Maitland Valley Conservation Authority Watershed Ecologist Says Forests in Huron County Have Changed Significantly Over the Years

by Bob Montgomery

Erin Gouthro was one of the guest speakers at a recent Water Protection Steering Committee meeting and her topic was Changing Ecology in Huron County Forests.

Gouthro says when the first surveys were being conducted, around the 1830's, land was being cleared all over because there were so many trees that conserving them was never an issues. But she says by the 1900s they had hit commercial extinction for most large tree species and the landscape was shifted to Green Ash. And Gouthro says Green Ash was a good choice at the time because it grows well under a number of conditions. Who knew about Ash Borers. The Ash Borers came from Asia and they were transported to North America in pallets and arrived in Michigan where they found a glut of Ash trees, and Gouthro says in their study, the mortality is defined as one hundred percent and research suggests that once the Ash Borer sweeps through an area, it will turn around and sweep back and destroy any Ash trees that have reached the appropriate diameter.

Gouthro says another threat is Dutch Elm Disease, which she points out does not come from the Netherlands and in fact is as big a problem in Europe as it is here. That arrived in North America in the 1960s and is why we don't have more Elm trees. Unfortunately, there are several other diseases coming in. The next one is Woolly Adelgid, and that affects our Hemlock trees. Gouthro says climate change is exacerbating normal pest outbreaks because we're not getting the cold winters that would normally kill off some of the pests.

Landowners who have woodlots on their property should do everything they can to learn about their woodlots and recognize any threats to the trees in their woodlot.