I grew up in Ontario in the sixties and seventies. The skeletal remains of dead elms bordered every field. Their dead branches like long withered arms reaching for salvation against a bright blue summer sky. At the end of our long driveway my pet crow "Inky" would wait in a dead elm tree for me to come home after school and fly down on my shoulder when I stepped off the bus. I don't think I've ever seen a live elm tree. Thanks for reminding me about the Elms.
What a life-affirming story! Mother Nature loves life AND has a time-tested plan. All we have to do is take some time to observe, and act in accordance with her example ... there is MUCH to ruminate over here.
I live in Story county five miles south of Ames, Iowa. The White trillium was transplanted from a forested area in southern Michigan that my brother owned. The transplanting occurred maybe 25 years ago. They spread slowly. I sometimes split them to spread their location. I do not know the scientific name. I have a tall Cottonwood that I can watch over the top of my computer screen, the Cottonwood has dead limbs with holes in it. European starlings are going in and out of the hole this morning and routinely do so, they compete with the Red-bellied woodpeckers. I observed one time a starling in a hole holding on to a RB woodpecker by the leg with the RB woodpecker thrashing about in an attempt to an eventual escape. Red-headed woodpeckers compete with the starlings for nest holes in other dead Cottonwood trees. I do what I can to eliminate the competition. I have not trapped starlings, but I have trapped another invasive species, the House sparrow. I did some calculations based on research, that the number of House sparrows that I removed from the gene pool in one year would consume more than a ton of food. The removal of those House sparrows means less competition for larvae and insects for our native birds and I no longer have House sparrow nests in the Bluebird nest boxes. Removal of invasive birds is as important as removal of invasive plants such as Garlic mustard, honeysuckle, Buckthorn, etc.
Great story. I've done much of the same. I have white trillium, I'd like to get some of the Prairie trillium to add to the variety in my woodlawn floor. I have been watching the gradually disinteration of two dead large Cottonwood trees for a decade or more. The latest incident is that the remaining bole of one toppled and is now leaning on a large Walnut tree.
From an acorn a mighty oak grows(under an elm), and from Diane's mighty trowel, a new woodland grows!! Great lesson about continued use of natives! So may critters have benefitted! Thank you!
Lovely, in so many ways. I appreciate the years that you've tended this tree and enhanced the ecosystem beneath it, by wisely considering what would flourish there. Well done!
I grew up in Ontario in the sixties and seventies. The skeletal remains of dead elms bordered every field. Their dead branches like long withered arms reaching for salvation against a bright blue summer sky. At the end of our long driveway my pet crow "Inky" would wait in a dead elm tree for me to come home after school and fly down on my shoulder when I stepped off the bus. I don't think I've ever seen a live elm tree. Thanks for reminding me about the Elms.
What a life-affirming story! Mother Nature loves life AND has a time-tested plan. All we have to do is take some time to observe, and act in accordance with her example ... there is MUCH to ruminate over here.
Lovely.
I live in Story county five miles south of Ames, Iowa. The White trillium was transplanted from a forested area in southern Michigan that my brother owned. The transplanting occurred maybe 25 years ago. They spread slowly. I sometimes split them to spread their location. I do not know the scientific name. I have a tall Cottonwood that I can watch over the top of my computer screen, the Cottonwood has dead limbs with holes in it. European starlings are going in and out of the hole this morning and routinely do so, they compete with the Red-bellied woodpeckers. I observed one time a starling in a hole holding on to a RB woodpecker by the leg with the RB woodpecker thrashing about in an attempt to an eventual escape. Red-headed woodpeckers compete with the starlings for nest holes in other dead Cottonwood trees. I do what I can to eliminate the competition. I have not trapped starlings, but I have trapped another invasive species, the House sparrow. I did some calculations based on research, that the number of House sparrows that I removed from the gene pool in one year would consume more than a ton of food. The removal of those House sparrows means less competition for larvae and insects for our native birds and I no longer have House sparrow nests in the Bluebird nest boxes. Removal of invasive birds is as important as removal of invasive plants such as Garlic mustard, honeysuckle, Buckthorn, etc.
Great story. I've done much of the same. I have white trillium, I'd like to get some of the Prairie trillium to add to the variety in my woodlawn floor. I have been watching the gradually disinteration of two dead large Cottonwood trees for a decade or more. The latest incident is that the remaining bole of one toppled and is now leaning on a large Walnut tree.
What a lovely story about a tree ! Bravo
From an acorn a mighty oak grows(under an elm), and from Diane's mighty trowel, a new woodland grows!! Great lesson about continued use of natives! So may critters have benefitted! Thank you!
Lovely, in so many ways. I appreciate the years that you've tended this tree and enhanced the ecosystem beneath it, by wisely considering what would flourish there. Well done!
Oh my goodness. That prairie trillium! ♥️♥️
Love the combination of education in such poetic form!
So beautiful Diane, as always. I’m there! Under the pin oak, with the columbines and hummingbirds...
A wonder land under the pin oak. And you so in touch with it all.
you are truly 'a friend of the forest'... a proper wood elf. xoxo
Well written and thanks for sharing the life of this tree with us.