Eastern Red Cedar Forest

DRAFT 8/15 Eastern Red Cedar Forest The dense canopy of Eastern Red Cedar trees creates deep shade, so there is often little vegetation in the understory. In many areas the forest floor may have only leaf litter (primarily of Red Cedar twigs and needles) and perhaps some patches of mosses. Where the Cedar trees are farther apart, however, the openings between trees may have a variety of shrubs, sedges, grasses and other herbaceous plants. Red Cedar trees are often widely spaced in young stands, denser in more mature stands, and tend to grow in particularly dense stands in areas Above: A young Red with calcareous soils. Cedar Forest. Left: Flowering Eastern Red Cedar branch. Where do you find Eastern Red it? Cedar Forest Examples Eastern Red Cedar is among the first woody Greenport plants to become established in abandoned Olana pastures and hayfields, and can be found Livingston S.F. singly and in groves throughout the County. Keep Conservation Although Red Cedar trees are sparse in many Preserve old fields, whole forests of Red Cedars tend Clermont to develop in post-agricultural areas of neutral to alkaline soils in this region. These forests are fairly common in areas of clayey soils in the Hudson River corridor of Columbia County, and in the limy soils of the Where & When to Harlem Valley. Visit The Greenport Public Conservation Area has excellent examples of Red Cedar Forest, Did you know? bordering the north edge of the large old fields, and in the southwest corner of the site Despite its name, the Eastern Red Cedar near the abandoned clay pits. Walking trails (Juniperus virginiana) is actually a juniper – in the Keep Conservation Preserve in only distantly related to other cedars. Germantown take you past older and younger Red Cedar forests north of the meadow areas. Both sites can be visited year-round. DRAFT 8/15 Characteristic Organisms The forest canopy is mostly of Eastern Red about average, and the most common Cedar, but is sometimes shared with other species were widespread ones generally trees such as Red Maple, Red Oak, White associated with damper forests and fields. Ash, Shagbark Hickory, Hop-hornbeam, The most unusual species that seemed to Common Buckthorn, and White Pine. The occur with any forest floor often has few plants due to the frequency was the deep shade, and perhaps also due to soil-dwelling Little “allelopathy” of the Red Cedar, which Hairless Ant releases toxic substances that interfere with (Brachymyrmex the growth, survival, or reproduction of depilis), which tends other plants. Shrubs may include Common Little Hairless Ant with aphids aphids. Buckthorn, Gray Dogwood, Japanese Table of Characteristic/Common Barberry, and seedlings of some of the overstory trees. Eastern Red Cedar is Plants intolerant of shade, so the trees of Red Canopy Cedar Forests ultimately die when they are Eastern Red Cedar Juniperus virginiana overtopped and shaded out by deciduous trees. Red Maple Acer rubrum White Ash Fraxinus americana Some mammals and Shagbark Hickory Carya ovata birds seek the thick Hop-hornbeam Ostrya virginiana Red Cedar stands for shelter, especially Understory during the colder Eurasian Honeysuckle Lonicera morrow/x months; tracks of bella Eastern Cottontail, Flowering Dogwood Cornus florida Raccoon, and White- Common Buckthorn Rhamnus cathartica tailed Deer are Wineberry Rubus phoenicolasius common in these Japanese Barberry Berberis thunbergii Print of Audubon’s forests. The fruits of Cedar Waxwing, 1830 Eastern Red Cedar Multiflora Rose Rosa multiflora are eaten throughout the winter by many Ground Flora birds and by mammals such as mice and Ebony Spleenwort Asplenium platyneuron voles, Eastern Cottontail, Red and Gray Poverty Oatgrass Danthonia spicata Foxes, Raccoon, Striped Skunk, and Pennsylvania Sedge Carex pensylvanica Opossum. White-tailed Deer browse on the foliage when better forage is unavailable. Fragrant bedstraw Galium triflorum White wild-licorice Galium circaezans We found a surprising number of frogs in this White Snakeroot Ageratina altissima habitat, probably reflecting the shelter it Virginia Creeper Parthenocissus provides in proximity to wetter areas. We quinquefolius saw Wood Frogs and Red-backed Oriental bittersweet Celastrus orbiculatus Salamanders at many of the Cedar sites we Smooth Forked surveyed, and also recorded Pickerel Frogs Paronychia and Spring Peepers. Ant abundance was Whitlow-wort canadensis DRAFT 8/15 What is ecologically special about this The Juniper-twig habitat? Geometer moth is a We know of few rare plants of Red Cedar Red Cedar specialist Forest, but several birds of conservation concern use this habitat for nesting, roosting, or foraging. Red Cedar forests Table of Rare Plants and Animals provide nesting habitat for Cooper’s Hawk, and roosting habitat for owls—especially Eastern Screech-owl, Short-eared Owl, and Rare Plants Northern Saw-whet Owl. Rusty Woodsia Woodsia Regionally ilvensis scarce Many songbirds also use Red Cedar for Rare Animals nesting and roosting, including Field Juniper Callophrys Regionally Sparrow, Eastern Towhee, and Brown Hairstreak gryneus Rare Thrasher. Insectivorous birds such as Black- capped Chickadee and Golden-crowned Ruffed Grouse Bonasa Audubon Kinglet forage in Red Cedar Forests and umbellus Priority, groves, and the fruit—berry-like cones, blue SGCN with a whitish bloom—are eaten by many Cooper’s Hawk Accipiter Audubon bird species, including Cedar Waxwing cooperii Priority (named for this tree), Eastern Bluebird, Short-eared Asio flammeus NYS Ruffed Grouse, Ring-necked Pheasant, and Owl Endangered Wild Turkey. The germination of cedar seeds is in fact hastened by passing through the Northern Saw- Aegolius Audubon birds’ digestive systems which weaken or whet Owl acadicus Priority break the hard seed coat. Brown Toxostoma Audubon Thrasher rufum Priority, SGCN Eastern Pipilo Audubon Towhee erythrophthal Priority mus Field Sparrow Spizella pusilla Audubon Priority Golden- Regulus Regionally Crowned satrapa scarce Kinglet reportedly feeds on Red Cedar, but we have The beautiful Juniper Hairstreak is our only found it primarily in the vicinity of Eastern butterfly whose caterpillars feed on Eastern White Pine. A few moth species are Red Red Cedar Cedar specialists, but the only one we have documented in the region is the Juniper-twig Eastern Red Cedar is the larval host plant of Geometer, which we observed at a nearby the Juniper Hairstreak, a beautiful emerald- Connecticut site; it is widespread, however, green butterfly that we have found at several and likely also occurs in Columbia County. Red Cedar sites in the county. Pine Elfin, also DRAFT 8/15 Eastern Red Cedar History & Human Use Origin of the Habitat History of Human Use As mentioned above, Red Cedar is one of the The Eastern Red Cedar was reported to first trees to colonize certain fields, have been used widely by the indigenous especially pastures located on limy soils. The inhabitants of the Northeast – the bark for lower branches of browsed Red Cedar are canoe and mat-making, the deep-red bristly and deter feeding by cattle. Thus, in heartwood as a source of dye, and many loosely managed pastures that are only parts of the tree as components of grazed occasionally and are eventually medicinal remedies for everything from abandoned, Red Cedar tends to get a head treating cholera and dysentery to repelling start, and, for a while, can dominate this insects. Its medicinal properties were still stage of reforestation. celebrated in the mid-1800s, when the New Lebanon-based Tilden Eastern Red Pharmaceutical Company included Juniper Cedar trees Berries in its catalogue of pure medicinal colonizing a extracts. field. While the Eastern Red Cedar’s habit of growing up in pasture land was probably a Farther north in New England and NY, the source of frustration for early settlers, lower Common Juniper replaces Eastern Red there is no doubt that it was also a useful Cedar as the old pasture invader. Extensive and greatly sought after resource. As the Red Cedar thickets may, in our area, solely be most rot-resistant native tree, it was a top a product of abandonment after colonial and choice for fence posts, wooden pales, post-colonial agriculture. Prior to that time, shingles, bridge planking, coffins, ship Red Cedar in our area probably occurred building, and other such uses that brought primarily as a few trees after certain fires, as it into contact with soil and water. It also longer-lasting trees along rocky ridgelines had insect-repellent qualities that made it and perhaps, surprisingly enough, as a ideal for cedar chests and closets to swamp tree. protect wool clothes from wool-eating moths. County newspapers throughout It is not uncommon to find the skeletons of the 19th and early 20th century frequently dead cedars in the understory of more advertised Red Cedar chests and coffins, mature woods, hinting at the past presence highlighted ships with Red Cedar framing, of a Red Cedar stage of reforestation. We do, and even encouraged its use as a however, occasionally find large Red Cedars; Christmas tree. one particularly large individual we found had evidently grown up along a fence row. In addition the wood was easy to work, Still alive, it had apparently reached a pleasing in fragrance and color, and with a sufficient height before having to face uniform, fine grain suitable for finer competitors for sunlight. This would suggest woodworking, such as tables and cabinets. that Red Cedars die out quickly not because Towards the end of the 19th century, the of an inherently short life span but rather heartwood became one of the main because of a slow growth rate and low sources of pencils, causing a demand that stature that often results in their being wiped out the remaining old groves shaded out by taller, faster growing trees. throughout the region. DRAFT 8/15 Perspectives on a Red Cedar Forest The image of a young Eastern Red Cedar forest that we invited people to view and respond to did not overly impress.

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