On today’s installment of clearing buckthorn from underneath Bur Oaks I stopped to highlight lateral branching. This tells me this 150 year old tree once grew in open sunlight. But thanks to fire suppression and buckthorn it was crowded out and dying. Hopefully I bought it some time! Let your trees get old and gnarly and long may they stay that way. | Eric Manges Nature

Mature Bur Oaks can withstand prairie fire, extreme drought, and defoliation but what they can’t handle is shade. Once buckthorn establishes and gets tall enough it slowly shades out lateral branches. Those branches die and the once sprawling oak (100ft wide sometimes) slowly starts to decline. So I’m trying to stop that and save some of our biggest oaks before it’s too late! These Bur Oaks are over 3.5’ in diameter and likely older than Wisconsin as a state. | Eric Manges Nature

The Eric Andre Show