borer attacks can dramatically reduce the value of sugar maple timber harvests. We found that maple borer attacks were much less common on the "hot side" of the stem, which we defined as the south, southwest, and west sides. This result may provide an index for measuring the impact of climate change. However, using this index will need to be done within the natural history of maple borer attacks. Maple borer outbreaks do not happen for long periods, and last a few years once they start. However, if other borer insects exhibit the same pattern, it might prove more reliable with borers whose attacks are less episodic. Changes/Problems:This is the final year of the project. What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?Twenty-two Master of Forestry students have worked on this project. Working on the project gives them many replications with the various forest measurement tools, and gives them numerous opportunities to hone their field skills. They also develop a deeper understanding of the role of research in forestry and often have the opportunity to present their results at the national Society of American Foresters convention. These students nearly all find permanent jobs in the forestry profession. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?A group of 7 graduate students presented a poster at the 2012 Society of American Foresters national convention in 2012: Cwiklik, J., K. Hampton, C. Liscomb, K. Oikarinen, D. Parris, J. Rogers, D. Sirrine, and J. Pickens. 2012. Sugar maple borer attacks in Michigan's Upper Peninsula. Society of American Foresters National Convention, Spokane, WA, Oct 24-28. P 535. An update of work on this project was provided in a presentation at the 2013 Society of American Foresters national convention in 2013: Sugar maple borer incidence in an uneven-aged northern hardwood stand by J. Lehner, M. Hensley, E. Nelson, C. Reynolds, E. Romstadt, and J. Pickens. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?This is the final year of the project.
Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals?
1. There was no difference in the frequency of maple borer attacks across site quality or stocking density; this experiment was conducted on a small scale within an 80 acre hardwood stand that had been recently high-graded. 2. Maple borer tends to attack trees between 8" and 12" dbh. When larger trees are attacked, the attacks tend to be higher on the stem where the diameter is in the8" and 12" range. This suggests the presence of a general upper size limit at the site of attack for sugar maple borer. This is important for management because the risk of maple borer attacks in the valuable butt log of large trees is very low. Conversely, we found maple borer attacks up to 48' above the ground, so foresters marking take and leave trees should note borer wounds higher on the stem. Borer wounds provide entry points for wood decay fungi and other invaders, which can increase heart discoloration and rot. 3. Maple borers tended to attack the stems on the segments not exposed to direct mid-day to late afternoon sun. Only 25% of the attacks were on the south, southwest, or west segments of the stem, while a random distribution would produce an expected value of 37.5%. This result was unexpected, but the second and third sample sites allowed us to use this as an a priori hypothesis test. Both sites 2 and 3 exhibited this same tendency of less attacks on the "hot side" of the stem. This pattern might lead to a sensitive indicator of climate change, but the causative mechanism is unclear at this time. 4. A surprising result was that trees with no direct access to sunlight were much less likely to be attacked than trees receiving moderate amounts of direct sun. This was unexpected because several previous studies have found that stressed trees are more likely to be attacked, and trees that have no exposure to direct sun are by definition stressed. It is possible that this result is dominated by trees below the preferred diameter for maple borer. 5. The timing of maple borer attack episodes was intriguing. The three sites located the closest to each other had mean attack dates that were far from statistically significant with all three means within a year; all three sites were within 20 miles of each other. The other site, 28 to 50 miles from the first three sites, had significantly different attack timing, with the average time of attack 4 years later. The fourth stand is an isolated sugar maple stand with far less sugar maple dominance at the landscape scale. It is not clear if the difference in attack date is because of distance or the isolated location of the last stand.
Publications
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Progress 10/01/13 to 09/30/14
Outputs
Target Audience: A group of 7 graduate students presented a poster at the 2012 Society of American Foresters national convention in 2012: Cwiklik, J., K. Hampton, C. Liscomb, K. Oikarinen, D. Parris, J. Rogers, D. Sirrine, and J. Pickens. 2012. Sugar maple borer attacks in Michigan's Upper Peninsula. Society of American Foresters National Convention, Spokane, WA, Oct 24-28. P 535. An update of work on this project was provided in a presentation at the 2013 Society of American Foresters national convention in 2013: Sugar maple borer incidence in an uneven-aged northern hardwood stand Changes/Problems: Because we have been much more efficient at collecting field data during the first two years than expected, we have expanded field data collection to two additional sites at the School of Forest Resources and Environmental Science Research Forest near Alberta, Michigan. The two added sites are about 20 miles from the original study site near Painesdale, MI, and the new sites are within 3 miles of each other. The sampling conducted on these sites was identical to the procedure on the original site. With the inclusion of these additional sites we were able to address the question of the spatial and temporal pattern of attacks. To address this question we destructively sampled between 10 and 20 trees with evident maple borer attacks at each site; from each tree one or more “cookies” were sampled by cutting the stem on or near the wound in a way that allows the growth rings to be accurately counted. The cookies need to be carefully sanded because sugar maple has very light growth rings. The goal of this sampling was to estimate the timing of past maple borer attacks. We also added a 4th study site with only destructively sampled trees included. This site was on the Dow Tract near Phoenix, MI; this tract is also managed by the School of Forest Resources and Environmental Science. The Dow Tract site is about 28 miles from the Painesdale site and about 40 miles from the Alberta sites. By having four sites we hope to clarify the timing of sugar maple borer outbreaks. The key question is if the four sites were all attacked at the same time or at different times. With well over twice as much data collection in year three as in years one and two together, there was not sufficient time to analyze the newly collected data or to process the cookies and estimate the year of the attacks. These tasks will be the primary emphasis for the project during its fourth and final year. What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided? To date 22 Master of Forestry students have worked on this project. Working on the project gives them many replications with the various forest measurement tools, and gives them numerous opportunities to hone their field skills. They also develop a deeper understanding of the role of research in forestry and often have the opportunity to present their results at the national Society of American Foresters convention. These students tend to find permanent jobs in the forestry profession. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest? In 2012 the students presented their preliminary results at the national SAF convention as a poster. In 2013 the students presented their results in a presentation at the national SAF convention. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals? Over the next year our efforts will focus on: 1. Sample preparation and determination of the year of sugar maple borer attack for the samples collected during 2014. 2. Analysis of data and final report preparation
Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals?
1. Maple borer tends to attack trees between 8" and 12" dbh. When larger trees are attacked, the attacks tend to be higher on the stem where the diameter is less. This suggests the presence of a general upper size limit at the site of attack for sugar maple borer. This is important for management because the risk of maple borer attacks in the valuable butt log of large trees is very low. 2. Maple borers tended to attack the stems on the segments not exposed to direct mid-day to late afternoon sun. Only 25% of the attacks were on the south, southwest, or west segments of the stem, while a random distribution would produce an expected value of 37.5%. This pattern might lead to a sensitive indicator of climate change. However, it is unclear at this point if the divergence from the expected value is a result of heat from the sun or just the presence of sunshine. 3. A surprising result was that trees with no direct access to sunlight were much less likely to be attacked than trees receiving moderate amounts of direct sun. This was unexpected because several previous studies have found that stressed trees are more likely to be attacked, and trees that have no exposure to direct sun are by definition stressed. It is possible that this result is dominated by trees below the preferred diameter for maple borer. Specimens have been collected to address the spatial and temporal pattern of sugar maple borer attacks. This information may help understand the relationship between climate change and sugar maple borer attacks.
Publications
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Progress 10/01/12 to 09/30/13
Outputs
Target Audience: A group of 7 graduate students presented a poster at the 2012 Society of American Foresters national convention in 2012: Cwiklik, J., K. Hampton, C. Liscomb, K. Oikarinen, D. Parris, J. Rogers, D. Sirrine, and J. Pickens. 2012. Sugar maple borer attacks in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. Society of American Foresters National Convention, Spokane, WA, Oct 24-28. P 535. An update of work on this project was provided in a presentation at the 2013 Society of American Foresters national convention in 2013: Sugar maple borer incidence in an uneven-aged northern hardwood stand Changes/Problems: The largest change for this study is that we have been far more efficient than I expected at visiting sites and collecting the required information. This is a good thing because we will be able to acquire more data at our second set of sites, and possibly even add another pair of study sites. What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided? To date 17 Master of Forestry students have worked on this project. Working on the project gives them many replications with the various forest measurement tools, and gives them numerous opportunities to hone their field skills. These students tend to find permanent jobs in the forestry profession. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest? In 2012 the students presented their preliminary results at the national SAF convention as a poster. In 2013 the students presented their results in a presentation at the national SAF convention. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals? Over the next year our efforts will focus on: 1. Collecting sugar maple borer attack data at two additional sites to see if the timing and intensity of outbreaks is the same across distances of about 30 miles. 2. A major area of focus will be data analysis and preparation of a journal article for submission to an appropriate SAF journal.
Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals?
1. Maple borer tends to attack trees between 8" and 12" dbh. When larger trees are attacked, the attacks seem to be higher on the stem where the diameter is less. This suggests the presence of a general upper size limit at the site of attack for sugar maple borer. This is important for management because the risk of maple borer attacks in the valuable butt log of large trees is very low. 2. Maple borers tended to attack the stems on the segments not exposed to direct mid-day to late afternoon sun. Only 25% of the attacks were on the south, southwest, or west segments of the stem, while a random distribution would produce an expected value of 37.5%. This pattern might lead to a sensetive indicator of climate change. However, it is unclear at this point if the divergence from the expected value is a result of heat from the sun or just the presence of sunshine. 3. A surprising result was that trees with no direct access to sunlight were much less likely to be attacked than trees receiving moderate amounts of direct sun. This was unexpected because several previous studies have found that stressed trees are more likely to be attacked, and trees that have no exposure to direct sun are by definition stressed. It is possible that this result is dominated by trees below the preferred diameter for maple borer.
Publications
- Type:
Conference Papers and Presentations
Status:
Published
Year Published:
2013
Citation:
Sugar maple borer incidence in an uneven-aged northern hardwood stand. Presented at the 2013 SAF national convention held in Charleston, SC.
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Progress 10/01/11 to 09/30/12
Outputs
OUTPUTS: It is widely known that sugar maple borer attacks have an extreme impact on the value of harvested logs. Previous research focused on the extent of decay associated with attacks or occurred in even-aged stands. Sugar maple is best suited for growth and management in uneven-aged stands, and no previous research addresses the relationship between alternative uneven-aged management approaches and sugar maple borer attacks. During the 2011-12 fiscal year we initiated a study to clarify the relationship between the frequency of sugar maple borer attacks and several potential causative factors. The factors considered were diameter at breast height (dbh), site quality, tree vigor, and past management activity. A systematic grid established 83 sample points on our 80 acre study site. About 10 of the 80 acres were not cut in a recent high-grading harvest. At each point sample trees were selected within dbh classes based on proximity to the sample point. Several measurements were taken on each sample tree to determine size and tree vigor. Next, the sample tree was inspected to determine past sugar maple borer attacks. A total of 24 of the 83 points were sampled during the fiscal year. PARTICIPANTS: Jim Pickens - PI and Professor; Master of Forestry students - James Cwiklik, Kyle Hampton, Martin Hensley, Jesse Lehner, Cassandra Liscomb, Eric Nelson, Kara Oikarinen, Dale Parris, Conor Reynolds, Joanna Rogers, Erik Romstad, and Doug Sirrine; Forester - Jim Rivard. Note: All participants except Jim Pickens received compensation, with graduate students paid an hourly rate. TARGET AUDIENCES: The target audience for this research is foresters and landowners who practice uneven-aged silviculture in the northern hardwoods cover type. Having the information provided by this study will allow better decisions about the conditions that increase or reduce the frequency of sugar maple borer attacks. PROJECT MODIFICATIONS: Nothing significant to report during this reporting period.
Impacts
The maple borer attacks identified were all from a fairly short period of time, probably no more than 4 years, and occurred about 10 years ago; this episodic pattern of attacks has been documented in previous studies. The outbreak of attacks was soon after the recent high-grade harvest. Although the harvest may have played some role in the outbreak, the data collected makes it clear that the harvest was not the only factor. More densely stocked points occurred primarily in the uncut 10 acres, and denser stands were far more likely to have maple borer attacks. Stands with 50 to 100 square feet per acre of basal area (BA) had attack rates of only 7% or 8%, while points with 110 to 190 BA experienced rates about twice as high at 16%. Maple borer attacks were most frequent in the 6" to 12" diameter classes, with no attacks found on stems 16" or greater. Since the attached occurred about 10 years ago, the trees would have had dbh measurements about 2" smaller when attacked. The number of larger stems sampled was modest, but large enough that maple borer wounds would have been found if attacks were frequent.
Publications
- Poster presented: Cwiklik, J, K Hampton, C Liscomb, K Oikarinen, D Parris, J Rogers, D Sirrine, and JB Pickens. 2012. Sugar maple borer attacks in the western Upper Peninsula of Michigan. Presented at the Society of American Foresters national convention held in Spokane, WA, October 24-28, 2012.
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