Oak trees are the kings of Connecticut forests
Oaks — whether red, white, black or scarlet — are hardwood royalty in Connecticut forests.
No other tree sustains such a variety of wildlife — from birds to snakes, lizards to squirrels and deer, butterflies to black bears.
They can be Methuselahs, living for hundreds of years. The famed Connecticut charter oak — our state tree, the white oak — was nearing 1,000 years old when a storm finally took it down in 1856.
Their leaves sequester carbon dioxide and the dead leaves — leaf litter — replenishes the soil.
Which is why Doug Tallamy thinks people should think of them as trees that can grace front yards, as well as back-forty woodlots.
“The oaks is at the top of the list of trees in our landscape,” Tallamy said last week in a Zoom talk with the Aspetuck Land Trust.
Tallamy, who lives in Pennsylvania, is a professor of entomology and wildlife ecology at the University of Delaware. He has increasingly turned his attention to the superiority of native trees and shrubs to promoting biodiversity, compared to ornamentals that sit and do nothing for the environment.
In his latest book is “The Nature of Oaks,” Tallamy studied a year in the life of an oak in his yard and all the benefits that ensue.
People who know oaks agree. Eugene Reelick, owner of the Hollandia Nursery in Bethel, said he sells seven or eight species of young oaks.
“I love them,” Reelick said. “They’re beautiful and they add so much to the environment.”
Jeff Ward, a forester with the Connectiut Agricultural
In todays’ forests, there are more red maples in Connecticut woods than any other species. But in terms of overall importance, the oak family “blows away everybody else,” Ward said . ... A mature oak will throw off 3 million acorns in its lifetime. Those acorns feed a host of creatures, from scurrying chipmunks to trotting turkeys to squawking blue jays to acorn weevils.
Experiment Station in New Haven, said that oaks have always been a part of the state’s landscape.
“They’ve been a predominant species since forever,’’ Ward said
In todays’ forests, there are more red maples in Connecticut woods than any other species. But in terms of overall importance, the oak family “blows away everybody else,” Ward said, making up about 40 percent of the state forest biomass.
Oaks really took over in Connecticut around the turn of the last century, when clear-cutting for charcoal, forest fires and the demise of the American chestnut suddenly opened up the woods. Oak seedlings, which need a lot of sunlight to succeed, grew aplenty without a heavy forest canopy to stunt them.
“You can see a lot of big oaks around,’’ said Sean McNamara, owner of Redding Nursery. “There’s a massive one near my parents’ house.’’
Oak seedlings do most of their early growing under the ground, establishing a good root system.
“When they’re young, they grow a root the size of a carrot,’’ said Ward of the agricultural experiment station.
But once established, they take off. Tallamy said the oak that’s the subject of his book has grown to be 45 feet tall in 18 years.
And they give back. Tallamy said a mature oak will throw off 3 million acorns in its lifetime. Those acorns feed a host of creatures, from scurrying chipmunks to trotting turkeys to squawking blue jays to acorn weevils.
“They even feed wood ducks,” Tallamy said. “Wood ducks will dive to eat the acorns that fall into the water.”
They’re also a tree that, in winter, holds onto its leaves longer than maples of hickories. Those dry leaves provide birds a sheltering screen from the wind.
Throughout the year, Tallamy said, there is insect life on oaks. Even in winter, chickadees and titmice hop along oak tree branches finding dormant caterpillars. On the ground, its leaf litter is home to thousands of nematodes, mites and springtails.
As the year progresses, beetles, spiders, and gall wasps and newly-hatched all call oaks their home. Migrant warblers time their arrivals to feast on them.
Tom Philbrick, professor of biology and environmental science at Western Connecticut State University in Danbury, said wherever there are surfaces, insects gather.
“Trees are a biosphere unto themselves,’’ he said.
Tallamy said people don’t think of oak trees as something they can plant — they’re too big, too slowgrowing. If they fall on the house, they’ll wreck it.
But Tallamy said, there are excellent smaller oak species that offer all the benefits without gigantic worries.
And with the world entering its sixth great period of extinction, he said, people have to think of their entire yards as living places supporting biodiversity rather than just lawns and azaleas.
“I don’t like the term ‘backyard habitat,’” Tallamy said, “because it doesn’t speak of what you do with your front yard.’’