Superior National Forest Research Articles

Effect of Simulated and Natural Deer Browsing on Mountain Maple

This long-term study (1952-62) was made to measure the growth response of mountain maple (Acer spicatum) in Minnesota to different intensities of simulated and natural browsing by white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus). For the test clumps browsed by deer, the annual growth of twigs within reach of deer (ground level to 7 feet) was measured in late October and remeasured in late April to determine the amount removed. Similar information was obtained on test clumps within two exclosures. To simulate various intensities of browsing, the annual growth was clipped 20, 40, 60, 80, and 100 percent. The degree of browsing had no apparent direct effect on the amount of growth the following season; other environmental factors were more important. Tolerance of mountain maple to browsing was high, however, since only 1 of 6 clumps had died after 100 percent of the annual growth had been clipped for 9 years. Sustained production of food within reach of deer was maintained at a level of use of about 80 percent. Since clumps are established primarily by the growth of underground stems, opportunities for management by cutting or by the application of common weed killers are excellent. Long-term herd management is impossible unless the deer population can be held at a level that permits adequate growth and reproduction of browse species in winter yarding areas. Adjusting deer numbers to the amount of food produced has been difficult because little is known about the degree of browsing important forage plants can withstand and still remain in a healthy productive condition. The objective of this study was to determine the level of use of mountain maple that will stimulate maximum browse production on a sustained yield basis. Test clumps of mountain maple were subjected to simulated and natural browsing by white-tailed deer. Mountain maple is a preferred and staple browse species over much of its range in the lake states, northeastern United States, and southern Canada west to the prairie provinces (Krefting et al. 1956:434). In Minnesota, mountain maple is one of the more palatable and nutritious deer foods. Tests by Fashingbauer and Moyle (1963) have shown that mountain maple has no serious nutrient deficiencies for deer. Mountain maple grows in clumps and frequently reaches a height of 20 feet or more and a diameter of 3 inches. Studies of the structure of clumps and their regeneration characteristics show that clumps are separate (R. K. Seemel, 1963, unpublished report, School of Forestry, University of Minnesota). New clumps are established from underground stems. Sprouts are produced from the growth of axillary buds in these stems. Some regeneration results from layering; stems of seedling origin are rare. Mountain maple has medium moisture and nutrient requirements and low heat and light requirements (Bakuzis 1959, Bakuzis and Hansen 1962). The study was made within the 6,000acre Jonvik deer yard on the Superior National Forest in Cook County, Minnesota. Forest cover is chiefly pole-size balsam fir (Abies balsamea), white spruce (Picea glauca), and white cedar (Thuja occidentalis), with scattered paper birch (Betula papyrifera), black spruce (Picea mariana),

Intestinal Helminths of Fish from Basswood Lake, Superior National Forest, Minnesota

Intestinal Helminths of Fish from Basswood Lake, Superior National Forest, Minnesota

A Field Study of the Timber Wolf (Canis lupus) on the Superior National Forest, Minnesota

A Field Study of the Timber Wolf (Canis lupus) on the Superior National Forest, Minnesota

A Check-list of Ferns and Flowering Plants of the Quetico-Superior Wilderness Research Center

The Quetico-Superior Wilderness Research iCenter is at 91036-91041/ W. longitude and 480-4801' N. latitude, Basswood Lake, northwestern Lake County, Minnesota. In the Superior National Forest, approximately twenty miles from Ely and the nearest roads, it borders the southern edge of the Quetico Provincial Park, Ontario. Proximity map, Fig. 1. The vast territory of the Quetico-Superior area on the Canadian side is almost undisturbed by man. On the side of the United States, it was lumbered between 1885 and 1915, but since that time it has been free from destructive agencies and there remain isolated stands of virgin forest, such as the site of the Research Center. The Quetico-Superior Wilderness Research ,Center was conceived, estab-

White-Tailed Deer Bag Checks, Gegoka Management Unit, Superior National Forest

timber stands composed largely of aspen, birch, mature jack pine, and remnant stands of white and red pine. This habitat is typical of much of the forest in the surrounding region. Seven annual deer hunting checks have been made on the unit by state biologists and personnel of the U. S. Forest Service from 1942 to 1949; no check was made in 1945. Equipment for the e ection and maintenance of checking stations was furnished by the Forest Service.

Methods of Increasing Deer Browse

browsing by deer there has been little consideration of methods of increasing the food supply. The purpose of the present study was to determine how to increase the amount of browse by methods inducing sprouting and to evaluate the practicability of such methods. In several deer yards in the Superior National Forest, northeastern Minnesota, the area in which this study was conducted, overbrowsing is widespread and presents a major problem for foresters and game managers. Hill (1938) has summarized conditions on this forest by stating that 12,000 deer die every winter from malnutrition while only 4,000 are taken by hunters during the open

Klebsiella Paralytica: A New Pathogenic Bacterium from "Moose Disease"

During the summer of 1927 one of us, while traveling through the wilderness of southern Ontario, heard repeated reports and rumors of a mysterious disease which was afflicting the moose of the CanadianMinnesota country, especially that region to the south of the international boundary, the Superior National Forest. This disease, reported by trappers, wardens, rangers and natives generally, was rumored to attack moose and to result in death in some cases. Since this time, reports of the disease have greatly increased, and the number of moose reported dead of it has also greatly increased, culminating in the really astonishing number of thirty-two well authenticated deaths reported by wardens working out of the Winton, Minn., headquarters alone?this for the early spring of 1932. This writer, engaged in an ecological study of the moose and a study of its life history, became seriously interested in the disease in 1930, but as nothing definite was in evidence at that time, it was not until 1931 that the attack on the problem of the disease was undertaken.