NEBRASKAland Magazine is dedicated to outstanding photography and informative writing with an engaging mix of articles and photos highlighting Nebraska’s outdoor activities, parklands, wildlife, history and people.
Issue link: http://mag.outdoornebraska.gov/i/725550
OCTOBER 2016 • NEBRASKAland 31 Nebraska National Forest in Thomas County near Halsey. The 94,000- acre district is mostly Sandhills, but contains the largest hand-planted forest in the country. In the southwestern corner of the forest, about 20 scrubby aspens, none much more than 10 feet tall or 6 inches in diameter, grow on a north-facing dune. Cattle graze the pasture, but there is regeneration among the stand, with both suckers and young trees present. A similar stand grows on another north-facing slope on private land west of the forest, but has been is declining since deep ruts left by grazing cattle severed the clones' roots. Schenbeck stumbled on the stand while conducting grouse research in the 1980s. "I was really surprised," he said. "That's the first one that I even knew about in the Sandhills." Cuttings from one of these stands are believed to have been used to start another near the forest's main campground. On the Valentine National Wildlife Refuge, there are two stands of aspens. One grows on a flat right to the edge of a marsh near Watts Lake, with two thick stands of small, straight stems, and some larger ones between, the largest of which is about 20 feet tall. The other grows at the base of a south- facing dune on the edge of the Dewey Marsh, with about 80 trees, all 15 to 20 feet in height but of varying age. Other stands of quaking aspens have been recorded in the Nebraska State Museum from Blaine, Colfax, Holt, Richardson and Thurston counties. The latter was collected in 1944 along a stream that once appeared on maps as Aspen Creek. None are believed to be alive today, presumably lost to pressure from other tree species and agriculture. The stand in Colfax County grew next to a spring-fed creek in a draw near Leigh. In the 1970s, the late Allen Wilke, a nurseryman from Columbus, took cuttings from the stand, which wasn't far from the farm where he grew up. His son, Evan, visited the stand about 30 years ago. "The trees were probably a foot in diameter and 40 feet tall," he said. "There was a grove of quite a few of them on the east-facing bank of the ravine where they didn't get the hot afternoon exposure." A single standing trunk is all that remains of the stand, but those cuttings Wilke and others propagated are now sold as Prairie Gold Aspen and now grow in yards, parks and acreages across the country (see sidebar on Page 27). There are other odd aspen stands in pastures in Cherry and Sheridan counties. There are likely more on private land in the Sandhills and Pine Ridge and elsewhere that have gone unnoticed or unreported. "Each stand is unique and they've evolved to fit the geology and geography of the area," McIntosh said. Like most, Robert Kaul, Curator and Research Professor in the botany division at the University of Nebraska State Museum, assumes that most of Nebraska's aspens are Ice Age relicts that have "just hung on for about 10,000 years after the ice melted." But he also wonders if the stands scattered in the Sandhills may have grown from seeds that blew in during one of several occasions during that period when the dunes were actively shifting. "But you know, nobody has any real data on that. It's just a guess," Kaul said. There may soon be some data to back up the theory, at least for the aspens at Smith Falls. Deacon said the researchers involved in the University of Minnesota study hope analysis of cuttings taken from hybrid aspens at Smith Falls and from bigtooth and quaking aspen stands across Nebraska as well as on the edges of their ranges in South Dakota, Iowa, Minnesota and Wisconsin will reveal when the hybridization occurred, something that is believed to have happened when the species' ranges overlapped during the Ice Age. Time Will Tell How long Nebraska's aspens will persist is anyone's guess. Across the West, foresters have been noting the decline of aspens for decades, pointing to reduced fire frequency and heavy browsing by elk, deer and other large ungulates. Others say the species expanded with the logging that followed settlement and is simply returning to its pre-settlement level. In recent years, however, the widespread, rapid dieback of aspens, something foresters have dubbed Sudden Aspen Decline, has taken a larger toll. Foresters theorize that widespread drought stressed trees, making them vulnerable to pathogens and insects. Affected stands don't seem to be regenerating through shoots like healthy aspen clones normally do. With warmer, dryer weather predicted as climate change progresses, some worry the die-off will continue and worsen. The University of Minnesota study is testing theories on both aspen species and the Smith Falls hybrid in their greenhouses in St. Paul. "So the question is, are all of these things just hanging on and maybe on their way out, as some people think, as the climate warms?" Kaul said. Time will tell. But they are unique enough that some will continue to sustain the few stands there are in Nebraska. And maybe, since they've made it this far, they will continue to provide a golden splash of color to the landscape each fall. ■ (Left) A fallen aspen leaf rests on a rotting log in a spring-branch canyon at Smith Falls State Park. (Above) The white bark of a quaking aspen growing near West Ash Creek in the Pine Ridge carries black scars from injuries. PHOTO BY JUSTIN HAAG PHOTO BY ERIC FOWLER