Non-PNW British Columbia - Weeping Birch

Being on the eastern side of the Rockies, we don't feel like Pacific Northwest. Hopefully this is the place to ask.

I have a 4.5 acre lawn on a north facing slope a couple hundred meters higher in elevation than the Dawson Creek Airport. After I left to go to university in the 1980's, someone came along and planted a bunch of trees, and for the last 10 years or so, I've been taking care of the lawn in the summer (driving in from Grande Prairie, Alberta). Last fall, I moved back to "the farm".

I seem to have picked up a woodpecker problem, in particular yellow bellied sapsucker. At one point this spring/summer, I think I seen 8 different woodpeckers of the species on/around the tree in question. Being an autistic engineer, I study things a lot. These woodpeckers are leaving their mark on: spruce, poplar, aspen, laurel, maple, mountain ash, paper birch and weeping birch. There are lots of other trees I haven't looked for their checkerboard on. They came close to killing the top of a spruce, and they did kill the top of a mountain ash and this weeping birch (top 60% dead).

In the last week, I see another major branch having all its leaves turn yellow on the birch.

This birch has put out at least 3 new leaders in an effort to get past the woodpecker damage. The latest leader to get wiped out, was in that snowfall we had a few weeks ago.

I'm thinking that what might be best, is to cut the tree down to near, or at, ground level. I don't know if it will regrow a new trunk from the roots. That would probably be the best, but if not I suppose a person could try and replace this tree with something not quite so targetted by these woodpeckers. I have seen any problems with the borer on of these birches.

Suggestions?

 

You're still PNW to me!

Birch will likely resprout from the base if cut down, and frankly they tend to look better with multiple trunks anyway in my opinion.

Those sound like some enterprising woodpeckers. They are protected under the Migratory Bird Conventions Act: Yellow-bellied Sapsucker - Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada (AAFC) , so control options are limited.

 

I was kind of hoping that by cutting the tree down, the woodpeckers would learn over the next year or two that there was no weeping birch here, and maybe find other places to call home on the migration. And maybe that would allow the new tree(s) coming from the base to have a chance. There are weeping birch in Dawson Creek not suffering the problems I've had.

I've grown to recognize the flying pattern of both male/female sapsuckers, and the calls of the male (I don't like cats, it wasn't hard to learn the male mewing). :-) After I put up my note one day riding to the community mailbox about 1/4 mile away, I happened across a dead female sapsucker on the gravel county road. Their flying patterns leave them open to getting hit by cars.

Is there a best way to cut the tree down, to maximize the chance of resprouting? Paint the surface with tar? Outline a pentagram on the ground in cornstarch with the trunk at the centre? :-)

 

While the pentagram may be useful in some applications, probably not here. hehehe. And you don't need to paint with tar or anything else on pruned wood. Your birch trunk is probably quite slender, likely not greater than a hand span. If you can cut the trunk at an angle, say 45`, anywhere from a couple of inches above the ground to perhaps half your height, you'll encourage both sprouting from the root and some from the trunk.

The woodpeckers won't be interested in the young shoots at all, but they will look for insects in any bark, and eat a variety of seeds, weeds, and pests. Birch sap is sometimes used for making syrup, so other animals may find the new shoots tasty.

I doubt you can train the wild woodpeckers in keeping away from certain trees. Maybe if you take up falconry?

 

Trunk is a bit bigger than a hand span, and there have been attempts by the tree to send out shoots from lower down the trunk to bypass the damage above. I can arrange a 45 degree angle.

There are a mating pair of bald eagles about 40 miles away, I often see them flying above the valley looking for lunch. A variety of birds of prey are around as well. I've seen hawks sitting on my fence posts from time to time.

Pity the pentagram won't work. It did seem to make you laugh, which is all that was needed.

 

Update.

We had a very early start to winter, a big snowfall in early October (I believe). Actually we had 3 big snowfalls, but we really didn't get cold for quite a while. And typically most of the previous snowfall melted/evaporated before the next one arrived. Then we got some -30 or more, and the ground froze. Not a lot of snow since, but wind has redistributed snow. Some places have almost no snow, whereas gullies that are 3-4 feet deep could be filled all the way.

One day after winter "really" started, I noticed a moose walking through the yard. It is kind of hard to miss a moose walking through your yard. Anyway, later in the day I went outside and looked elsewhere. That darned moose had decided that a little bit of severely pruned weeping birch would make a good appetizer. Oh well, I have damaged branches from the first wet snowfall and the inevitable damage from taking the velvet off horns for moose and deer to deal with in the spring. I am hoping the weeping birch is active come spring time. And that dumb yellow bellied tree killer decides to go elsewhere.

 

OMG I will never be able to look at the 'dumb yellow bellied tree killer' again without bursting out laughing!