Ash Management Guide for Private Forest Landowners

Photo: Bill SwindamanChapter 1A History of Minnesota’sAsh ResourceThe habitat of the green heron issmall wetlands in low-lying areas.The species is most conspicuousduring dusk and dawn. They preferto be active at night, retreatingto sheltered areas during thedaytime.arrived in the state, ash was a componentof roughly 1,221,000 acres of forest land.Some 902,000 of these acres were directlylost to conversion of the land to somethingother than forest. However, thisloss is partially offset by a gain of 548,000acres where forests lacking ash were convertedto types with ash.On land that has been forestthroughout the settlement period, therelative abundance of ash to other treeshas gone up from 1.5 percent of forestland trees to 8.5 percent– nearly sixtimes its historic abundance. These gainshave occurred almost exclusively in habitatswhere ash is dominant. The acreageof monotypic ash forest has increasedfrom 229,000 to about 406,000 acres.Why? Ash was excluded from habitatswhere fire was a chronic influence. Firesuppression has undoubtedly allowedash to increase in Minnesota’s westernand southeastern forests. But this doesn’texplain the shift to monotypic forest.More likely is the fact that swamps arenot prime real estate or agricultural land.Uplands were developed leaving richblack ash, tamarack, and cedar swamps,undeveloped but not untouched.Tamarack and cedar were heavilyexploited during settlement for railroadties and rot-resistant building materials –while ash was “good firewood.”In addition, Minnesota’s tamarackpopulation was devastated by Europeanlarch sawflies between 1900 and 1950.Apparently, Minnesota’s rich swampforests with ash were left alone, and manywith tamarack and cedar have succeededto pure ash. In recent times, tamarackand cedar have shown little natural abilityto regenerate in rich swamps.GLOSSARYmonotypic: Referring toconservation biology andsuccessional changes leading toa single species.9