Tree Tuesday: White spruce, right spruce, light spruce

Saturday walk: The Trees of Mount Royal in Winter (details at end)

The light was gorgeous this past Saturday when I was up skiing with friends on the mountain where I took this pic. We’re on the ski trail that leads to the cross, on the summit of Mount Royal. My first intention in taking this pic was to show you how roughly one of four of these white spruce trees has an orange circle around it meaning that it is slated to be cut down. These spruce were planted in the thousands in 1961 after mont Chauve, or Bald Mountain, as poor Mount Royal had been dubbed, was suffering serious erosion caused by wind and water. Why Bald Mountain?

In 1954, following complaints from citizens about the behaviour, “pas catholiques,” of    fellow citizens under the cover of the Mount Royal forest, Mayor Jean Drapeau opted for the radical solution — literally — to remove the understory species and leave only the oldest trees. Result: no roots left to hold the earth that holds the water: Result: great loss of biomass that both contributed organic matter to the earth and acted as a windbreak preventing the wind from whisking away the soil. (This photo below is from 1964.)

Seven years later, the city had to replace the radicals, radix being the Latin word for root, and more than 30,000 white spruce were planted. Today, less than a third of those trees remain but anywhere you find them, on the summit, in the swampy area just to the north of the McGill University residences, on the steep cliffs of the escarpment, you can imagine what went on 50 years ago, and  you can also see that most of them aren’t thriving.

While white spruce might have been native to the rockier and sunnier parts of the mountain, it would never have grown in such numbers, nor in pure stands. In fact, pure stands of conifers rarely exist in the maple – hickory forest; only fire could create the necessary conditions! Similar terrain at the summits of Mont St-Hilaire, for instance, include red oak, white pine, mountain ash, birch, striped maple, hawthorn and a wide variety of understory species including blueberries, meadow-sweet and rock ferns. (Some of these species we’ll see this Saturday.)

Given the lamentable state of many of the spruce found in stands, it seems clear that it was not the right tree for the right spot. There are, however, numerous examples of healthy, thriving white spruce, mixed in with other trees and not so exposed to the wind and sun. In such situations, no only can white spruce be the right spruce but, in winter, cloaked in snow, it’s the bright spruce. For it’s a wonderful aspect of all evergreens in winter that by virtue of holding the snow, they radiate light, even on an overcast day.

Why did J.J. Dumont, former City of Montreal forestry engineer, chose white spruce back in 1961? Mostly, it seems, because there were thousands available in the provincial government nurseries for reforestation. Of course, the government most likely had in mind the reforestation of the boreal forest where, along with black spruce, the white spruce is one of the dominant trees. The other reason was that the tree would rapidly create a windbreak, allowing the other species to recover.

By 1991, however, Dumont could see that a different strategy was necessary and since that time, reforestation has consisted of replicating the original forest. White pine (pin blanc), for instance, is the conifer of choice for the rockier and sunnier areas, while hemlock (pruche), for instance, is planted in shadier areas with richer and moister soil. (See City landscape architect for Mount Royal Daniel Chartier’s paper on subject.)

The white pine, majestic and striking as it is, tends to outshine the more commonplace spruce, a long-time workhorse species in Canadian forestry, fodder for the paper mills and construction industry. Yet, the white spruce is a stunningly beautiful tree when left to reach its full stature and its wood useful for more than fibre and structure. In fact, there’s a magnificent specimen, standing alongside a Colorado blue spruce, to the right of the Smith House. Beneath that tree’s grey, scaly bark, is wood of great sonority, making it the choice for piano soundboards. Beneath the ground, lie the white spruce’s roots, long, tough and sufficiently pliable to have been used to stitch together the birch-bark canoes of First Nations peoples across the country.

In many ways, the white spruce has supported the development of this country. So, it’s fitting that, in its honour, the supporting beams of the Tree House at the Botanical Gardens are made of laminated white spruce.

Meet the white spruce and numerous other members of the Mount Royal Forest:

when: Saturday, February 28, 10h – 14h

where: Georges-Etienne Cartier monument

bring: a lunch, we’ll stop at the chalet

cost: contribution for tree list