This first column of each new year traditionally features two outdoorsmen who have made a positive difference in the world of natural resources.
They are often people who work behind the scenes to improve fish and wildlife habitat, or teach outdoor skills and work on behalf of conservation organizations. They represent the many men and women who continue Wisconsin's heritage of environmentalism and lend a hand to causes that benefit natural resources.
This year's honorees are Leif Marking of Onalaska and Larry Severeid of La Crosse.
Larry Severeid
Larry Severeid has switched patients, from human beings to trees.
The retired doctor purchased 147 acres east of LaCrosse near the Village of Rockland where he has tenaciously worked to cultivate species important to wildlife, particularly walnut, butternut and American chestnut trees. He hopes that within another five years he will have developed a chestnut tree that is resistant to the blight that killed chestnut trees across the United States in a major natural resource disaster.
He also is working to develop a butternut tree that is resistant to the blight that often kills that species, a popular tree used by wood carvers and chefs.
"When I moved to the LaCrosse area I needed to have some diversion from my practice of medicine, and bought property as a retreat and later became interested in planting trees as I became more knowledgeable of the decline of our fine hardwoods," Severeid said. "My wife would call it an obsession."
Severeid said that in Europe foresters have planted hardwoods (oak, walnut, chestnut, ash, cherry, hickory and butternut) for more than 100 years, but in the United States most plantation interest has been about conifer trees, while planting deciduous trees (which have leaves rather than needles) is only about 45 years old. People used to think that deciduous trees would just take care of themselves, but that is not always so.
He has been an active member of the Walnut Council, including the president of the National Walnut Council, which helps landowners learn about silvicultural techniques to plant and grow trees.
Severeid started planting a monoculture of trees, with wide spaces between trees. But after visiting mixed plantations and seeing walnut, ash and oak plantations that were beautiful he began to intersperse his trees in closer spaces.
"We've learned about reforestation of fine hardwoods, and rather than just plantations of single species we've learned that creating a forest condition, with different species, is the healthiest way to grow hardwoods," he said. "They grow straighter, they enjoy company, and you get a better looking walnut if you mix it with other species."
Severeid used to plant trees 10 feet apart in rows that were 12 feet apart, but has is planting trees 7 feet apart with rows 7 feet apart.
He also likes to cluster trees within a plantation, so that trees of the same species compete against themselves.
"If I were to do it over again, I would plant conifers and walnut, to reduce the chances of frost cracks," Severeid said. "My overall philosophy is that I believe in mixed plantings, direct seeding and high densities."
If a person is worried about a disparity in the rate of growth, because some trees grow faster than others, the concept of clustering species in a mixed forest is another way of assuring that you get a mixed forest.
Severeid is using U.S Forest Service research where hybridized American chestnut are crossed with Chinese chestnut (which are resistant to the blight) and then "back crossing" it with desired strains of chestnuts to maintain blight resistance from generation to generation. This infuses the genes from the tree you want to keep, the American chestnut, while sorting out others.
He has a tree orchard with trees containing the Chinese resistant gene.
For butternut trees, he is selecting trees that show a blight resistance in the field.
Severeid's advice to others who are interested in managing their land is to first evaluate the site and not plant the wrong tree. He learned by planting walnuts on south-facing sites that had been heavily pastured and found it was a waste of time. Had he planted walnut, oak, conifers and ash he would have a more beautiful hillside of trees.
"You can't hope that you can make a tree grow that is not suited for that site," Severeid said. "And, I would always plant a mixture of trees so the site allows the species that do best to flourish there. A mixed planting is not only more beautiful, but does better than a monoculture which can be the victim of disease."
He adds those who aren't willing take care of the site for at least three years shouldn't waste their time. With the high deer population and invasive species, just planting the trees won't be enough.
He has found that newly planted trees and shrubs need protection from deer, and has found that using tin foil on the terminal bud, especially of oak, will often deter the deer.
Leif Marking
Leif Marking has had a lifelong interest in bluebirds.
He used to work for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, but retired and today continues his interest in birds as a member of the Brice Prairie Conservation Association and the Bluebird Restoration Association of Wisconsin.
Marking and another bluebird enthusiast, Fred Craig, each monitor 150 bluebird houses every year, and their organization fledged 4,756 bluebirds last summer.
"Eastern bluebirds used to nest in holes, hollowed out by woodpeckers, in wooden fence posts but that has long since passed since farmers don't use wooden posts anymore," Marking said. "The natural cavities for bluebirds are pretty much taken up by competitive species, such as English sparrows, and starlings. Up until 30 years ago bluebirds were pretty much considered rare here, but now individuals and clubs put up artificial nesting boxes. Bluebirds are totally dependent on cavities, because they are cavity nesters."
Marking grew up on a farm and remembers going out into the pastures with bare feet 60 years ago and watching bluebirds that then lived in holes of wood fence posts.
The Brice Prairie Conservation Association was formed in 1960 to help improve Lake Onalaska, and has expanded into other projects such as bluebird restoration. Originally its members produced just 100 bluebird fledglings per year but, with improved techniques, now fledge more than 4,700 bluebirds a year. It is the largest producer of bluebirds in the state, and wants to help other organizations build and monitor bluebird houses.
Marking uses the North American Bluebird Society (NABS) nesting box to improve bluebird production. The cedar houses are mounted on 7-foot tall steel T-type fence posts that are covered with a 5-foot section of PVC pipe to keep the houses inaccessible to predators, especially raccoons and cats.
He also makes wood duck houses out of used metal Freon canisters. He cuts the tops off of two canisters and then fits them together with a hinge, adding wood shavings in the bottom of the canister. The hen will add down and lay eggs in the "house."
"Using these metal nests, in the last four years we have raised 2,000 ducklings each year in our monitored houses," Marking said. He used to monitor over 100 wood duck houses each year.
Marking said bluebirds are ambitious nesters that return early in the spring to the nesting grounds in good physical shape, while tree swallows which come a longer distance from across the Gulf of Mexico are in poorer physical shape and take a while to build up energy reserves for nesting. But, the swallows will compete with bluebirds for nesting spots later during the nesting season.
Bluebirds normally return to Wisconsin in late March and they will lay four to six eggs, beginning in April, over a five-day period. The eggs normally hatch in 12 to 14 days. The young will fledge, or leave the nest, 17 to 20 days after hatching.
Marking said bluebirds will often return to nest in the same house for several years, and they like to have nearby telephone or electric lines where they can sit near their nest box and can forage in nearby grasslands.
He has noticed that the female does most of the feeding of young hatchlings, although both male and female will bring in food.
Bluebirds are quite docile which allows people to check the nest boxes, but they can be driven out by more aggressive birds such as tree swallows and sparrows.
To add enjoyment to monitoring bluebird houses, Marking suggests that people keep records. He records the number of eggs, hatches and fledglings. This helps the association learn the total number of birds produced from artificial nest boxes.
Back in the early 1990s the production rate per house was down about 1.9 bluebirds. Now, with the NABS-style house, the production rate is about five bluebirds per house.
Sometimes bluebirds stay in the north during mild winters and then will utilize nannyberry, dogwood and sumac berries. However, extended cold periods normally force them south.The Capital Times
