baumzaehlen - Primeval Forests & Their Trees

Quetico (4760 km ² ) and the adjacent Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness (BWCAW, 4400 km ² ) across the border in Minnesota together form a huge protected area. Thousands of clean-water lakes, lovely small rivers, no motorboats, no cottages and no logging – a canoeist’s paradise! After a long battle, a logging ban came into effect in 1973 in Quetico ¹ and in 1978 in the BWCAW ² . 1500–2000 km ² of virgin forest remained in Quetico ³ and 1520 km ² in the BWCAW ⁴ . Unfortunately, there is no map of the virgin forest areas of Quetico, the earlier logged areas being apparently not documented well enough, but a 971 km ² tract ⁵ known as Hunter Island (not a true island) is almost totally untouched ³ . For the BWCAW there are accurate maps of unlogged areas. Much of the land had probably not even been penetrated by indigenous people, for their numbers were small and they stayed close to the water routes ⁶ .

The park lies at approx. 400 metres of elevation on the Canadian Shield. In the majority of Quetico, the bedrock is granitic, and soils thin and low in nutrients; consequently, the productivity is low. There are small areas of metamorphic, sedimentary and volcanic rocks; forests on these bedrocks are more productive and diverse. Average annual precipitation is 744 mm and average annual temperature 2.0°C. ⁵

The park is in the transitional zone between the temperate deciduous forests to the south and the boreal forests to the north but so close to the northern limit of the zone that the vegetation is overwhelmingly boreal in nature ⁷ . However, there are southern elements, more or less rare, which point to the temperate zone, like Acer (maples), Quercus (oaks), Fraxinus pennsylvanica (red ash), Populus grandidentata (large-tooth aspen) and Betula alleghaniensis (yellow birch). Pinus banksiana (jack pine) is the most important tree, followed by Picea mariana (black spruce) ⁷ . Populus tremuloides (quaking aspen) and Betula papyrifera (paper birch) are very abundant, too ⁵ . Pinus strobus (eastern white pine) and Pinus resinosa (red pine) often grow on the shorelines, therefore appearing to a paddler to be more abundant than is actually the case ⁵ . Together these species comprise about 8% of the forested areas ⁷ but about 25% prior to logging and fire suppression (the best P. strobus – P. resinosa forests were logged first) ² . Treed bogs are dominated by P. mariana ⁵ . In all, there are more than 30 tree species ⁷ . Most are easy to identify but e.g. Sorbus americana (American mountain-ash) and S. decora (showy mountain-ash) may be difficult to tell apart.

The natural fire cycle is approx. 70–80 years ⁵ . Between 1940 and 1976, the period of effective fire suppression, there were very few fires ¹ . Today, some fires initiated by lightning are allowed to burn; the estimated fire interval today is about 300 years ⁵ . Running crown fires, which burned the most area before fire suppression, are not allowed to develop ² . Due to the scarcity of wildfires in recent decades, shade-tolerant and fire-sensitive Abies balsamea (balsam fir) is now very common in the understory ² . All the main tree species are well-adapted to fires: P. banksiana and P. mariana have serotinous cones, which shed their seeds after fire has killed the parent trees, producing extremely dense regeneration, P. tremuloides reproduce prolifically from root suckers, B. papyrifera sprouts from stumps and reproduce from light seeds ⁸ , and P. strobus and P. resinosa have fire-resistant bark ² .

Apart from a few short ones at the northern boundary, there are no hiking trails, most of the park being accessible only by canoe. Hiking in the forest is hard: in older forests there is dense A. balsamea regeneration almost everywhere, fallen trunks derived from post-fire dense P. banksiana and P. mariana regeneration are numerous and bogs are common, too. The heaviest use is in the southern sector by American canoeists arriving directly from the BWCAW; in the north, the heaviest use is in the sector accessible from French Lake ⁵ . Almost nobody goes from the shorelines far into the forest. The period with the heaviest use is July 25 to August 15 ⁹ . Compared to the BWCAW, Quetico is somewhat wilder with no hunting, more fires in the 1900’s ² , more stringent quotas, no latrines, no fire grates and no designated campsites ¹ . In contrast to the BWCAW, camping is allowed anywhere in Quetico. Although motor vehicles are prohibited in the park, you cannot escape motor noise: a lot of scheduled flights go over the park and at least in the summer peak period there are many small aircraft, too (landing is prohibited).

References:

1 Nelson, J. (2009): Quetico, Near to Nature’s Heart. Natural Heritage Books.

2 Heinselman, M. (1996): The Boundary Waters wilderness ecosystem. University of Minnesota Press.

3 Frelich, L. Pers. comm. (2008)

4 Frelich, L. (1995): Old Forest in the Lake States Today and Before European Settlement. Natural Areas Journal 15 : 157-67.

5 Quetico Background Information. 2007. Ontario Parks.

6 Ahlgren , C. & Ahlgren , I. (1984): Lob Trees in the Wilderness. University of Minnesota Press.

7 Walshe, S. (1980): Plants of Quetico and the Ontario Shield. University of Toronto Press.

8 Agee, J. K. (1998): Fire and pine ecosystems. In Richardson, D. M. (ed.): Ecology and Biogeography of Pinus . Cambridge University Press.

9 Clark, J., Canoe Canada Outfitters. Pers. comm. (2013)

Official site:

http://www.ontarioparks.com/park/quetico