An 8/4, Kiln Dried Podcast

Buckeye Wood is Grey and Burl-tastic

My featured species this episode is Buckeye. Its a non commercial species but not terribly hard to find and has some unique color and high propensity to form burls. But the real meat of this show is a look at how a forest regenerates after a disturbance like a fire or logging. The successional forest model helps us understand how forestry managers can foster a healthy forest through logging. But then we look at how bugs and blights can disrupt the succession model even further.

Lumber Industry News

Featured Species: Ohio Buckeye

Aesculus glabra or Ohio Buckeye is one of a few Buckeye species across the Midwest of the US as well as in California.  It is the lightest of North American hardwoods and when freshly milled, really unremarkable.  It is a uniform yellow beige with little to no grain contrast.  Similar to Basswood.  But much like Holly, it quickly begins to stain due to enzymatic reaction to have grey streaks.  Most Buckeye sold today is sold for the staining that gives it a unique appearance.

It is a very soft wood running on the Janka scale from low 300s up to 700 for the Ohio variety and the low density does make it fuzz up on you if you don't have very sharp tools.  The real winner for this species is how readily it forms burls with deep yellow and grey and garnet eyes.  I once turned a pen from it that reminded me of Van Gogh's "Starry Night".  The market for Buckeye is primarily for the burls and as such you will mostly find it in smaller craft sizes like knife scales or bowl and pen blanks.  But slabs are starting to show up and even burl slices large enough for coffee tables.

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Forest regrowth

Secondary succession is the term used to describe when a forest has to regrow from a disturbance like fire or heavy logging.  Clear cutting is still a valid logging method but only when the successional model for the species in play warrants it.  In the example discussed in this episode I talk about a northern Michigan hardwood forest.  But this could be any hardwood forest in North America frankly.  The specific region will determine which species will be in the mix as they all contribute to the seed stock of the process.  

First your pioneer species show up and sprout like mad from existing stump stock and the soil.  These are sun loving trees and their saplings will dominate the open field left behind.  With some variance on climate and species, those pioneer species can close off the canopy in 10-15 years.  Some species will dominate and crowd out the other pioneers and in this particular case, the Ash saplings rule the day.  

Meanwhile while the dominant pioneer specie/s soak up the sun in the 15 year old canopy, the shade tolerant trees start their slower push to the sky in the understory.  After about 50-75 years we see those shade tolerant species begin to reach the canopy and start to compete with the pioneer species who are now mature and in some cases even reaching old age.  The heartier shade trees compete and win against the pioneers and at about year 100 we start to reach the climax forest now dominated by Maples and Beeches which can persist indefinitely.  

I take a look however at other disrupters, specifically the Emerald Ash borer and how that can dramatically change the early development of the forest by wiping out the Ash saplings.  It bumps up the timeline to canopy closure and allows a wider variety of species into the game as pioneers.  But in the end we find the same composition of climax forest at about the same timespan.

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