Tree bark - Kate Crowley

GOING NATURE’S WAY
By Kate Crowley


We travel to see the world anew. And we don’t have to travel all that far to be impressed by living things we encounter.  For the Thanksgiving holiday we went to Iowa City where my mom lives, 375 miles south of Willow River; best known as ‘Corn country’.  But while on a walk to the grocery store Mike and I paused to look at two kinds of trees we don’t have here in North Central Minnesota; the shagbark hickory and the plane tree (also known by some as the sycamore).  Both of these trees have a very distinctive and unusual type of bark covering their trunks.  We stopped and really looked at the texture and shape of the outermost layer and speculated as to why it was this way.
Now that the deciduous trees are bare, we can see their shape and structure; their ‘bones’ as it were. All is revealed, including leftover little nests perched on the lower branches. It is not an overstatement to say that the majority of people take trees for granted.  They stand there mute from season to season and while we welcome their shady cover in the summer months, we grumble when they drop their leaves onto our lawns each fall.  Year after year, assuming disease or storms do not interfere, they add inches to their height and girth and remain constant in their presence; one of the few things in our lives that does so.
It is the bark I wish to focus attention on today.  As I said, the shagbark hickory and plane trees have some of the most unusual looking bark out there.  As the name suggests, the shagbark trunk has a greyish layer of long peeling pieces of bark that turn up at the end, giving it a very shaggy appearance.  It is only the very mature trees (they can live to be 200) that have this quality however.  Young specimens have a smooth bark.
The Plane tree has a type of bark that peels off in irregularly shaped patches, giving the tree a splotchy appearance. The older the trunk the more the bark thickens and cracks, instead of flaking off. Underneath, the bark is smooth and either a chalk white color or tan.
Back home I have been looking more closely at the trees that grow around us and trying to see the uniqueness of their bark. This layer of woody material encircling the tree’s trunk and branches is its skin and much like our own outer covering, bark is made up of two layers.  The inner layer is called bark cambium and consists of living cells that are constantly dividing.  These die if they are cut off from water and sap. When they die they become the outer bark, which is the tree’s main defense against weather and other potential hazards. New growth on the inner layer pushes the previous year’s bark to the outside The thickness of bark can vary enormously, ranging from as much as one foot thick (on a sequoia) to just .5 inches on a beech tree.  Generally speaking, as a tree ages, the outer bark goes from a smooth surface to one with many cracks and crevices. 
Most trees here in the north country hold tight to their bark until death, at which point insects, fungi and general decay break the seal and pieces begin to fall off, or more likely get peeled off by woodpeckers seeking the insects beneath.  One exception to this rule is the birch trees.  Most of us are most familiar with the paper birch, though we do have yellow and river birch in the state as well.
While the outer bark is not thick on the paper birch it is extremely durable, as noted by the Native Americans who made great  use of this resource – building canoes, shelters and cooking utensils with the bark.  It is almost incomprehensible that the same material used to start a campfire even when everything else is wet, can also be set upon a fire while holding a liquid and NOT burn up.  The bark peels naturally from the trunk, but to take it from the tree in sheets must be done very carefully and only at certain times of the year or the tree can be killed in the process.  

I urge you to spend some time looking at the trees around your home or in your neighborhood and see the patterns and textures that make up their individual characters.  Put your hands on them and feel the ridges, the rough or smooth qualities.  Maybe even a better is to take a piece of paper and a dark colored crayon and make a rubbing.  This isn’t just a kid’s crafts; it’s a way to learn more about some of the oldest and quietest neighbors you have.    

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Sense of Place

Image
GOING NATURE’S WAY By Kate Crowley I am intrigued by the idea of Sense of Place; to feel completely ‘at home’ in one particular place.  I have read that people who grow up on the Great Plains feel claustrophobic when they are in forested environments and in reverse,  people who have grown up surrounded by forest find the openness of the plains unnerving, with nothing to break the view to the horizon. I grew up in the city, but the Minnehaha Creek and Parkway were just two blocks away and I spent countless hours playing and exploring there.  The city lakes were within biking distance. The Mississippi River was just blocks away from the apartment where I lived the first four years of my life.  When I was 36 I married Mike and moved to our current home and it was perfect.  When my dad first visited us in our new home, he said, “Kate must think she’s died and gone to heaven”.  This is where I am supposed to be.  Scientists who have studied the e...
Read more

The Munger Trail - Willow River to Moose Lake

Image
The Willard Munger Trail - named for one of the environmental heroes of MN is our neighborhood bike trail and the place I get my biking exercise and conditioning.  I thought it would be good to share some of its highlights and pleasures.  So here is a look at the trail and what I enjoy. The small towns that prospered during the days when the trail was a railroad track and the country moved by Steam Engine are just a shadow of what they used to be, but that shadow is filled with surprises and fun places to explore if you give yourself the time to engage in the setting, as well as the peddling.  Willow River is our little home town and the Mercantile is over 100 years old and still meets many of our needs.  It is a place for refreshments and Peggy Sue's is a local restaurant that makes a great lunch or dinner stop. There is also a local park that provides you with a sense of the RR past. The trail is very straight like most RR grades and lacks hills except ...
Read more

Rain threatens birds

Image
WINGIN’ IT By Kate Crowley As the floodwaters recede, a stunned and relieved populace can finally stop holding their collective breath. Throughout southern Carlton County and all of Pine County there is a sense of disbelief that only four years after a major flood event, it has happened again.  At our home we measured over 8” of rain in less than 24 hours. This is what the word deluge was meant to describe. Others said it felt like they were in the middle of a monsoon. Thankfully there was no loss of life in our region, but property damage and loss was significant for people who have in some cases finally recovered and remodeled after the flood of 2012, which was said to be a once in 100 years flood when 8 to 10 inches of rain were spread over three days. Here in Willow River, there was fear that the small dam holding back the waters of the river would fail, with catastrophic results. Roads throughout the two counties (and into Wisconsin) were hard hit and the cost to re...
Read more