Winnakee Land Trust

Winter in the Woods: Seeing the Forest for the Trees

By Bob Davis, Chief Executive Officer

Winter can be a rewarding time to enhance your naturalist’s skills in the woods.  Things slow down, but while trees are in dormancy, so much about their contributions to the forest can be revealed.  Winter is a wonderful time to observe the evolution of our forests, the challenges they face today, and to hone your tree ID skills and understanding  how different species combinations can tell us stories about a forest’s past.

One of my favorite activities during a walk in the woods is the fun detective work of unraveling how a particular forest has evolved over time.  Forests yield clues about their age and past in a variety of ways, including the groupings of different tree species observed. This is particularly true in woods that have evolved following agricultural abandonment, or have been disturbed by fire or windstorms, as is common in our region.  For instance, Vlei Marsh’s woodland is a great example of the full gamut of former pasture lands now in transition to forest, with a range of early successional tree species like Eastern red cedar occupying areas abandoned more recently to other, older parts of the forest where we see  late-successional hardwoods like oaks and hickories that tell us those portions of the woods were abandoned earlier.

Without their leaves, identifying the different tree species in a winter woodland is often quite challenging for the beginner. However, once you understand the basics of tree id, it can become much easier because you can determine major species groups   just by observing their bud and twig arrangements, now more visible on winter’s bare branches.

Bob Davis during winter tree ID
American Woodcock, a species of Greatest Conservation Need in NY, require young forest habitat

Determining opposite and alternate arrangements is the first key separation of the most common trees. I will be leading a Winter Tree ID walk at Vlei Marsh on March 1st where I will teach these and other tools to identify trees in winter.   

Another Winnakee property that is a prime example of a local forest that has matured over the 40-odd years since its abandonment as an old pasture is Dutchess Gables in the Town of Standford.  In addition to species ID, noticing that the trees are all about the same age is another telltale sign of a land’s former agricultural use.  However, most forests need a diversity of ages and composition of trees, as well as canopy breaks for understory plants, to sustain themselves and the wildlife within them into the future. 

These understories provide the necessary habitat for many declining wildlife species. Many of these species, especially birds, rely upon grasslands, shrublands, and young forest lands (under 30 years-old) to breed successfully. Our ongoing work at Dutchess Gables is providing opportunities to help reverse the decline of Species of Greatest Conservation Need like the American Woodcock and NYS’s only native rabbit east of the Hudson River, the New England Cottontail. 

Winnakee created two, 3-acre meadows at Duchess Gables within the woodland to provide openings of sufficient size and quality for foraging and breeding habitat, which songbirds and other wildlife species require to successfully reproduce.

For International Day of the Forest on Friday, March 21, I hope you will join Winnakee staff and special guest Todd Waldron of the American Woodcock Society for a landowner workshop on creating young forests for wildlife.

The importance of having native plants and shrubs for wildlife foraging and shelter becomes more pronounced this season.  There is nothing so stark as a bare understory in winter.  Over browsing of deer is a primary concern of Hudson Valley forests.  In winter, you will often see beech trees, which keep their golden leaves in winter, and which are one of the few tree species that deer don’t typically eat.  Without intervention, many understories will be overrun by beech as well as other invasives like barberry that deer don’t eat and crowd out native species. 

Today’s forests are seeing unprecedented threats to their natural regeneration of young trees that require active stewardship if they are to survive. All of this points to need of active forest management.

Winnakee is leading regional land trusts in forest management techniques in the woodlands it protects. Our expert forestry staff are trained in management techniques that replicate the natural disturbance regimes that once created a diversity of habitat types across the landscape. Our model is to intervene in forests to help sustain them into the future as well as the wildlife habitat and natural ecosystem benefits they provide to us. 

This stewardship-focused conservation work helps save irreplaceable wildlife and has both local and global impact in sustaining natural resources for all life.


Join us for the upcoming events mentioned in this blog:


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