Thinking its beech?

I assume you are talking the standing one on the left... Certainly looks like beech. If you Google the range of beech, it does show it going into Canada by the Great Lakes between Lake Michigan, Erie & Huron. I got my first beech last fall. The guys on here say treat it like oak or locust for seasoning timewise...

dquest said:

Didnt think beech was in eastern Ontario but looks like it to me.
Any input would be appreciated.
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If it's the smaller of the two on the left that is still standing, I would say yes but there's not much in the picture.

I have never seen vertical striations on beech bark. Its always smooth unless it has beech blight that starts out as pock marks and eventualy turns into cankers. Aspens on the other hand can have smooth bark and then transition to vertical striations, so my guess is some sort of aspen. Beech has a definite light gray bark while aspen can have either a tan or white bark depending on the variety. Beech seed casings are also very noticeable, the are small marble sized and spiky usually split after some critter has grabbed the beech nut.

It does look like two varieties of trees that have grown together as that one on the left really looks like a beech. I guess you need to get a better picture in the daylight.

I live in Easter Ontario just southwest of Ottawa
I have lots of Beech on my 220 acres 20 min. north of Perth

It is a bit hard to tell from that picture. Lots of beech in eastern On. and western QC.
Once they get to about 12” across blight gets them all. Sad. Primo firewood however.

Have a cottage up by bancroft. We have some beech up there. Can't wait until I can see it again!

The one one the left looks like beech. The key to identifying it is that beech retains it's leaves all winter, dropping them only when new leaves emerge in the spring.

The one on the left could be beech but might also be poplar, as the one on the ground appears to be, hard to tell from this pic. I am south of the border very near you and beech are very common here.

From this picture, i am not sure. Does not look like beech, poplar maybe

If it is Beech here is a good read on their nuts
We look for them every fall but most years the deer and bears get to them first

Beeches tend to have random intermittent seed years to defeat the small animals. Bears climb the big ones. I have a few big "bear beeches" with distinct black healed up scars from their claws.

johneh said:

I live in Easter Ontario just southwest of Ottawa
I have lots of Beech on my 220 acres 20 min. north of Perth

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Yeah but for how long, though..? https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2019/11/mysterious-disease-striking-american-beech-trees

Left looks like beech. Right does not. I'd be surprised if there's not beech in eastern Ontario.

Beech grows exclusively on fairly steep, well drain slopes. The photo you posted looks like a wet, bottomland forest. Accurate identification of ANY tree requires looking at leaves, twigs, bark, habitat and what part of the country you live in. Otherwise, about all that can be said of this tree is that it's a hardwood, deciduous tree. But it will burn and provide heat regardless of what species it is.

In Ontario, the beech tree grows in

• Size: Up to 25 meters tall
• Moisture: moist, well-drained soils required
• Shade: Very shade-tolerant
• From his photo that is very similar to where I have beech growing

Sorry, but I can't see the soil and it doesn't look like a well drained slope. I give up.

That is in the bush i cut at in South east quebec. Beech and maple are the largest trees there. My cottage in the laurentians has lots of beech

I have 83 acres of mixed northern hardwoods in Northern NH previously sugar maple was the dominant tree with some big beech, white and yellow birch and occasional cherry mixed in. An ice storm in 1998 wiped out 90% of the Sugar Maples while the other varieties had lessening amounts of damage, but still pretty extensive. The beech can clone itself from its roots once the canopy is opened and it will take over and block out competing seedling trees. Unfortunately the beech blight is definitely in the area and it goes after the regenerating beech so the result is some part of my property is 90 % young blighted beech. The standard recommendation is cut it for firewood and treat the stumps with Garlon to prevent sprouting and kill the roots or if its not accessible, girdle in place the small ones. Any beech over 6" needs to be girdled and the cuts brushed with Garlon immediately after the cut as the tree may survive even with proper girdling. Either that or there will be ring of sprouts formed at the lower cut. Depending on how extensive the infestation is, this may need to be repeated. There are specific recommendations on the concentration of Garlon to apply as the goal is to kiln the beech and not the other remaining desirable species that have been suppressed. The adjacent land manager to my property elected to make an extended wildlife opening where they clear cut the worse of the infestation, stumped it and then brush hogged it to keep it open rather than fight the battle.

Without the Garlon, I have read where it make take several years and multiple attempts to knock back the beech to the point where the desirable trees can grow enough to close in the canopy. I do have many very large healthy beeches that show remarkable resistance to the blight and have evidence of bears feeding from them, I leave them even though they will put out nuts on occasion as apparently its the root cloning that is 95% of the problem.