Respect an Elder by Dave Heithaus was originally published in the BFEC Newsletter, Vol. 14/No. 3, Summer 2010.
Patience. Fortitude. Grace. Wisdom. Selflessness. While all are characteristics worth admiring one by one, gathered together in one place they speak of life drawn from the sweetest water, richest earth and freshest air.
And while most of us can think of at least one person who embodies these lofty principles, few would consider that they pass by many every day.
Across the Midwest and the whole of the country, humble paragons sit stoically day and night watching over hill and valley, down mountainsides and beyond our vast stretches of forest, river, desert, lake and ocean. They display their virtues only to the watchful eye and offer their wisdom only when asked most shrewdly. They are silent except when the wind blows.
Most have seen more than the luckiest person could dream in several lifetimes, having watched the world for hundreds of years, perhaps thousands. What you have read or heard passed down from the oldest among us, events that shaped our world and experience, they experienced as time unfolded.
Of course what I write of is one of our dearest natural features: our trees, and especially their eldest. Here at the BFEC, we are fortunate to have several trees whose experience spans two or more centuries. We felt it was time to give them their due...
Of over 600 species of oaks found around the world, the white oak (Quercus alba) is one of eastern North America’s most abundant and well-known trees. Even so, its remarkable life history and ecology present a dizzying array of relationships and avenues of inquiry — many of which have yet to be fully explored.
Of the white oaks commonly found in the mixed mesophytic forests that define much of the Kokosing River Valley, one in particular is worth paying attention to on your next hike. Standing sentinel just uphill from the Wolf Run wetland in an area soon to be dedicated with a boardwalk and interpretive trail is one of the most picturesque trees anywhere on the preserve.
This white oak, over 100 feet in both height and breadth, showcases the rounded crown and broad sweeping branches typical of its species when allowed to grow in the open. An appropriate coincidence based on its location, this form is known as a “wolf tree.” While its neighboring trees were felled for lumber or to open pasturage, this one has been left to grow — likely to provide shade for the cattle that traditionally grazed the area. Now its shade shelters seedlings, deer and a host of other wildlife. Further up in its branches, life is even busier.
While the towering trees of tropical rainforests are famous for harboring a rich diversity of smaller plants and animals, our own temperate trees are often seen as little more than really big plants, firewood or furniture. In fact, trees that seem pedestrian to most North Americans actually give their flashy tropical cousins a run for their money. They just do so with a touch of mature reserve — fitting considering a 100-foot white oak is likely many years older than its sweaty southern counterpart. Far from boring old trees, white oaks are virtual island ecosystems hosting myriad life forms ranging from the everyday to the otherworldly.
White oaks provide food and shelter for countless plants, fungi, lichens, insects, birds and mammals (see photos for examples). Many of these animals sustain themselves on either leaves or acorns but some avail themselves of their provider in more creative ways.
With its sweet, nutrient rich acorns, the white oak brings in more than its share of ground browsers. White-tailed deer, squirrels, turkeys, grouse, woodpeckers, raccoons, bears (not at the BFEC mind you), blue jays and quail all forage regularly. Several types of moth larvae and weevil also take advantage of fallen nuts, sometimes getting a feed of their own or adding to the protein content of something taking bigger bites.
Growing around this fallen bounty, a number of plants and fungus intertwine their fates with that of their mother-tree. False foxglove, several cortinarius mushrooms and a number of cup fungi all thrive in the litter beneath great oaks. When the trees begin to fade, shelf and bracket fungus can often be seen creeping up their broad trunks.
Moving above the forest floor to bark and branches, one can spot plants and lichens such as mistletoe, old man's beard and even a species of blue-green algae that brightens following a good rain. These lichens and algae make the white oak a favorite for ruby-throated hummingbirds and blue-gray gnatcatchers, two species of bird that are able to find no shortage of well-camouflaged nesting spots among the tree’s twisting branches.
Out amongst the leaves is where the real action may be. Over 250 species of insect feed on white oak leaves and over 400 types of gall-forming insects spend some portion of their life cycle in either leaves or flowers.
The leaf-eaters range from tiny microlepidoptera “leaf miners,” whose larvae fit between the top and bottom layers of an individual leaf, to the fat caterpillars of large moths and butterflies. Some of the most notable of the latter are the red-spotted purple, Northern hairstreak and juvenal dusky-wing (butterflies) and the saddleback moth and banded tussuck. Grasshoppers, crickets, beetles, larval wasps, aphids, lace bugs and phasmids are also well-known leaf-eaters. Leaves can be eaten from the inside one layer at a time, as mentioned above, or by cutting along the leaf edge.
The white oak’s relationship with gall-forming insects is complex, extensive and sometimes poorly understood. A gall is an abnormal swelling of tissue generally caused by the feeding activity of an insect, mite, fungus, nematode worm or bacteria. Sometimes an insect will form one type of gall at one point in its life cycle and an entirely different one in a different part of the tree during another. What actually causes the gall is debated but most agree that it forms in response to either acids secreted by the feeding organism or a bacterial association with the feeding activity. Regardless of causal mechanism, these galls are generally not harmful to the tree.
Insects that form galls on white oaks are mostly either wasps or flies. Galls are commonly found on leaves or flowers but can also occur on twigs, bark and even buried roots. They vary widely in size, structure and color and are often the topic of debate among entomologists struggling to positively identify their architects.
Throughout human experience, oaks have made their mark on history, culture, technology and religion. Patience. Fortitude. Grace. Wisdom. Selflessness. People around the globe have perceived these human achievements in oaks and held the trees in great regard. While not as ancient or as grand as some of its cousins, the white oak above the Wolf Run wetland is slowly, quietly taking its place among its revered ancestors.
To some, the oak was known as the "tree of doors," a gateway between worlds. What this suggests on a metaphysical level, I would not presume to say. But take the time to walk out to that tree, or one like it. Peel back and duck under its protective curtain of leaves and acorns. Pull yourself up into its low-hanging branches and look closely. You may find another world right there in your own backyard.