A Changing Urban Forest

Observation: We moved to Otter Street in the summer of 1965. I have walked this area almost every day since. In those days there was no Baxter Road and no Foothill development. This was the outskirts of Anchorage, and there was Nunaka Valley over the hill, some homes north of16th Avenue and just four houses at the very end of Otter Street, built on the homestead of Marshall Lovett. It had a lot of bog area good berry picking in mixed birch, poplar and spruce forest.

Cheney Lake was not even a lake yet, but rather a gravel pit, the source for much of the gravel for the Minnesota Bypass.The gravel removal started on the south side of the lake and at some point, as the equipment moved, they struck some springs on the north side of the lake. Then the pit filled with water. There were no trees around the lake but slowly the poplars began to grow and now there is a tall forest of them all long the east side. The forest behind is more mature, mixed spruce, birch and some tall old poplars. It has been 50 years now and what we would expect is that some day the lake area would be the same.

In September of 2012 a big windstorm out of the east, knocked hundreds of trees over and snapped quite a few poplars off at mid height. In these areas the trees are starting over again and there is opportunity for new trees. Interestingly, it is not the spruce and birch which seem to have the upper hand. Many of the young trees are instead ornamentals, like the ones planted in the lakeside subdivision. I am surprised they are growing so well, better it seems then the birch or spruce. The mayday trees and mountain ash are popping up everywhere. Whether it is the soil or the mild weather and long winter, I don't know. But this forest is changing, and it looks like the mature trees will soon be introduced ornamentals. From it days as a gravel pit, Cheney Lake has grown into a very beautiful and special place. But here in this little park, the seed of a new kind of forest in Anchorage. I wonder about the effects. I worry about the moose.

LEO says: There has been quite a bit in the press about the impacts of Mayday trees and other ornamentals in Anchorage and other parts of Alaska. See some of the resources below. This observation has been forwarded to the UAF Cooperative Extension Service.

Media:

(2016-07-14) KTUU News, – Mayday trees taking over Alaska's forest, "A harmful invasive species of tree is taking over Alaska's forest." by Blake Essig

(2011-02-16) Alaska Dispatch News – The Secret Killer in Your Garden, "Somebody is poisoning the moose of Anchorage." by Rick Sinnott

Resource:

Cooperative Extension Service – Invasive Alert! - European Bird Cherry Prunus padus, Alternate Names: Chokecherry, Mayday tree, Biology & Invasive Potential (.pdf brochure)

Cooperative Extension Service – Invasive Garden Species: Don't Plant a Problem "Plants become invasive when they threaten wild areas by displacing native vegetation and destroying wildlife habitat." Source: University of Alaska Fairbanks