Weirdly warm winter makes for an uncertain spring

By Star Childs

The winter that has just passed was one of weird contrasts. For starters, the first 10 days of January were warmer than the first 10 days of April.

The lack of any major snow cover and warm temperatures at the outset of the winter made foraging for food a boon for wildlife. A reasonably heavy mast crop of acorns and abundant Norway spruce cones had squirrels scurrying early to build their winter stores in the event of early snow, only to keep scurrying for more as the snow held off. In the Norway spruce plantations on Great Mountain, we are finding large piles of cones that went uneaten and untouched after being collected in great number. Our new resident black bears, normally in early hibernation, were still lumbering around backyard feeders and garbage cans in late December looking for left over eggnog and stale Christmas cookies.

Chickadee © 2007 Leslie Watkins

White-tailed deer normally react to the onset of winter by moving into the higher parts of the forest and working the oak ridges for acorns. To the dismay of hunters who normally encounter them up there, the deer seemed almost nonexistent this past season, resulting in very few animals harvested in the area. While this was fine from the perspective of the deer, the hunters’ explanations generally came down on the side of the weirdly warm weather that kept the deer grazing in fields and lowlands around the forest edges.

There certainly was no lack of deer once winter snows packed hard over the ground in February, as witnessed by the numerous tracks in the snow as they moved from the cover of hemlocks to the sunny ridges in search of winter browse. Given that they began the cold period of winter full of acorns and plenty of extra fat to sustain them, they would have easily survived the arctic cold when it finally arrived in late January.

One of the initial benefits of a snow-free winter is that it allows the frost to penetrate deeper into the ground. The sustained low temperatures that hit before the St. Valentine’s Day blizzard assured that a number of insects which are deleterious to the trees were killed off in large numbers.

Many of the more damaging insects seek to winter over in the ground in hopes of being insulated by the snow cover. The combination of extreme cold, delayed snow cover and strong desiccating winds often kills them in their beds, much to the delight of the trees that they feed on. This would include the hemlock wooly adelgid and white pine weevils, among others. In fact, the warmth of early January might have found some of them breaking dormancy early and crawling about when the sudden freeze up occurred. I take some delight in contemplating this possibility.

Nevertheless, the colder months this winter were not kind to the trees. Strong winds and an early March ice storm took their toll on the forests of Norfolk. Branches and treetops were bent and snapped under the weight of heavy ice. Strong winds tore at their limbs and brittle foliage as well. The wind-driven cold air caused “winter burn” on many species of evergreen, not the least of which is Mountain Laurel. While flower buds may have survived to color the June woods, the foliage of the laurel will have to await a new flush of leaves to restore their deep green splendor.

For the most part, trees will recover from their wounds by internally “walling off” the damaged tissue and forming bark calluses. But if anyone has a particularly favorite tree that was injured, it might be good to contact your local arborist for advice and possible restorative action.