Fill the increment borer hole ?

[firstwoodswalker]

I recall one of my co-workers reporting that the sound being made by his increment borer was apparently mistaken by a whitetail buck during rutt for something he wanted to get a closer look at.  He said the buck came running in toward the noise and changed course within only a few yards before reaching him.  Both were startled at the time and later he considered the possibility of making a device to sell as a buck call that would recreate the sound.  Has anyone else out there had similar experiences that would lend credibility to my friends story?

[WDH]

I have bored many hundreds of trees, but I never called up a buck before.  I can't imagine what a buck would be drawn to from that rachety, raspy sound, but you never know....... .

[SwampDonkey]

Ermm dunno  ;D I was once walking through brush cut in thinnings, making lots of noise. As I stood at a sample plot a buck chased a doe up to within 5 meters of me. This was late august. I think some of those 'stemmy' old bucks get curious and have to check that no young buck is trespassing in their harem.  ;)

[oneginee]

I read this thread, it is passing a lot of misinformation and wrong destructive statements.
Here is the reality.
Increment Boring Is Hazardous To The Health Of Trees.
The scientific literature supports this. Many pathological defects are caused by increment boring. The most important of these include discoloration and softening of the wood surrounding the wound, decay of the heartwood or sapwood, and infection of surface wounds by canker-causing organisms (1). The extent and type of discoloration is variable by tree species. American Beech (Fagus grandifolia), for example, exhibits a brown, watery discoloration, while Cucumbertree (Magnolia acuminata) is stained deep blue (2). In a study of 135 trees that had been bored, 100% of the trees exhibited discoloration (1). Open channels left by increment boring also provide infection courts for bacteria and fungi. Research indicates that decay from heart-rotting fungi in increment borer wounds may progress from year to year until the entire trunk is hollow (4). Bacteria and fungi colonizing surface wounds often cause cankers and retard or inhibit wound closure. In the Southern Appalachians, most of the diffuse-porous hardwoods that were bored developed cankers which slowed healing to such a degree that after ten years wounds were still open in four species (2). Similarly, increment boring of Trembling Aspen (Populus tremuloides) in Newfoundland (3) and of birch (Betula pendula) in Europe (6) always led to serious decay. In a comprehensive study, 85% of bored beeches and 57% of bored Sugar Maples (Acer saccharum) exhibited decay, and 100% of bored Red Maples (Acer rubrum), Sugar Maples, and American Basswoods (Tilia americana), had open surface wounds at the end of the first year of growth following boring (1). These statistics are overwhelming, and indicate that boring is truly hazardous to the health of trees.

the full quoted text can be found here:
http://www.uky.edu/OtherOrgs/AppalFor/forest.html


Additional material :

Bore holes can be the entrance source for decay and disease (Toole and Gammage,1959; Schopfer, 1961; Hart and Wargo, 1965; Shigo, 1967). Lorenz (1944) showed that northern hardwoods (basswood, sugar maple, yellow and paper birch) are all affected with stain when bored. Similarly, Hepting et al. (1949), found that white oak, scarlet oak, yellow poplar, sugar maple, red maple, yellow birch, magnolia, and beech all
stained after boring. Pines (pitch, shortleaf, and white) were not stained but were pitch
soaked. Toole and Gammage (1959) found stain in all trees they bored and later sampled
(Nuttal oak, green ash, sugarberry, sweetgum, and cottonwood). Both Lorenz and Hepting, et al., tried plugging with black locust heartwood pegs. Lorenz showed a slight retarding of decay, but no effect on stain. Hepting, et al., felt that there was no advantage to plugging. Stains and pitch streaking are apparently due to physiological causes rather than organisms, and probably can't be prevented.

[SwampDonkey]

We rarely bore hardwood in the Maritimes, mostly fir and spruce but the core is most always returned to the hole. But it stands to reason that a borer carries fungus and can inoculate a tree. However, so few are ever core sampled in the scheme of things that no one much gives it any thought or worry. After all some markets except maple tap holes in maple logs. In my area absolutely not unless it's at the bottom grade, which isn't worth more than pulp or firewood.

[petefrom bearswamp]

I agree with Swamp donkey, sampling with the increment borer is miniscule as regards the number of stems of merchantable size on any given acre.
discolor yes, but decay should be miniscule.
I have seen sections of trees where the lower branches were pruned  with an axe over 100 years ago when the trees were small, with very little  loss of volume only discoloration and this was in the core. Increment boring is of course usually done on larger trees.
When I marked an old sugar bush for sale and the tap holes were evident i discounted the first 5 feet or so from the volume of the trees affected. Some buyers took these sections, some did not. It did however affect the veneer buyers, veneer in my opinion would usually run 5 percent or less of the total volume of the sale unless it was an exceptional stand.

[beenthere]

Welcome Oneginee to the Forestry Forum


Wow, you opened the door and busted right in.  hehehe

Where are you coming from with the firm position on boring trees to take samples?
Alternative suggestions to offer?

I don't think any forester ever thought that boring wasn't a bit destructive, nor could lead to the introduction of bad things. But maybe better than cutting the tree down to determine things like age, specific gravity, growth rates, historical events, etc. etc.

Just curious.   Fill us in a bit.

[oneginee]

Hehe yes I am new to the forum. I know I may have sounded a bit abrupt in my first post. I am passionate about trees and what do you know this looks like a great forum on everything foresting. Thanks for the welcome. I do not claim to be an expert on trees but the information I quoted is reliable source and that position on the question was missing from the thread. The second part is from a technical report published by the department of agriculture forest service and is quite dated (1979).
What brings me here ? I've always loved trees from all climates and locations but recently I am developing an identification apparatus that is comprehensive of all species, automated, non-destructive and based on miscroscopic anatomy of live trees. I am an engineer. This covers several disciplines and some technologies already exist. for this purpose the bore sample does not need to be any bigger than a few annual rings of the secondary xylem after the cambium. I am sure most of the guys on the forum can probably identify all native north american trees easily  ;) from bark, leaves, fruit, habit, without taking any wood sample to do microscopic wood anatomy on. This is a little different.
But to limit the scope of my intrusion here, I am just wondering if in the use of a borer you always have to bore a minimal depth into the xylem to be physically able to extract the sample and if that is always the full length of the borer tube. I found the shortest commercially available incremental borer is 4 inches long. That is probably deeper than any old large tree's bark. By what force does the extractor break the carrot sample base at the circular bit of the bore ?
I hope to learn a lot of things from this forum and indulge in my passion for trees.

[SwampDonkey]

We also ID by end grain,ray figure, pore pattern, grain, color and with magnification. There are keys for this, or experience. Bark is not the same for a species in a large range of geography. Even here in NB, sugar maple bark can be different on trees grown in glacial sand, versus loam. Balm bark can look like red oak to some. And bark texture changes from a mature tree to a really old one. If you have the whole upper tree to see it might be easy, but what if you just have the but log?

oneginee, what do you think this is? It is a native hardwood. What species?

[WDH]

The reason we bored trees in the old days was to get an accurate age so that we could determine the diameter/height relationship and age in order to develop Site Quailty, a measure of site productivity.  We used this to determine the maximum purchase price that we could pay for the land.

SD,

Are those lenticels that I am seeing  .  (My lips are sealed  ;D).

[oneginee]

SwampDonkey,

I mean live trees identification without falling them with a small wood sample obtained from a minature increment borer + magnification of the transversal plane not from dried dead wood.

The more I look at tree barks and the more I start seeing distinct patterns that first looked more or less the same when i wasn't looking hard first but I would be surprised there is that much variation from soil and geographical location for the same species.

:Great I like trying to ID trees. I see some transversal strips and looking at my old book of trees I think it is a birch. A would say a sweet birch also called black or cherry birch.
Another please !  :D

[SwampDonkey]

Your close enough. Now look at the top, since you want live trees to ID. ;D

[oneginee]

mmm It looks more like paper birch or yellow birch on that picture.

[SwampDonkey]

Yeah the color of the bark is kind of washed out by the light. It's yellow birch. But knowing the but was a birch is close enough. Because once it's lumber, birch is birch. ;D

[SwampDonkey]

Here's one to trip you up. It's over 30" dbh. ;)