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Home → Publications → Tree Planters' Notes → Tree Planters' Notes Volume 24, Number 1 (1973) → Small Mammals Can Damage Young Hybrid Poplar Plantations

Small Mammals Can Damage Young Hybrid Poplar Plantations

Winter feeding habits of field mice (Microtus spp.) can cause serious losses in young plantations. Damage is most frequent in plantations established either adjacent to or in old fields with heavy sod. Severity of damage usually is related to animal population size, and, in some respects, a species preference. Plantations of several clonal varieties of hybrid poplar had been successfully established in 1965, 1966, 1967, and 1969 with essentially no damage attributable to small mammals. In 1970, a random mixture of hybrid poplar clones NE-49, -252, and -388 was planted in a previously tilled, central Pennsylvania field and mulched with black polyethylene. During the 1970-71 dormant season active feeding of small mammals was observed on the 1-yearold trees. The girdling ranged from the removal of small bark patches to complete bark removal. A survey for the presence (or absence) of attack was conducted in March; and the damage appraised in September (end of the second growing season) . Results of that evaluation of small mammal damage follow.


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Author(s): Todd W. Bowersox

Publication: Tree Planters' Notes - Volume 24, Number 1 (1973)

Volume: 24

Number: 1