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Forester's Footsteps Self-guiding Trail

Follow the Forester's Footsteps Map 1) Fire! 2) Timber! 3) Plant, Plant, Plant 4) Regeneration in a Generation 5) A Sucker for Aspen 6) Native Is Best 7) A Forester's Work Is Never Done 8) A Forest in Time 9) Two for Trees 10) Keeping the Wild in Life 11) A Last Thought For more information

Three beautiful wildflowers-the crocus, wood lily and the rare moccasin-flower-can be found along the trail in spring. April or May is a good time to find crocus. June is the best time to see the wood lily and moccasin-flower; watch for them between stops 2 and 7. Picking wildflowers in the park is not allowed. When the flower is removed, it cannot reproduce. Please take a picture instead.

The Forester's Footsteps Trail is a pleasant walk that loops through a planted jack pine and red pine forest and natural forest. Most of the trail follows old logging roads, except the last third, which goes up on a granite rock ridge. Part of this trail is also a mountain bike trail, so watch for cyclists.

Silviculture (sil vi kul'chér) is a word you may not have heard before. Silvi is the Latin word for forest. Culture comes from a Latin word meaning "to till." Silviculture is the art and science of growing trees or cultivating a forest. Silviculture is like agriculture, but instead of growing grain, we are growing trees. A forester is to silviculture what a farmer is to agriculture. Foresters have learned a lot over the years, now they try not just to grow trees, but to grow whole forest ecosystems.

As you follow the forester's footsteps, watch for the numbered stops and read about how we grow a forest.

When you are done, if you do not wish to keep this pamphlet, return it to the box. Enjoy your walk. And remember to leave nothing behind except your footprints.

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Jack pine cones and needles

About one hundred years ago a fire blazed over here. It cleared the land and melted the sticky and binding resin on jack pine cones, releasing their seeds. The result is that nature made a stand of jack pine, born of fire.

How can you tell if a tree is a pine? Pine trees have needles in either pairs or packets (more than two). The jack pine has needle pairs about 4 cm (2 in.) long. Look up at the tree branches. You may see cones waiting to open. Jack pine cones are easy to identify-when they are closed the ends curl to make them look like the letter J.

Do you buy the newspaper daily? The average jack pine tree in this stand can make 367 newspapers; that's about a year's worth of newspapers for you. Forestry-the business of harvesting and regrowing trees, and making wood products-is important to Manitoba's economy. It gives us products and jobs. In our province, one job in thirty depends on the forest industry.

Kids: Watch for other kinds of pine trees along the trail.

Clearcutting is a silviculture method, and affects a forest in many of the same ways as fire, which is a natural part of forest ecology. Like fire, it opens the area to sunlight. Jack pine does not like to be shaded. The hot sun beating down on exposed soil can reach more than the 46oC which is needed to release the seeds from the cone. Have you ever burned your feet on a sandy beach on a sweltering July afternoon?

In 1963 some of the jack pine forest that was born of fire was clearcut. Over a ten-year period, a total of 110 hectares (271 acres) of trees were harvested, an area about five times the size of the average shopping mall. Most became lumber for building and may have been used to build your home. Some were processed into pulp for products like newspaper and some were used for firewood in the campground.

Clearcutting is cutting down all the trees from a part of the forest. The average size of a clearcut in Manitoba is less than 40 hectares (0.4 km2). Occasionally larger areas are clearcut if they have been burned by fire or to try to control disease or insects killing the trees.

Foresters use clearcutting to harvest jack pine, black spruce and aspen trees. When foresters regrow a clearcut area the result is often a forest of trees that are all the same age and often the same kind of tree, like what you see here. Pure, even-aged stands are natural for black spruce, aspen, and jack pine. Remember where you looked for cones?

Clearcut - Forestry Branch

How to count whorls

In Manitoba, foresters follow special guidelines to protect fish and wildlife habitats. Trees must be left beside rivers and lakes to stop soil from washing into the water and harming the fish. When a forest is cut, at least 20 per cent of the trees must be left in patches for wildlife cover, to protect them from predators and bad weather. Foresters keep a variety of wildlife habitat by keeping different ages and kinds of tree. Even dead trees are homes to animals. Take a close look at a dead tree to see who is living and eating there.

Kids: Did you notice how these trees are in rows? Can you spot any of the old tree stumps from 1963?

Have you spotted another kind of pine tree? Jack pine is on one side of the trail. On the other side is a tree with reddish bark that breaks off in slabs. Feel how scaly the bark is. These trees are red pine. Like the jack pine, it has needles that are in pairs. Compare the needles. The red pine needles are longer, about 10-15 cm (4-6 in.).

Do you know how to tell the age of red pine? There's a trick. Find a big tree with branches close to the ground and count the number of branch whorls. There should be one set of whorls for each year. This method only works with the red pine because often it does not lose its bottom branches when it grows.

Did you figure out how old these red pine are? You need to add a couple of years because these are planted trees. After being planted they may not have top growth for two or three years, when most of the growth goes to the roots. Both the red and jack pine were planted in 1965. Why are the red pines bigger? Red pines grow quickly when they are an intermediate age, like teenagers. You could see this in the tree's growth rings if you looked at a cross section.

How are the trees regrown? Foresters decide which silviculture method is best-planting or natural regeneration. From looking at the type of soil and landscape, we learn how much moisture and seeds are present and how easy it is for machinery to work there. Two-year-old jack pine and three-year-old red pine seedlings were planted here.

Foresters have learned a lot since the federal government started tree planting in the early 1900s. Now, 65 per cent of the area harvested in Manitoba is replanted the following spring. The other 35 per cent is encouraged to grow back naturally. Many of the seedlings or baby trees come from Pineland Nursery, just west of the park.

Growing trees is like growing a garden or a crop-you have to plant it at the right time, hope it gets enough water, and try to protect it from insects and disease.

Kids: What signs of wildlife can you find along the trail?

Facing the number post, the jack pine behind you are old and have not been commercially harvested. In front of you, to the south, the jack pine were harvested in 1973. Do the two areas look different?

After the harvest, the jack pine trees were left to grow back on their own from the seeds of their parents. This is called natural regeneration. Natural regeneration can happen in two ways: the clearcut can be left to grow back on its own, or the trees can be given a helping hand by scarifying the cut area. Using special equipment, scarifying stirs up the soil by dragging heavy chains or barrels with blades over the ground. It mixes into the soil the nutrient-rich humus and branches left after the harvest. It also spreads the seed-bearing cones over the ground. Forestry has changed. In the past, scarifying would have flattened everything left after cutting. Today, some dead and uncut trees and shrubs are kept for wildlife.

If natural regeneration does not work, foresters may then plant seedlings. Getting the trees to regrow adequately is one of the biggest challenges facing foresters.

Kids: Watch the different parts of the plantation as you walk. Can you tell which is planted from seedlings and which is natural regeneration? Hint: one has rows; the other is not in rows and the trees are closer together.

Aspen twig and leaves

An aspen stand was clearcut here in 1973 for firewood in the park. The site was left to regenerate. Do you remember how you can tell? The trees grow much closer together and not in rows. If you have ever cut down an aspen tree, you know there is no need to plant aspen seedlings as they regrow quickly from shoots off the roots.

The new trees or suckers that grow from the roots of a single tree are called clones. If it is spring, you can see how the clones from one tree leaf-out at the same time. Or, if it is autumn, the clones from the same tree will all change colour at the same time.

Kids: Can you spot a set of clones?

Red pine and jack pine grow well in the kind of sandy soil that is under your feet. At one time red pine was a favourite for plantations because it grows quickly and can be cut into good straight lumber. It was used a lot for telephone poles. But red pine is easily affected by drought and diseases, like root rot, which can wipe out a young plantation. Now red pine is only planted where it is native or grows naturally.

Western gall rust

Scots pine, native to Europe and northern Asia, was also tried in plantations. Scots pine look much like red pine, but the paired needles are shorter, 4-8 cm (1 1/2-3 1/2 in.). Because they are not native, they have not adapted well in Manitoba. Scots pine grow twisted so are not suitable for lumber. Compare their trunks to the red pine. Scots pine are no longer used for reforestation, but private operators still grow them for Christmas trees.

Today the native jack pine is the most popular for planting in this area. It is used for pulp products like paper and wood for building. But jack pine can also be hurt by disease. Watch for the western gall rust on the jack pine farther along the trail.

Kids: Do you know what Manitoba's provincial tree is? It is the white spruce. It has single needles that feel square when you roll them between your fingers., They have long thin cones. Walk down the trail 15 steps then look behind you and see if you can see a tall white spruce tree.

Do you see the western gall rust? The swellings on the branches are caused by this fungus that attacks many pine trees. Western gall rust travels from pine to pine. It can kill the tree or just stunt the growth and deform it. It has deformed and killed two trees here. If there is a lot of disease in the plantation, we may thin the trees by removing the infected ones.

After the forest is harvested, it is either replanted or encouraged to regenerate from local seeds and roots. But a forester's work doesn't stop there. Foresters must continue to manage the area. They may use herbicides to reduce other leafy plants that shade the young trees. They may thin the smaller trees, like thinning a row of carrots. Regeneration is checked by surveys, to see if planting is needed. We also watch the forest for insect problems and disease.

Why all this work? Manitoba's forests are managed by the Forestry Branch of Manitoba Conservation. By law, forests must be managed on a sustainable basis. This means that when a forest is cut, it must grow back at an equal or greater rate than it would naturally, to ensure that it is there for future generations.

We need trees. Think of all the things trees give us-paper, wood, plastic, paints, drugs and even chewing gum.

What would your home look like if all the wood and paper disappeared?

Kids: In April or May try to find a crocus flower in the grassy clearing, but remember to leave it there for the next people to see. How many things can you name that come from trees?

Look back out over the forest you have just walked through. As far as you can see to your left and to your right, was once clearcut. What do you see now?

Can you spot different pockets of pines, aspen and spruce, different ages and densities of trees? This forest mosaic has regrown in 25 years. A harvested forest should grow back in your lifetime.

This rock is a good spot to sit and rest. As you enjoy the view consider this. Foresters are trying to imitate nature and natural processes as a way to manage forests. They try to balance the need to regrow trees (for the many things they give us) with the need to regrow forests. Foresters are concerned about the impact of clearcutting and regrowing trees on the forest ecosystem. Can the plantation provide habitat for the same number and variety of plants and animals that the natural forest does? Learning how to regrow a forest takes time. We must wait 30 to 50 years to see the results. We can regrow the trees, but can we regrow a forest ecosystem? We need to continue to study and improve our techniques of growing forest ecosystems.

Lichen on rock

The rest of the trail follows rock ridges back to the start. Up here on the rock, fragile moss and lichen grow. Many of these small plants are likely 100 years old, having started growing after the last forest fire scorched these rocks. Please stay to the trail so to protect these old and delicate plants.

Kids: See if you can name the trees along the trail. This brochure tells you how to identify most of them. You could also ask the Park Interpreters for a copy of the booklet, Field Guide to the Native Trees of Manitoba.

You have left the plantation. The few trees that grow on the rock ridge are mostly jack pine, aspen and birch. These species like sunny, open areas. These trees have not been harvested. The soil is too shallow here and could wash away if the trees' roots were not holding it in place. This is a natural forest.

Most provincial parks started as forest reserves. Under The Forest Act of 1930, forest rangers were appointed to protect each reserve, and visitors were encouraged to come to the areas for recreation. Many of today's roads were originally logging roads.

In 1931 the Whiteshell Forest Reserve was established. In 1960 the Provincial Parks Act was passed, establishing Manitoba's first provincial parks.

Kids: Name all the fun things you can do in the Whiteshell Park, in both summer and winter.

A porcupine feeding site

Have you seen any signs of wildlife? Porcupines have eaten the inner bark on some of the jack pines. Porcupine are most active at night, but you may see them in treetops during the day.

Wildlife is affected by tree harvesting. Some animals, like boreal owls and martens, prefer old forests; they left the area when the forest was cut. Manitoba's provincial bird, the great gray owl, hunted this area when it was clearcut because its prey could easily be seen. Deer and moose liked to eat the young plants when the forest started regrowing. Turkey vultures were here when it was clearcut, and they could be soaring above you right now. Different animals like different habitats. Some, like the turkey vulture, like a variety of habitats. Good forest management considers what all animals need.

Kids: Watch along the trail for other trees the porcupine has eaten.

Are you making a campfire tonight? If you buy the wood here, it was probably cut from this forest by the local wood supplier.

While enjoying your campfire tonight, consider this. Trees provide wildlife habitat, clean air and water, recreation, a shady spot to enjoy nature, and wood and paper products. If we are to continue to have those things, we need to improve our ability to regrow the forest for our children's children. But do we need to set aside special places where no harvesting occurs? The Forestry Branch and Parks and Natural Areas Branch of the Manitoba government think so. Both have pledged to establish a network of protected areas that represents the diversity of each Natural Region in Manitoba, where forests and wildlife can exist with little human impact. What can you do to protect our forests?