December 26, 2012

Balsam fir may be the quintessential tree of the North Woods. Its range spreads across the northeast, the northern Appalachians, the boreal forest of Canada, and the northern Midwest in places like Michigan and Minnesota. It is common throughout the Adirondacks – both as an understory tree in mixed deciduous forests, and as a dominant tree in the coniferous forests of wet lowlands and high elevations of the park.

For that reason, I couldn't imagine a more appropriate Christmas tree for someone living in the Adirondacks. While popular trees like the closely related Fraser fir (a tree of high elevation forests in the southern Appalachians) are nice, I prefer the local specialty, and I bought a somewhat short, squat balsam fir from a local tree farm a couple weeks ago, and festooned it with lights and ornaments.

Bloomingdale Bog - Winter — Balsam, spruce, and tamarack line the Bloomingdale Bog Trail, as my dog Wren explores the snow. Balsam are a dominant tree in such Adirondack habitats.

Not only is balsam fir a great local tree, its resinous sap brings with it a wonderful fragrance which to many folks is as much a part of the holiday season as baked ham or roast turkey. It is this same resin that has given balsam its historic use in glue, gum, medicines, varnish, and even for mounting specimens on microscope slides (its wood is not generally considered very valuable). It has also spawned an entire fragrance industry, as anyone who has stepped into an Adirondack souvenir shop can attest. In fact, after the holidays end, we will likely collect some of the needles from our own Christmas tree for use in balsam pillows next year.

Another attribute that makes balsam an attractive choice for a Christmas tree are its rounded needles which are soft to the touch, rather than the pointed needles of other conifers. Such rounded, flat needles are characteristic of fir trees in general. By contrast, the needles of spruce trees (spruce species such as red, black, and white spruce are found in the Adirondacks) are squarish (four-sided) in shape, with sharp, prickly tips. In our area the only tree likely to be confused with a balsam is the eastern hemlock. Both trees have flat needles with two narrow white lines on the underside of their needles, and can look quite similar at first glance. But balsam needles are longer than those of hemlock, and they have a rounded, suction cup shaped attachment of each individual needle to the twig, whereas hemlock needles are attached to the twig with a short, thin stalk.

gray jay balsam — Many species of birds such as this gray jay use balsam for shelter and as a place to make their nest.

Once the holidays are finished, I will reluctantly remove the ornaments and lights from our Christmas tree and take the tree outside where I'll stick in standing upright in the snow near my bird feeders. There it will join the trees from the last couple years (which are in various stages of decay) in providing shelter for feeding birds. In the wild, balsam's thick, year-round foliage provides important coverage and protection for a variety of mammals and birds during both summer and winter, and that protective function can be vital for animals during this cold time of year, when its boughs are often laden with snow.

This protection from the elements and predators is just one of the ways wildlife utilize balsam. Species like ruffed grouse and various rodents eat the seeds in the cones, and other animals like snowshoe hare, white-tailed deer, and moose nibble its twigs – particularly when there is little else to eat on the winter landscape. As a result of its prevalence across northern forests, as well as its many uses to people and animals, balsam is an important tree species in the Adirondacks. And I love having one in my home at this time of year – if only for a few weeks.

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