NORTHERN RED OAK (quercus rubra)
Oak trees are what is referred to by ecologists as a “keystone species”– a species that plays a disproportionately large effect on its natural environment, relative to its abundance. This means that the northern red oak is an essential part of any northern hardwood forest ecosystem.
Just oak trees have an outsized effect on their environment, humans have greatly influenced northern red oaks. Native Americans conducted controlled burns, limiting potential growth for the fire-vulnerable northern red oak. However, as Europeans colonized North America, their fire suppression tactics allowed the northern red oak to flourish. Furthermore, after the chestnut blight of the late nineteenth century, which decimated the species that was once so dominant in forests like Chesterwood, northern red oaks took over chestnuts’ place in the ecosystem.
Ecological Relationships: Red oaks often grow alongside sugar maple, basswood, beech, and hemlock trees (which can also be seen on this trail). It supports more than 950 kinds of caterpillars. Its acorns are eaten by squirrels and large birds. Over 40 species of midges, mites, and wasps form galls on oak leaves, in which larvae live and feed. Lastly, spiders often spin webs in the branches of red oaks.
Ecological Threats: Shoestring root rot, wood-boring insects, gypsy moths, oak rot caused by fungi.