Oaks Suffer Setback Throughout Connecticut

By Donna Tommelleo

Associated Press

HARTFORD — The same freakish weather pattern in early May that doomed the state’s apple crop also humbled the mighty oak and other hardy hardwoods in Connecticut’s forests.

Like dominos, other ecosystems will be affected. The sparsely leafed oak trees that stick out like broad, brown patches amid the full green maples could translate into a tough winter for animals dependent on acorns – and even may have an effect on the tick population two years from now.

An early dry spring included three consecutive 90-degree days followed immediately by a hard frost, with temperatures plummeting into the 20s. The oak trees, already stressed from a drought, began to rapidly produce flowers when the mercury soared. But the severe overnight freeze damaged the blossoms.

State foresters and plant pathologists said the type of widespread damage is rare, occurring about every 50 or 100 years in the state.

“It literally did freeze dry them,” said Fred Borman, a forester with the state Department of Environmental Protection.

Borman had a bird’s-eye view a couple weeks ago while flying to survey forest fire damage. He saw long sweeping swaths of brown cut into the Connecticut River Valley, where the damage was most severe.

Oak trees are the most valuable timber in Connecticut and the most abundant, Borman said. Oak and hickory trees make up about 51 percent of forestland. The red oak is the most common. There is also scarlet and black oak, and of course the white oak. It’s best known as the tree in which the Connecticut colonists hid the charter, and the Charter Oak has since become an enduring symbol of the state.

Hickory trees also were hard hit, said Sharon Douglas, a plant pathologist at the state agriculture experiment station in New Haven. She’s fielded many calls from concerned property owners since the hard frost.

“We’re amassing a list. This list is pretty extensive,” she said.

In addition to oak and hickory, other struggling species are holly, sumac, magnolia, and catalpa trees. She said she’s been dispensing advice to homeowners who want to save a landscape tree where they have some control over its watering, but in the larger tracts, there’s no quick fix.

“You can’t undo what’s already been done,” she said.

The DEP’s Borman said he expects the trees to refoliate later this season if there is normal rainfall and enough starch reserves from the past winter. But the oaks may not grow as many leaves, and because much of the tree’s energy will go into refoliating the acorn crop will be small – and in some cases, said Borman, nonexistent.

Deer, turkeys, and squirrels are just some of the animals depending on acorns to get them through the winter. But as any homeowner has learned, the creatures are adaptable and not shy about foraging on landscaping or at birdfeeders.

“What we foresee is probably the deer are going to go to an alternative food source,” said Mike Gregonis, a DEP wildlife biologist. “Some does may be in poorer health and there may be some reduction in productivity.”

The dearth of acorns also may force the deer into the open fields to forage, making them more vulnerable to hunters this fall and, as a result, there will be more deer taken during hunting season, he said.

Turkeys have a varied diet and as omnivores can live on plant and animal material, such as worms and other insects.

The acorn is also a staple for the white-footed mouse, which carries the pathogen for Lyme disease. A six-year study done by the Institute of Ecosystems Studies in Millbrook, N.Y., found a correlation between an abundant acorn crop and an increase in tick population.

The larval ticks feed off the white-footed mouse and pick up the pathogen. The next year, the ticks in the nymphal stage are the most active and most likely to transmit Lyme disease to humans and other animals.

Experts are lending some credence to that theory. Connecticut had a very high acorn crop in 1998, explained entomologist Kirby Stafford of the New Haven agricultural station. Fast forward two years: “In 2000, we did set a record for number of Lyme disease cases,” he said.

The state logged 3,772 cases of Lyme disease, the most ever, he said.

Will 2003 result in fewer ticks? The experts are cautious in their predictions.

“There are other factors with bearing on tick cycles as well,” said Stafford. “The [acorn production] is not the only factor, but an important one.”