(Chelsea Update would like to thank Tom Hodgson and the Waterloo Natural History Association for the photos and information in this story.)
The sunny days of October are gone and leaves that caught fire with color in the autumn sunshine are now on the ground.
Every year the fall color season begins in the wetlands with the bright red leaves of poison sumac and the darker hues of red osier dogwood and high bush blueberry. Therefore, it’s only fitting that the last vestige of fall color be found there as well.
The tamarack tree is adorned with whorls of fine, soft green needles instead of leaves. And, of course, we all know that trees with needles do not lose their foliage in the fall the way that broad-leaved trees do.
However, for every rule there is an exception, and tamarack is just that. Every fall, the needles of the tamarack turn from green to smoky-gold and then fall off just like the leaves of oak, hickory, maple and ash. Then in the spring, new needles grow from winter buds. They are slower to turn color and fall than their broad-leaved counterparts, so tamarack trees are usually still in full color after most others have lost their leaves.
Tamarack look like golden Christmas trees, but will lose their needles long before Christmas arrives.
The tamarack is a tree of the boreal forest, surviving as far north as the edge of the Arctic tundra where winter temperatures can dip as low as minus 85 degrees Fahrenheit.
Southern Michigan is on the southern edge of tamarack’s range. Here, it is largely confined to wetland habitats, primarily bogs and fens. But, it’s capable of growing on drier ground, and is very intolerant of shade and cannot survive when taller trees deprive it of direct sunlight. Therefore, it occupies a niche that is too wet for our larger native trees.
The wood of tamarack is very rot resistant and was often used by early farmers for fence posts. It was also used to make corduroy roads through soils too wet and muddy to support horse and wagon. Tamarack logs were laid down railroad tie fashion over the wet or muddy sections of roads and then covered with sand. The word corduroy was used to describe these roads because tamarack logs laid side by side resembled corduroy fabric.
The first water lines laid in the city of Detroit were made of tamarack logs. The logs were drilled out in the center, and connected with hollow, lead plugs driven into the ends. This allowed the water to be pumped great distances underground.
Today, tamarack is not valued for lumber, but is occasionally cut for pulp wood.
Stands of tamarack trees are winter roosting sites for long-eared owls. At night, they hunt nearby fields for deer mice and meadow voles and sit motionless on the branches of tamarack during the day.
When an owl eats a mouse, it swallows it whole. The meaty portions are digested and the fur and bones are formed into an “owl pellet” that is spit out and drops to the ground below the branch on which they are roosting. Since an owl may use the same roosting branch night after night, quite a number of pellets will accumulate over the course of a winter. Opening an owl pellet will reveal the mouse skeletons inside.
