Ecoservices of Urban Forests

· There are six known species of oak trees ((Quercus) in the Urban Forest of Springside Park: White Oak, Chestnut White Oak, Scarlet Oak, Black Oak, Pin Oak and Northern Red Oak, out of the 10 known species of oaks in Massachusetts. These oak species constitute more than 75% by volume of the Urban Forest Community totaling over 200 acres.

This forest floor of the oak-hickory community (a humus duff composed of high tannic and lignin chemicals resistant to quick decomposition) acts like a durable soil sponge for rainfall precipitation, infiltration, water absorption, water capillary percolation and transmission into the sub-aqueous soil aquifers and bedrock aquifers. (Sweeney and Blaine, 2016) On average, one acre of oak-hickory forest floor like that in the Urban Forest floor of Springside Park absorbs as much as 54,000 gallons of water from a two inch rainfall! (The Nature of Oaks, Douglas Tallamy, 2021)

· This thick humus forest floor mat of the oak-hickory forest also acts as a mitigating speed brake for sudden extreme weather events from 100 year storms, “rainbombs” thunderstorms to hurricane or cyclone storm surges and rising ocean levels due to glacial melting from climate change. The oak hickory forest dense humus floor prevents sudden local flooding that creates hazardous gullying, road washouts and building foundation undermining. The dense soil layers are highly resistant to powerful water erosion. Mountain biking trail erosion and trail compaction destroys the ability of forest soils to provide that protection.

· Water filtration by the oak-hickory forest floor also purifies the soil and bedrock groundwater table by removing excess nitrogen and phosphorus from nearby lawn fertilizer runoff leachate before it reaches nearby aquatic systems like wetlands or streams creating harmful algal blooms (HAB) and premature aquatic plant eutrophication of lakes and ponds. (Sweeney and Newbold 2014)

· The oak-hickory urban forest of Springside Park is a key natural watershed management tool because it works as a precipitation speed bump and buffer through the thick interception of the oak leaves that interrupt rainfall. As much as 3,000 gallons of water are caught by the leaves of one single oak tree annually before it even reaches the ground. (The Nature of Oaks, Douglas W. Tallamy, 2021)

· The many eco-services of this oak-hickory forest floor water conservatory in the Urban Forest of Springside Park includes the vital retention of forest soil moisture during periods of severe drought when rainfall is minimal or sparse. Much of the Northeast including New York and Massachusetts (a D2 drought emergency was declared in Massachusetts in 2020) is suffering from increasing periods of snow and rainfall drought because of altered weather patterns caused by climate change. The precipitation catchment basin at the center of Springside Park which is surrounded by an oak hickory urban forest provides underground groundwater channels feeding into the general Pittsfield aquifer connecting the Upper Housatonic Watershed, not to mention the Springside Park “springs,” seeps, wetlands and streams of the entire urban forest ecosystem. The regular spring snowmelt recharge is now very minimal with the declining snowfall and snowpack on the Berkshire Hills. Therefore, the oak-hickory urban forest of Springside Park’s eco-service role of atmospheric water creation, retention, conservation and groundwater table replenishment recharge is indispensable for Berkshire County and the Commonwealth during the climate crisis emergency we are all experiencing.

· The ecological contribution of the oak leaves that slowly break down and feeds stream and pond plants, micro-fauna/flora and invertebrates with biodegradable organic matter is another benefit of the oak-hickory forest floor leaf decay, decomposition and biologic recycling. (The Nature of Oaks, Douglas W. Tallamy, 2021)

· The principal three layered synergistic hydrologic interfaces of 1) the underground limestone/marble bedrock aquifer, 2) hydric or mesic soils maintained water retention capabilities through the “sponge” like water trapping infiltration characteristics of the oak-hickory forest floor (a thick persistent humus soil layer) and 3)- the natural urban forest climate creation feedback mechanism of the forest tree leaves (respiration, transpiration and photosynthesis) part of the systemic precipitation catchment basin in the middle of Springside Park, creates a renewable, replenishing, seasonal, annual and daily recharge for the entire wetland complex of the Urban Forest in Springside Park, the ground water table of the surrounding neighborhoods, surface water bodies and the branching bedrock hydraulic conduits that supply the water resources of the Upper Housatonic Watershed, the Pittsfield Aquifer, and groundwater tables of Berkshire County.

· The 200 acre oak hickory urban forest of Springside Park is also an invaluable carbon sequestration resource for Berkshire County and the Commonwealth that locks away thousands of pounds of atmospheric carbon dioxide every year and is thus a vital natural eco-service in the fight against climate change. Oaks are superior to other deciduous trees in carbon capture because they utilize mycorrhizal soil fungi which produces glomalin; a stable glycoprotein that traps C02 and gives the soil around the roots of oaks its characteristic dark color. One pound of glomalin produced by one single oak tree is one less pound of C02 warming the atmosphere. It should be noted that the C02 molecule, the major greenhouse gas responsible for anthropogenic global warming that has resulted in a 1.2 degree rise in global air temperatures since the Industrial Revolution (420 ppm currently and resultant worldwide climate change) can persist for as long as a 1,000 years. Glomalin however, produced by the interaction of mycorrhizal soil bacteria and oak roots can also last for hundreds or even thousands of years and is the perfect forest carbon sink resource for Berkshire County and the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.

Oak trees are by far the best natural atmospheric C02 scrubbing agents in the temperate zone of the northern hemisphere and their dark dense wood is proof positive of their C02 trapping abilities. Both the leaves of oaks and the roots are the dual agents of C02 capture and serve as enduring natural agents in the fight against climate change. Specifically, slower growing oaks are ideal for long term carbon sequestration as opposed to the faster growing short lived trees such as maples, birches, ash or popular which are quickly harvested in the deforestation and lumbering processes that removes them from their crucial C02 trapping role.

The tragic loss of millions of acres of oak hickory forest in the U.S. since European settlement is a catastrophic loss of this natural solution against climate change.

POLLINATOR SANCTUARY

The rising sun in the east over the slumbering urban forest cast the first soft rays of sunlight onto the meadows and fields which glistened with the dew of an early summer transfiguration. The wavering song of a wood thrush, an ethereal welcome to the new day, carried forth out of the deeper oak hickory woods only a few steps away from the goldenrod and milkweed and thistle now touched by the tentative shafts of sunshine in waking, but still mostly silent Berkshire woods.

I quietly closed my car door and softly stepped into a New England dawn whispering of peace, tranquility and the vastness of a country meadow lush with the complex weave of high grasses and flowering plants of a critical Berkshire Urban Forest ecosystem snugly nestled in the heart of Pittsfield. This urban green space providing the air, moisture and bio-sequestration to a western Berkshire city was a slumbering grassland sea beneath cool opening skies. I looked over the wetland next to me over the still leaves of the willows and saw the rising dawn had already touched its eager fingers onto the far western hills of the Taconic Mountains in nearby New York.

The North Access Road branching off of North Street into Springside Park through the scrub-shrub wetland past the old ball-field led me to these meadows revealed delicate early summer wildflowers glistening in the morning dew. The tiny blue flowers of chicory, (whose roots were once a substitute for coffee in WW2) and the white discs of daisies nodded were the first tints of color in this green carpet followed by purple clover, white clover, milkweed, yellow vetch, buttercups and violets thickly tangled by green wands of timothy, panic grass, sedges, and foxtail grass. Each meadow plant has a name and a place here which feed the many birds and insects that call it home. Rising stalks of goldenrod, thistle, the broad leaves of milkweed, Evening Primrose, the bristly canes of raspberry and blackberry, the creeping vines of the five leaved Virginia creeper and cypress spurge all made a green web of interlocking leaves soaked in the morning gifts of a Berkshire dawn. Some of the flowers already had scores of butterflies, bees, wasps, and other insects visiting them in their tireless quest for nectar and pollen.

This 40 acres section of open field and meadow in Springside Park is a crucial pollinator sanctuary and pollinator highway for a myriad of insects that included over 12 families of butterflies with beauties like the Painted Lady, The Monarch Butterfly, Tiger Swallowtails, Meadow Fritillary, Hairstreaks, Sulfurs, Buckeyes, Blues, Coppers, Red and White Admirals, Mourning Cloak, Wood Satyrs and Skippers.

Some species like the milkweed dependent monarch are summertime visitors laying their eggs on the milkweed as part of their life cycle and their 3,000 mile annual migration saga that stretches across the continent all the way to Baja, California and Mexico where they take a winter’s rest among the evergreens in uncounted millions. Milkweed is a vital plant for the monarch now threatened with extinction along with many of the other insect species in the insect apocalypse now sweeping the world. The IUCN, (International Union for the Conservation of Nature) has documented an annual world- wide decline of insects approaching 0.9% from the loss of natural habitat due to agriculture and pesticide use like Roundup with its toxic chemical glyphosate. The monarch butterfly is often seen in the meadow sipping the nectar from the milkweed’s purple blossoms accompanied by millions of other butterfly and insects flitting about in the flowering bounty about them. The devastating habitat loss of milkweed and the use of lethal pesticides like Round Up resulted in a steadily shrinking monarch population now estimated at only 5 million individuals.

Other butterflies visit this pollinator paradise at the center of Springside Park’s Urban Forest, like the equally migratory Tiger Swallowtail, whose yellow and black wings are a common sight among the daisies and waving sprays of goldenrod decorating the late summer and early fall meadow flower landscape. The swallowtail species of the family Papilonidae (the word “Papillion” means butterfly in French) are numerous and conspicuous in colorful variety like the black winged Spicebush Swallowtail, (Papillio troilus) which lays its eggs on the spicebush and its muddy pool assemblies are notable in the cool nearby woods. Occasionally, the Giant Swallowtail and Zebra Swallowtails can be seen landing on the goldenrod and daisies of the fields. The tiny flitting and elfin dances of the blues, like the Spring Azure measuring less than an inch in size, the Northern Blue or the little orange coppers in the sub-family Lycaeninae (American Copper, Bronze Coppers) perform nimble butterfly ballets alighting, darting and weaving amongst the tangle of unfolding green leaves and flowers of the central meadows and fields of Springside Park. The quick aerial scamper of brown skippers (family Hesperiidae) like the “Whirlabout” or the “Broken Dash” named for their flying acrobatics or patterns on their wings are all participants in summer long flower fueled voyages around the numerous flowers and plants of this critical ecosystem. The common Dogface Sulfur, named for the” dog face” on its forewing border and other sulfur species all make daily appearances amongst the flowers of the field.

I say critical ecosystem because without this pollinator meadow with its teeming numbers and the varied food sources for the songbirds, invertebrates and other wildlife the entire food web of the urban forest would collapse. The flowering plants of the meadow provide crucial food support and breeding habitat for dozens of butterfly species, but the seed food base of the grasses in the fall and winter is essential for many migrating and resident bird species too. The seeds of the meadow grasses like timothy, peppergrass, panic grass, sedges, like Carex, bulrushes, smartweed (Polygonium), plantain, wild rice, Fall Witch-Grass, dock or Green Amaranth and even the lowly crabgrass all provide a regular food resource indispensable for sparrows, goldfinches, (the milkweed pod seed fluff they use to make nest lining) and grassland bird species like blackbirds, meadowlarks, bobolinks, (both critically threatened from habitat loss) plus jays and crows.

I would be remiss if I did not mention the other numerous insect species that make this meadow ecosystem vital to the urban forest surrounding it, such as the honeybees and bumblebees and flower bees, wasps, hornets, ants and beetles or bugs that pollinate the flowers of flowering shrubs in the pollinator sanctuary. The white blossoms of wild apple, flowering pears, hawthorns and the nearby residential gardens are direct beneficiaries of the pollinator insects frequenting the multi-colored abundance. Whole communities of plant dependent and interdependent insects flourish in these meadow plants like the milkweed beetle, assassin bugs, flies, midges, gall wasps (which lay eggs in goldenrod stems), ants, spittlebugs, (named for the whitish spittle they excrete to protect themselves from predators), grasshoppers, crickets, moths, beetles, aphids, dragonflies and damselflies and hundreds of others. Predator and prey species co-habit these worlds unseen by passerby walking through the meadows and fields. The milkweed for example is a micro-niche and an ecosystem in itself with insects using its flowers and leaves for food and cover such as the Small Milkweed Bug, Harlequin Bug, Ambush Bug, plant-hoppers, aphids, monarch caterpillars, ants, flower bees, wasps and hornets honeybees, bumblebees many others of the order Hymenoptera or “membrane winged” insects. In short, the constellation of insect genera in these meadows and fields reflects the growing variety of plants that ebb and flow with the season as each month brings out new flowers and new food sources for the cresting wave of insect pollinators to use.

Into this weave and woof of rising green stalks and leaves were also the little trails and paths followed by the white-footed mouse, the meadow vole, woodchuck, skunk, deer, muskrat, turtle and the other wildlife hidden between the dense leafy shadows. Their homes of burrow and grass roofed runways was a Hobbit world invisible to our eyes. The secret garden uplifted by the sun and rain and warming earth in this meadow I walked through was a miniature Amazon jungle of endless depth unknown to many explorers that was reluctant to give up its mystery of its living treasures.

I walked on, passing the gnarled old and unkempt branches of wild orchard apple that were swelling with buds and thick with leaves along with the many crab apple trees sporting their thick armor of thorns. The crab apples too were heavy with flower buds waiting to open. These woody outliers of the nearby encroaching forest were the legacy of woody persistence amidst the lapping green around them. The heady fragrance of Pasture Rose followed me as I strode through the fields and their white wreathed flowering branches of heavy sweet perfume wove a lingering olfactory trace of delight in the transparent and still air of morning.

As the sun rose still higher over the meadows and the shadows disappeared, I spotted a white-tailed deer standing in the field of goldenrod looking at me, his tail nervously flickering. I paused and looked back at him not moving a muscle. Our eyes locked and his deep brown eyes looked into mine uncertain as to my intentions. He snorted suddenly and bolted away into the deeper brush with his upright white flag of a tail signaling an exclamation of alarm.

The meadow was changing now under the stronger sun as the first rays of sun lanced into green leaves from the urban forest canopy like a flickering green lit mansion. I decided to turn around and make my way back slowly to the car while slowly inhaling the flowering fragrance and absorbing everything I saw. The magic of this ethereal world may be slowly transforming into another hot Berkshire summer day, but I had caught the essence of timeless beauty in these wild fields and I would return.

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Victor C. Capelli