Alaska Trees and Shrubs

Alaska Trees and Shrubs, by Leslie A. Viereck and Elbert L. Little, Jr., is a great reference for learning about the woody plants in Alaska (and extending into the Pacific Northwest and Russia). I pulled out my copy as a refresher before our trip to Anchorage earlier this month. The book is published by the U.S. Department of Agriculture. My hardback version was published in 1972, but you can pick up a soft cover of the later version on Amazon.

The audience includes scientists, naturalists, and anyone interested in nature. The book includes a list of Alaskan tree and shrub species (mostly native, some naturalized), and notes that identification is easy because there are so few species (the 1972 version lists 19 plant families, 54 genera, and 128 species). It describes the main vegetation categories, including coastal forests, interior forests, and tundra; and provides a color coded vegetation map that identifies the vegetation types (coastal spruce-hemlock forests, closed spruce-hardwood forests, open growing spruce forests, treeless bogs, shrub thickets, moist tundra, wet tundra, alpine tundra, and ice and snow). The book provides identification keys, including winter identification keys for deciduous trees.

The descriptions of each species go beyond physical descriptions to include usage, history, and useful information. For example, the entry for Western Crabapple (Malus diversifolia) states that the fruit was eaten by Native Americans and is used in jellies and preserves. The entry for Sitka Spruce (Picea sitchensis) provides information about old growth trees and experimental trees planted on the Aleutian Islands. The illustrations, rendered by several artists, are beautiful and detailed. We studied many of the tree families in my Tree ID class at Merritt College—such as Betulaceae, Cupressaceae, Pinaceae, Salix, and Taxaceae.

This book is also special on a personal level. My dad, Arland S. Harris, is acknowledged for contributing information on trees and shrubs in Southeast Alaska (the Sitka Spruce tree is one of his specialties). Also, the bibliography includes names that I recognize from my childhood – scientists with whom my dad collaborated, or who came to dinner. Names like Wilbur (Bill) Farr, Paul Haack, Karl Hegg, Keith Hutchison, T. H. Laurent, and Ray Taylor (whom I mentioned in the Mill Creek post). 

Eklutna Lake

My folks from Southeast Alaska and my aunt from the Bay Area arrived in Anchorage as planned. It was a delight to see each other, and to travel together again in Alaska after so many years. Our son’s girlfriend, the lovely E.J. from Shanghai (who is in Anchorage studying Accounting and Hospitality), recommended that we visit Eklutna Lake, about an hour north of Anchorage on the Glenn Highway (Mile 26, for those using The Milepost 2012—the invaluable guide to travelling anywhere in Alaska).

Eklutna Lake with Chugach mountains in the distance.

Bare roots, and silty emerald green lake water.

Eklutna Lake is in the Chugach State Park and in the midst of the Chugach Mountains. The Eklutna Glacier carved out the valley, and glacial and fresh water runoff created the lake. The glacier flour (small particles of silt) gives the lake a milky appearance. The lake is used by a power plant, and provides drinking water for Anchorage. It is also used for recreation; we saw a whole group of kayakers return to the landing site during our hike. We walked along the lake shore on a paved path through a spruce and birch forest.

The winding path follows the shoreline through a
dense forest of spruce and birch.

I was surprised but interested to find many “plant diseases” on the trees surrounding the lakes. We found leaf galls, colonies of insects feeding on leaves, and evidence of leaf miners. This may be a common part of the forest life cycle where the growing season is short. Perhaps all creatures need to complete their life cycles before winter, but I don’t recall observing such a concentration of plant damage in one place on any of our other hikes. Something to research.

Kayaks for hire on the banks of Lake Eklutna.

Leaf damage - looks like the leaf  veins are not as tasty!

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Succession

In Designing California Native Gardens, Alrie Middlebrook describes her use of succession (moving through a series of simple-to-complex planting stages, culminating in a final stage) in her garden designs. For slower growing shrubs and trees, she recommends planting them with ample spacing, so they can grow to their mature size without overcrowding, and filling in with shorter-lived grasses, bushes and flowers. She gives the example of establishing an oak woodland garden in a hot area of a yard. While the oaks were getting started, she planted chaparral species that could tolerate the heat, and then started to introduce oak woodland understory plants as the oaks became established and their watering needs changed.

I saw succession at work while growing up in Southeast Alaska. A marker at the Mendenhall Glacier Visitor Center indicates the location from which the glacier had receded only a hundred years before. The glacier left behind barren, ground bedrock; over time moisture- and air-borne soil particles began to accumulate. Early plant species—such as fireweed, grasses, and alders—moved in. Alders can live in poor soil, and fix nitrogen, so they contribute to building the soil. Over time, spruce trees replaced alders – shading them out. A new understory of shade-tolerant plants emerged, such as fern, horse tails, moss, devil’s club, and Indian rhubarb. During this process, organic material accumulates and decomposes, further enriching and developing the soil.

Succession at work - this peninsula at Mendenhall Glacier used
to be barren rock just several decades ago.

The key ideas for using succession in the home garden are: (1) enrich the soil naturally, and (2) design an attractive short-term garden that allows slow growing trees and shrubs the space and time they need to get established.

Botanical Legacy

My dad is a tree guy. He studied forestry at University of California at Berkeley in the 1950s, and worked for the US Forest Service as a forestry researcher in Southeast Alaska for thirty years. One of his specialties was the Sitka spruce tree. He conducted surveys, wrote articles, and contributed to the body of knowledge.

Our family hiked a lot while we were growing up. We hiked in the snow and rain, and in beautiful weather. We hiked up mountains and along beaches and rivers. We loved to take boat rides in our cabin cruiser, and find a beach for a picnic. We camped all over Alaska, Canada, and the United States. Dad always had something to teach us about plants, geology, climate, weather, natural history, and exploration and development of the West.

 World's biggest spruce tree, in Washington state

 Facts about the Sitka spruce

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Dad retired in the 1980s, but he is still interested in trees and plants. Dad is a source of inspiration as a life-long learner, and a fellow plant enthusiast. One of the highlights of the year is hiking in the desert with my folks in pursuit of wild flowers. My dad has imparted a botanical legacy, which continues to enrich my life.