On Squirrels and Oak Trees - Maintaining Water Cycles

Image Source: American Red Squirrel (Écureuil roux) - Travels With Birds

On Squirrels and Oak Trees - Maintaining Water Cycles

Finn Rachul - March 7, 2024

Stories about the environment from the Ojibwe perspective never cease to fascinate me. So many of these stories bring to light processes happening in our own back yard that many of us (including me, with an environmental diploma outside what Dave has taught me) would never have realized.

Ojibwe people historically have lived in a wide range of ecosystems, ranging from the plains of Manitoba to the forests of Ontario and beyond. As part of Ojibwe philosophy, the environment teaches us about itself and ourselves, and we can never stop learning (read more in: Ojibwe Knowledge and Being a Steward of the Environment). Likewise, learning through stories is one of the main ways that generational knowledge has been transferred for thousands of years. One such story that teaches us more about the unique environment that is in Manitoba is about the dynamics of squirrels and oak trees and their hidden struggle against out-competing the ever-encroaching white poplar.

White Poplar is a rapidly growing, weed-like tree. From a Western perspective, its survival strategy is to grow as fast as possible, spreading seeds and putting out new shoots from the mother plant. Oak trees, in contrast, have a much more nuanced approach, utilizing a slow growing but long lived strategy. These two species are often in competition for the same habitat, with white poplar groves fast outpacing their slow growing counterpart. The oak tree, however, has a secret weapon in competing with poplars - the squirrel.

Squirrels are hilarious creatures to watch. They are full of energy, constantly working to maintain their little forest and interacting with its many creatures. As we all know, squirrels love and rely on acorns. However, many other animals, such as the blue jay, will take any opportunity they can to snack on acorns as well. These sneaky birds are constantly watching what animals are doing around them - where they are stashing food in particular. Squirrels know this, and will plant fake stashes to distract them. When the blue jay goes to steal the fake stash, the squirrel will go somewhere else while the blue jay is distracted.

Dynamics like this are happening everywhere in the woods. While Western science looks at this with a more cut-throat and survival of the fittest outlook, the Ojibwe look at this dynamic in a far friendlier way. The more I watch birds out in the forest with this outlook, I've realized that animals have very distinct personalities and interactions with each other. When it's hard to find food in the woods, it can start to look more competitive, but more often than not, interactions like this are just animals playing with and teasing each other. I've seen white-breasted nuthatches pretend to place seeds in the bark of oak trees and just watch blue jays from the neighboring tree, singing away with a bird song that almost sounds like laughter. The more I learn about this, the more I realize that animals are far more intelligent and consciously thinking than most people grant to them. My Ojibwe teacher (or "gweemeh" in Ojibwe) David Scott has told me about far more of these stories from back in the days when there were more animals out in the woods. From his perspective, these playful encounters still happen, but with the climate changing and habitat disappearing, animals are starting to appear more and more desperate.

While squirrels are definitely playful creatures, their role is far deeper than just that. While they do stash acorns for food, their strategy is far more long-term than simply having food throughout the year. Several times out in the field, I've found baby oak trees growing in strange places that only a squirrel could have placed them, such as in the middle of poplar groves far from oaks, right in the nook of birch trees that have several trunks joined at the base, and other seemingly odd locations. This seems to be part of one of nature's grand strategies. However, Oak trees due to their slow growing, deep-rooted, energy-intensive growth, will eventually fight back and kill the trees around them. After some time as the planted oak tree grows and a community of them takes root, these tough trees can displace even a poplar grove.

Oak trees are a very communal tree. It's rare that you see them on their own unless placed there by a squirrel or a human. This communal nature gives them an extra competitive edge, as their leaves contain compounds that make it difficult for anything other than oaks and a handful of other plants to grow underneath them. Along with that, within Ojibwe culture oak trees have been observed to help each other grow through their root systems - root systems that will push out other deep-rooted trees but spare shallow-rooted shrubs and plants. That, along with several other factors, is what allowed Dave and me to plant an oak sapling out of season and have it survive. Personality traits of oak trees like these along with the strategic placement of their acorns are some of the reasons why, in the long term, oak trees can push out poplars and create beautiful oak savannas.

The Crucial Role of Having Oak Trees on the Prairies

With all this in mind about the role of squirrels and the proliferation of oak groves, Ojibwe culture has a deep value for these trees and highlights their essential role in the bigger picture. Oak trees are renown for their deep root systems, reaching down for nutrients and water than many other trees on the Prairies can't even get close to. With that, oak trees can grow to a massive size with their old age.

Ojibwe culture has long recognized the importance of this tree in regulating water cycles, and Western science is just beginning to recognize this. Due to their deep root systems, large oak trees have been measure to pull up from the ground and add around 400 liters of water into the atmosphere through transpiration per day. Along with a forest's ability to add particles into the air that create raindrops from atmospheric moisture, oak groves contribute massively to the amount of rains we receive in and around the Prairies. With the role of the squirrel in "gardening" these oak groves long being recognized by Ojibwe culture, it's no wonder they are so valued to the extent of not being hunted for food.

The Situation Today

The sad fact of the situation is we are losing many of these oak groves. While climate change due to the incredible amounts of carbon and methane we're putting into the atmosphere is most definitely a factor in the changing weather we've been seeing, there's much more going on than just that. According to the old people among the traditional Ojibwe community, what we're seeing in our area of Manitoba is the disappearance of the prairie into a well-tilled, heat-absorbing, water-draining landscape without trees. With the disappearance of shelterbelts and natural forest groves along with wetlands and pothole lakes, the land is drying up. We're already seeing it happening: the summers are becoming clouded with dust lifting from fields due to winds and heat uncontrolled by trees, forest fires are now a yearly occurrence, and the gentle, nourishing, and longer rains of the past are being replaced by a handful of localized yet extreme thunderheads during the summer.

While many advancements have been made in various phases with planting trees since the 1930's dustbowl events, many of these seem to be rolling back with the disappearance of shelterbelts and woodlands. However, the knowledge is there in both Western and Indigenous communities and the problem has been pushed back before. All it takes is the knowledge to get out there again and the community initiative to follow through. Likewise, there are methods such as agroforestry, regenerative agriculture, permaculture, and many other ways of growing food that are growing increasingly popular and becoming more accessible to the public in Manitoba. With the growing awareness of these problems, an increasing recognition of the value of traditional knowledge, and expanding numbers of people practicing alternatives ways of growing food, there's hope for the future.

Closing

This is an expanded discussion of a presentation/workshop David Scott and I have done in schools and for other environmental groups. If you are interested in learning more or would like to book us to do this or a similar presentation, feel free to contact us at finn.rachul@gmail.com or scotta.research@gmai.com.

Thanks for reading!