The leaflet - Autumn 2003
Selected Articles

• The New Curator - Chrstine Idziak
• The Norway Maple
• Learning the Arboretum Birds

Christina Idziak - Get to know her

Born and raised in verdant Senneville, the newly appointed Arboretum Curator, Christina Idziak, is gratefully coming back to her roots after a five-year stay in Southern Ontario. Arboretum neighbour since birth, some 30 full years ago, Christina spent most of her school years on the Macdonald Campus where she graduated with a B. Sc. Agr. in Resource Conservation, Environmental Forestry Option. In 1998, she obtained a Master in Forest Conservation from the University of Toronto. Throughout her gradate studies, she dreamt of a career in urban green space management. Here she's found it.

Christina's early childhood memories include a boisterous sugaring-off party she attended with her family in a colossal forest dwelling. A subsequent visit several years later revealed a handsome yet modest structure called Chalet Pruche.

The patronymic Idziak (pronounced 'ejuck') was inherited from her Polish grandfather. Early rambles through both the ravine behind her grandparents' place and in the woods by her home aroused a love and appreciation of forests and trees. Another notable influence on her choice to pursue a career in urban forestry was the Arboretum's Academic Director, Benoît Côté, who introduced her to the concept while she attended McGill as an undergraduate student.

Christina's impressive C.V. shows her participation in a great number of projects, working as a forestry consultant for several public bodies in Quebec and Ontario, performing tree inventories, forest surveys and mapping, as well as eco-physiological studies. At the Arboretum, she was responsible for the funding application that gave rise to the recently planted Hackberry collection located between the parking lots.

As a Curator, she will be responsible for securing grants for the Arboretum, the management of the collections, as well as coordinating a variety of research and academic activities. Her first project is the assemblage of a booklet describing the tree specimens in the collections. Watch for the release of this companion guide to the collections during the fall.

Lastly, you should know that Christina is a keen tree climber. So, beware, the next time you encounter a queer bird in our woods, it could well be a curator on duty.

Christina, we wish you the best success with your new appointment. Be assured of our support and positive collaboration.

The Norway Maple
by Christina Idziak, Arboretum Curator

One glorious day last year, as I was passing by Maple Corner on Centre Road, I noticed an abundance of small Norway maples (Acer platanoides L.) in the nearby predominantly sugar maple forest. The saplings are probably offspring of the Norway maples planted in Maple Corner almost 50 years ago. So what?, you may be asking. A new tree species in the forest is a good thing, isn't it? At first glance, it might appear that biodiversity would be increased (a good thing) with this new maple addition, however situations in Ontario, the United States, and right here in Montreal are proving that this is not the case.

Before continuing, here is a brief description of the Norway maple. The tree, as the name implies, originates from Norway, generally has a lovely full crown, has foliage ranging in colour from bright purple/red (Crimson King) to variegated green and white (Harlequin), to a solid dark green (Emerald Queen), and grows well in harsh city conditions. With its high visual appeal, it's no wonder the Norway maple continues to be a popular choice at numerous nurseries across Quebec. However, researchers are also describing the Norway maple as being an invasive non-native tree species, a tree that 'rapidly colonizes a given habitat, and whose presence leads to the ecological disruption of the constituent population of native species.'

Now back to the question of biodiversity. Norway maples were introduced into the City of Toronto's vast ravine system shortly after European settlement, through both direct planting and invasion from adjacent street and yard plantings. About 20 years ago, it was observed that these non-native maples had outcompeted most of the native tree species by producing extreme shade conditions on the forest floor with their dense canopies. What remained was a ravine forest structure comprised of mainly large Norway maples, some Norway maple regeneration and a lot of bare soil. The lack of forest floor vegetation resulted in severe erosion problems on the steep ravine slopes. Toronto's Urban Forestry Department has been taking steps to rehabilitate the ravines since 1994. Beth McEwen, Urban Forestry Coordinator with the City of Toronto Parks and Recreation Department, outlined the City's proactive forest management plan, which includes the strategic removal of Norway maples and replacement planting of native species.

A similar problem has been uncovered on our very own Mount Royal. Norway maples were planted approximately 50 years ago (at the same time as those in the Arboretum) in response to the clearing of the mountain's understory in the 1930s. Regeneration of this non-native is now very apparent at many locations on the mountain. The City of Montreal Parks Department has reacted by removing Norway maples from the mountain's slopes and planting native tree and shrub species, such as white oak and flowering raspberry, as replacements.

The potential increase of Norway maple numbers in the Morgan Arboretum, while not posing a potential erosion problem, still causes me some concerns. As brought up in a discussion with Pierre-Émile Rocray, Forest Engineer with the City of Montreal, conserving areas with sugar maples in the urban environment is extremely important because this tree is unable to survive in most urban situations due to its susceptibility to pollution and disturbance (including soil compaction and root cutting). Located less than one half hour from downtown Montreal, the Arboretum presently has a thriving sugar maple community.

In response to results from the MAA 2002 survey, which indicated that a majority of Friends would strongly support work conducted on forest conservation and protection of indigenous species, I will be assessing the issue of a potential Norway maple invasion in the Arboretum. In addition, my first action as curator is to slowly phase out the sale of Norway maples at our annual spring plant sale. Because Norway maples have been shown to invade deciduous forests through production of relatively large numbers of shade-tolerant seedlings (keep your eyes open for seedlings popping up in your gardens and lawns), street and yard trees planted close to natural forested areas pose a potential threat to native forest species. One of the Arboretum's goals, to protect indigenous species, would be compromised by the continued sale of this invasive tree.

Learning Morgan's birds
Mark Dennis

During a six-day interview trip to Montreal in January, when the thermometer slumped to minus 28 and birding was severely limited by a lack of birds, my wife Sandra and I visited the Morgan Arboretum. The interview went well and, on May 10, we arrived to start a new life in Quebec. As an avid watcher of wildlife, and a very keen birder, I have since made a point of visiting the Morgan Arboretum as often as possible in order to acquaint myself with Quebec's birds. So far I have logged nearly 80 species of resident and migratory birds and have thoroughly enjoyed re-educating myself.

Like any new site, the Arboretum took a little exploring before the areas rich in bird life were found; I was also initially hindered by the unfamiliarity of many of the songs and calls resounding through the woods. In Europe I would know them all, here they all needed to be identified and memorized. Fortunately, four previous trips to North America had provided a total list of approximately 470 species and so identification by sight was not really a problem.

I set out by walking the formal paths and meeting many a muddy dog on the way. In the high trees the birds were often difficult to locate, especially the canopy warblers. Even birds that seemed to be right in front of me proved elusive, especially one insistent trill. It turned out to be the Ovenbird, a ground dweller that seems to throw its voice. Once I had realized that they rarely sing from a perch higher than 8m, locating them became slightly easier. The first few visits took the form of short distance walks followed by long periods of tracking down the singer. After a while I started to explore some of the other paths used by dog walkers. Mature woodland has a limited appeal in terms of species variety and so I was delighted to discover hedgerows and scrub at the Arboretum's eastern end.

For me one of the exciting aspects of birding is finding new species. The bottom fields (east of Pullins Pasture) offered just the variety I was looking for and each subsequent visit included a tour around this area. In late May new birds for my expanding Quebec list came thick and fast. The Star Trek sound effect song of the Veery had me scratching my head a while, but a walk out at Hudson with the Province of Quebec Society for the Protection of Birds (PQSPB) and the sharp ears of Peter Mitchell answered that question. Within a couple of visits I was able to sort out most of the common birds by ear, until, that is, the Empidonax flycatchers arrived. My experience of these nearly identical looking but quite different sounding birds was limited to silent passage birds in Texas. I wrote a call/song reference in my notebook and soon sorted out the Least from the Alder Flycatcher. I even managed a passage Yellow-bellied Flycatcher on one late May day.

It was also clear that some birds were moving quickly through in their rush to get to summer breeding grounds. May 28 produced several Wilson's Warblers, but none have been seen (by me) since, likewise with the singing Chestnut-sided Warblers of the same date. Philadelphia Vireos and Magnolia Warblers all passed through, the latter in good numbers, lingering briefly before pushing on, leaving the summer breeders to stake their claims, sing their songs and hopefully enjoy a productive breeding season.

By mid June my attention had shifted to the butterflies. New species for me were plentiful: the delicate Arctic Skipper, the bold and brassy Canadian Tiger Swallowtail and the fidgety Great Spangled Fritillary. The woodland edges and grasslands seemed to hold something new on every visit, and summer, traditionally a quiet time for the birder, had set in. Indigo Buntings now seemed to have territories everywhere and dead snags usually held a Ruby-throated Hummingbird. The Downy Woodpeckers were feeding large young on my last visit and it is only a matter of time before the northern breeders up sticks and set off south again. I'm looking forward to all of the cryptic non-breeding plumages of the warblers and other passage migrants as they include the Morgan Arboretum in their fall schedule. In the meantime there are many more butterflies to enjoy and a few more mossies to feed.

My first few visits would have been much more productive with a local birder to help with the calls and songs. Back in the UK my job as a Country Park Ranger included giving guided bird walks around the site. Perhaps there is a local birder out there who could do this around the Arboretum? Especially as birding is said to be Canada's fastest growing outdoor pursuit.