Stop the European Oak Borer! Go with Native Oaks Instead!

Oaks make excellent hardwood, shade trees. They grow tall and full and once grew in large oak forests and oak savannas in North America. They are excellent for wildlife; they provide homes for cavity nest birds, acorns are eaten by birds and mammals, and they house a variety of insects which in turn provide food for other animals like Woodpeckers, Nuthatches, and Creepers. If you are looking to plant an Oak, you will find that you have a host of options; here's some information on the Oaks you may encounter.

The Heritage Oak or the English Oak is an invasive species from Europe. It's commercially available and has introduced the European Oak Borer to Oak forests in Canada and Michigan. The European Oak Borer is a potential threat to native Oak species and provides sufficient justification for planting native Oaks instead.

Historically many of the ecosystems found in the Midwest were transitionary from the forests of the Eastern United States to the prairies and grasslands of the Great Plains. Many species of Oak are relatively fire tolerant; this meant that they could survive grassland fires when other species of tree could not. The specific species of Oak which made up the Oak Savanna varied by state, but the following species are likely to be commercially at your local nursery and could be found in the Oak Savanna:

• Black Oak
• Bur Oak
• Norther Red Oak
• Pin Oak
• Swamp White Oak
• White Oak

Drier, more open sites may have been more prone to fire. The Bur Oak, Black Oak, and White Oak grew in stands along side prairie grasses and wildflowers as well as shrubs like the American Hazelnut. Cavity nesters which depended on these stands include the Eastern Bluebird and Red Headed Woodpecker. The Red Headed Woodpecker is a species in decline due in part to its dependence on these sites and particularly its use of dead Oaks when nesting.

Fuller stands of Oak also included the Northern Red Oak but would have appeared with fewer prairie grasses and wildflowers. The frequent wildfires prevented the development of much woody or shrubby understory, but thicker stands of Oaks would have had shade tolerant plants growing below them such as Culver's Root, Bottle Brush Grass, or Bush Clover. Denser stands of Oak can support bird species normally associated with woodlands including: Tufted Titmouse, Scarlet Tanager, and Yellow Throated Vireo.

This American Robin surveyed the ground below from our Northern Red Oak

We've opted to plant a Northern Red Oak and a Swamp White Oak in the northern half of our front yard. We also included two Nanny Berry Viburnums, after reading this list of shrubs. This summer to continue the Oak-Savanna-fication of our yard, we plan to put in some Little Blue Stem and some TBD wildflowers. This effort will help contribute to creating a no-mow area in the front and help us landscape using plants from the same biome to recreate habitat.

This is the Red Oak we planted two years ago in our front yard.

If you are interested in getting starting with native plants, Oaks are great place to start because there are so many to choose from, and they are capable of doing a lot of good on their own supporting countless species which I did not detail here. If you are so inclined, here are some other good reads about Oak habitats:

• Wisconsin DNR Savanna Communities
• Oak Savannas Dot Org
• Michigan DNR - Oak Savanna