Down in the Birch Grove

When I first moved to Lincolnville, the apple trees I’d planted were still small and there was not much happening otherwise. According to common practice around here, I had the field mowed every year, but I never liked the indiscriminate action of the bushhogging machine. After a couple of years, I got some great advice from an Arborist - “why don’t you leave the field unmowed for a few years and see what comes up.” So I did, and the happy result is the birch grove.

These are grey birch, a first responder in disturbed areas and a short-lived species, 30 years or so. Speckled alders and, yes, multiflora rose, have also popped up as part of the mix. I have to be vigilant about what I leave and what I take out. In the beginning there were many more birches than you see here, and for a few years I thinned the grove to give the remaining ones room to breathe. When I walk there now, this time of year, I hear the sound of the creek running not far away, and the winter resident birds, cardinal, chickadee, and titmouse.

I’m designating the birches as one of the stopping points on walkabouts this summer because it will be entirely transformed then, dense with foliage, and I hope, some nesting sites. This will be one of the places I monitor more closely this year.