Last Saturday, April 27th, a small group of folks, organized by George Waegell, went out to Morrison Creek to try to rescue the oaks from voles. They used pruning shears and saws to remove the lowest branches on a bunch of oak trees planted by George over the past 5+ years. George estimates he planted tons of acorns from which 250 trees emerged. These trees grew to an impressive size. But in 2010, there was a surge in the vole population and they damaged or killed about 150 of these trees.
How do voles damage trees?
If the branches of oak and others trees are low to the ground, voles will use the branches to climb up on the tree and eat its bark. If the tree is girdled, it will die. Some just become deformed and their growth is stunted. The 2 pictures below illustrate what occurred in one area along Morrison Creek. Note how there are fewer oaks in the middle portion of the creek in the picture in 2012 than in 2010. It should be the other way around – greater tree canopy in 2012 than in 2010. But the voles got to the trees.
There is a relatively simple solution to keep the voles out of the trees – remove the lowest branches so the voles can’t climb them in the first place. Doing this by hand is slow-going. On the first oak preservation effort on April 27, only a small number of trees were pruned. A second outing is planned in the near future that will utilize power tools (hedge trimmers, chain saws, etc.). A tentative date of Saturday May 11th has been planned to finish the job. In addition to pruning the trees, the trees will be wrapped with blue mylar to keep the critters away.
Save the date – May 11. We’ll be sending out more details soon.