Housing development and grocery store

"It is important to remember that, under natural conditions, a tree remains part of the forest ecosystem long after its death." (Wildlife & Trees in British Columbia, p13)

So I scramble through the bush to look at old woodpecker trees. This one stands near the Ridge trail, high above the Campbell River.

Long past its sell-by date. Or is it?

Loose bark, rectangular excavations, drilled holes.

The rectangular cuttings identify the carver as a woodpecker, probably the pileated woodpecker, Dryocopus pileatus, which I have seen in these woods.

The lowest cut was just above my head. I moved in closer for a good look.

Two, or maybe three, types of holes.

Pileated Woodpeckers forage in large, dead wood—standing dead trees, stumps, or logs lying on the forest floor. They make impressive rectangular excavations that can be a foot or more long and go deep inside the wood. These holes pursue the tunnels of carpenter ants, the woodpecker’s primary food. The birds also use their long, barbed tongues to extract woodboring beetle larvae (which can be more than an inch long) or termites lying deep in the wood. (Cornell: All About Birds)

Nose to the tree now:

Chipping goes deep into the sapwood; drill holes go deeper still.

Sapsuckers drill a series of holes into the bark, where the sap runs freely. Beavers go a bit deeper, and eat the cambium layer of deciduous trees. Beetles and ants tunnel through the newer, live layers of the inner tree, where the woodpeckers chase them down.

This snag still has a solid centre, at least at the bottom; as this rots, probably with the help of shelf fungi, inner space opens, creating opportunities for snag nesters, from chickadees to woodpeckers to owls and ducks, squirrels and mice. The holes at the top (see the first photo) may be nest sites. And where the bark hangs loose, bats may shelter.

I found this diagram helpful:

Borrowed from MyWoodshop.

The outer layers are clearly visible in the woodpeckers' carving; they slowed down when they reached the denser heartwood.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"Es importante recordar que bajo condiciones normales, un árbol permanece como parte integral del ecosistema del bosque por largo tiempo después de su muerte." (De "Wildlife & Trees in British Columbia")

Así que yo me hago camino entre el bosque para mirar viejos árboles usados por los pájaros carpinteros. Este se alza en el bosque en el cerro arriba del rio Campbell.

Fotos 1 a 4: el árbol muerto, visto cada vez más de cerca.

Los cortes rectangulares identifican al creador como pájaro carpintero, probablemente el picamaderos norteamericano, Dryocopus pileatus; los he visto en este bosque.

"Los picamaderos norteamericanos buscan su comida en madera muerta y grande — árboles muertos que se mantienen en pie, troncos cortados, o caídos al suelo del bosque. Hacen excavaciones rectangulares impresionantes que pueden medir 30cm. o más de largo, y extenderse profundamente en la madera. Estas excavaciones siguen los túneles de hormigas carpinteras, que son la comida principal de los picamaderos. Los pájaros también utilizan sus lenguas largas y espinosas para sacar los larvas de escarabajos que taladran la madera (estos pueden medir más de 2 cm.) o termitas que viven en el interior de la madera." (De Cornell: All About Birds)

Los chupasavias hacen una serie de agujeros en la corteza, donde fluye la savia. Los castores pasan por la corteza para comerse el cambium de los árboles de hojas caducas. Los escarabajos y las hormigas penetran más, entre la madera viva del interior del árbol; aquí les persiguen los pájaros carpinteros.

Este árbol muerto todavía tiene el corazón entero, por lo menos en la parte inferior; cuando este se pudre, con la ayudad de los hongos políporos, abre espacio para los que ahí hacen sus nidos, desde los pequeños chickadees hasta los picamaderos, los buhos y algunos patos, las ardillas y los ratones silvestres. Los huecos allá arriba (véase la primera foto) pueden contener nidos. Y donde la corteza se cuelga flojamente, se pueden acobijar los murciélagos.

Quinta foto: Esta esquema me parecía útil.

Las capas exteriores se ven claramente en la excavación de los picamaderos; cuando llegaron al duramen se detuvieron, aparte de hacer pequeños hoyos.

Where the ice was

I took photos of the wetlands under ice just in time. Now they're under a foot of snow.

View over the southeast end of the marsh, looking northeast. The hills beyond are on the mainland.

There is a sign beside the road; I stopped to read it.

Description of the restoration program.

The sign reads: Environmentally Sensitive Fish Habitat. Discovery Harbour Shopping Centre Ltd, developed and managed by the Campbell River Indian Band and Northwest Properties in conjunction with Federal Fisheries and Oceans and the Canadian Wildlife Service conducted a low marsh restoration and planting program in the Campbell River Estuary within Lot 136 and Spit Road in 1997 and 1999. As part of the estuary restoration plan, relocation of Old Spit Road occurred and natural estuary was re-established. Designed by TERA Planning Ltd, the planting was completed by members of the Campbell River Indian Band.

(This whole area had been used for logging operations, heavy equipment and other industrial uses for most of the last century. Now, it is being restored, piece by piece.)

Continuing with the text of the sign: To assist the natural recolonization of the estuary area, salvaged vegetative material was stockpiled for use. Approximately 800 sq m of plant material, including Lyngbye's and other sedges, spikerush, hairgrass and other low marsh species were removed and stored in a donor site. The existing slough was not touched.

(Me again. I'd never heard of these wetlands species. I looked them up. Lyngbye's sedge is "often the most dominant species in tidal marshes ..." [Plants of Coastal BC] "This is a pioneer species, one of the first plants to colonize the mud of tidal flats in its range. [Wikipedia]

Spikerush is not a rush, but a creeping wetland sedge. Hairgrass would be the tufted hairgrass, Deschampsia cespitosa; it is a native perennial grass about a metre tall. Some of the photos I took of the ice look like the base is this grass.)

Back to the sign: The eastern half of the program was conducted in the spring of 1997 and the culverts at Old Spit Road were opened at that time. This included the removal of shrub vegetation and soil, followed by the establishment of a network of channels planted with approximately 400 sq m of the stockpiled vegetation (or 20,000 15 cm x 15 cm cylinders of marsh material.)

A lot of work! The shrub vegetation removed would have included the invasive Himalayan blackberry: there is still a heavy infestation in the area between this wetland and the river bank.

Photos from the sign

The western half and the area under the Old Spit Road were replanted in early 1999. Construction was similar to that done for the eastern half. This phase saw the decommissioning of Old Spit Road itself. This project has created approximately 2 ha of low marsh. The new marsh is now an important contributor of fish nutrients and provides rearing habitat for your salmon.

I went looking for this old road last year. I found the end of it, but it petered out in a few metres. It's bird, bug, and fish habitat now. And maybe chocolate lily habitat, but I'll have to forgo looking for them.

Under the roof of the above sign. Juvenile salmon live here!!

Google map of the area, with my labels.

Shapeshifter

Habitat matters. On the ground, surrounded by dead leaves and stalked puffball mushrooms, an old log, burned black and half rotted, half buried in mud, is home to a batch of any-shape-will-do mushrooms.

Layered stubby hand shape. With a fat springtail.

This was the largest, the neatest, the closest to a shelf fungus shape. About 3 inches side to side.

Some of the mushrooms were blobs. Some looked like glue squeezed out of a piece of joined wood under pressure. Some were more like droopy fingers. None seemed to have stalks.

The underside of the one above. To get this, I had to hold the camera down on the mud, facing up, click and hope. At least I could see this way that they are gilled mushrooms.

Unidentified, of course. I looked through hundreds of photos, and gave up.

Yellow tongues

Mushrooms are picky about where they decide to grow. On wood, for example, but not live wood; dead wood, but only deciduous dead wood; beech but not oak. One species grows only on old Douglas fir cones. Another, chosen at random out of the guide, grows on other mushrooms, but only certain species of Boletes.

So it pays to remember where, exactly, a new mushroom was growing, if I want to put a name to it.

In the shelter of a lone cedar in a bare field, a spreading juniper huddles. In the duff under its branches, I found these yellow-orange stalks.

Up to 2 inches tall. Possibly Orange Earth Tongues. And a springtail.

Cylindrical or slightly spoonlike.

If these are Orange Earth Tongues, the guide says they grow in sphagnum moss (none here) or on rotten logs (not here unless there's one buried under the duff) or on leaf litter (juniper leaves and dead grass stalks?)

The genus name, Microglossum, translates as “small tongue” while the species name, rufum, means reddish. (The Nature Niche)

Sometimes I wonder about the eyes of the people who give things their names. I don't see these as at all "reddish".