I was wondering if this is common in other parts of the country.
Locally, birds feast on Western Juniper berries in the fall. They can't digest the seeds. When this area was settled and homesteaders began fencing their lands, birds had a new place to perch. Perched birds poop and the result is rows of juniper trees along untended fence lines.
These rows are most prevalent along roads and long after the fences have fallen down or been moved farther from the roads, the trees stand as evidence of the original location and possibly the intended width of the road.
1913 Byram Road fence rows (Original R/W width was 40 feet) Trees on east have been trimmed because of overhead power lines
Below, the fence has been rebuilt at 30 feet from centerline do to a subsequent R/W dedication for add'l width:
1892 Barnett Road fence row The original fence is long gone...
"I was wondering if this is common in other parts of the country."
Very common in rural parts. I would have never thought about the bird/seed angle, mostly i subscribed to the thought maintaining the fenceline from undergrowth was a sizeable chore. Around this area it isn't so much Juniper as Tallow tree (large pernicious weed), Elm, Hackberry, Pine, and some Oak.
Sometimes you can find old bits of wire in those mature trees.
Thanks for the photos, beautiful country out there.
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> Sometimes you can find old bits of wire in those mature trees.
Same here if they ended up stapling the wire to the newer trees.
I've found some juniper-specific bird poop literature on the innertube about this phenomenon:
Native Plant Society of Ore. http://www.npsoregon.org/kalmiopsis/kalmiopsis20/kalm20halvorson.pdf
>Another trait that confers a competitive advantage to western juniper lies in how its seeds are disseminated. Beyond the usual methods of gravity, wind, and water, juniper “berries” are favored by a number of birds (e.g., American Robin (Turdus migratorius), Cedar Waxwing (Bombycilla cedrorum), Pinyon Jay (Gymnorhinus cyanocephalus) and Townsend’s Solitaire (Myadestes townsendi)), especially in the winter. After feeding, the birds find a suitable perch to process their meal, where the seeds pass through the gut and are eliminated. Later they germinate where dropped, as evidenced by lines of young junipers along fences.
(Does it get any better than this? The subject is bird poop and the genus name of the robin is "Turdus")
USFS http://www.na.fs.fed.us/pubs/silvics_manual/Volume_1/juniperus/occidentalis.htm
>Seeds are disseminated during the fall, primarily by birds and mammals. Animals ingest the fruit but do not digest the seeds. Dissemination of seeds by animals is evidenced by seed-filled droppings, particularly from robins and coyotes. Western juniper is often found growing along fence rows, seeds having been deposited there by perched birds
Junipers of the World: The Genus Juniperus, 4th Edition (Google Books) http://books.google.com/books?id=u3CSAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA332&lpg=PA332&dq=juniper+trees+planted+along+fences+by+birds&source=bl&ots=G9qa0uMmvf&sig=gG0KWQZdEPiie19xd-_s8zkdoQ0&hl=en&sa=X&ei=pQZmVMSyAsfvigLI8IHQDA&ved=0CDcQ6AEwBg#v=onepage&q=juniper%20trees%20planted%20along%20fences%20by%20birds&f=false
That is one theory and it is interesting.
My theory - Originally the entire area was covered with Juniper trees prior to when the ranchers cleared the land. They left the trees so they didn't have to set fence posts. The cattle have a way of keeping the seedlings in the pasture from getting very big. The road right of way is kept clear of trees for obvious reasons. So the only thing left un-molested to grow is the trees in the fence line.
EDIT: Reading that first paper you linked to, it reminds me how important it is that we reintroduce fire to the landscape.
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> ... Originally the entire area was covered with Juniper trees prior to when the ranchers cleared the land.
Actually junipers have invaded the high desert since settlement began. There were not near as many in the pioneer days. Take a look at the comparison photos on the first page of this link(cited above):
http://www.npsoregon.org/kalmiopsis/kalmiopsis20/kalm20halvorson.pdf
..and on this next page (titled "Western juniper covers 10 times more land than it did in the 1880s, and that has ranchers and ecologists concerned") scroll down to the comparison photos captioned "Photos taken about 1880 (top) and 1989 (bottom) show the encroachment of western juniper east of Prineville."
http://oregonprogress.oregonstate.edu/spring-2006/high-desert-dominator
> EDIT: Reading that first paper you linked to, it reminds me how important it is that we reintroduce fire to the landscape.
Amen to that brother digger
This now begs the question; not just if the trees were planted by the birds, but what their intent was for the trees when they planted them.
Choke Cherry trees are often found in a line in these parts.
I missed the edit time by 2 minutes. Here's the examples stated above plus a then and now I composed at the failed Bull Flat dam. Fire prevention = Invasion of the Junipers:
1914
2014
1914 w/2014 dog for reference:
Fire prevention = Invasion of the Junipers = reduction of native grasses, increased erosion, increase of invasive species, and reduction of available surface water for wildlife.
People are starting to realize how much water the Junipers use each day and are thinning or completely removing Junipers from large swaths of ranchland.
I seem to remember reading that a single large juniper tree will use 70-100 gallons of water each day (don't quote me on that).
That's pretty common in the rural parts of NC, GA and a little in SC that I've surveyed in. It was taught to me as an old "trick" in finding long lost fence lines.
I wonder how that squares with over head wiring?
I often see a line of white plops on my drive. Immediately overhead is a power line.
One could imagine the same phenomenon would occur.
You're probably right E, but the power companies are pretty good about keeping their R/W clear of foliage. Least round here they are. I'd imagine that with power lines the seedlings wouldn't be as rank and file either, on account of more drift from them being dropped so much farther above the ground.
We find this all the time in small towns along lot lines. Of course, it's the same throughout the countryside. But, in town it really sticks out because that old tree that has died and requires a $2500 fee to be removed is ALWAYS about 50/50 on the lot line. No one planted it or intentionally maintained it, they just never cut it down.
Much of our area started out with planted hedge rows along aliquot lines serving multiple purposes. Osage Orange, Bois D'arc, bodark, hedge, whatever the locals call it. But that was 140 years ago. Rabbits, squirrels and other indigenous critters love gnawing on the hedge balls/apples/whatever that contain 100 million seeds each. Critter poop plants them willynilly everywhere not cultivated. So, they tend to be left alone along fence lines, thus creating a situation similar to the original post's comment on bird-related propogation of trees along property lines.
That's how it works here. Birds eat the seeds from Red Cedars and then sit on the fence. Since livestock don't eat cedar, you'll have a nice young stand in about 20 years.
Well this is cool. It's a coast to coast thing. Oreygun, California, Tennessee, Massachusetts, Kansas, the Carolinas, Georgia. I knew that the bird behavior would be the same throughout, just wasn't sure if local tree species had seed devilry systems to facilitate fence row plantations.
The straight poop on tree propagation along fences.
Western Oklahoma has similar happenings with Western Red Cedar(seems to be a close relative to your Juniper). These were imported after the Dust Bowl to help prevent wind erosion along with Bois D'arc (hedge apple or Horse Apple) trees and planted to create wind breaks. The Bois D'arc didn't spread much, the Cedars have become pernicious.
B-)
