Balm Of Gilead

More info for the terms: seed, tree

Fire creates seedbeds favorable for balsam fir germination and
establishment. If seed is available, balsam fir readily establishes on
burned sites. In northern Minnesota, balsam fir seedlings were
established within 5 years of a stand-destroying fire; seed originated
from an unburned mixed-conifer stand across a river [28]. Balsam fir
seedlings establish after fall fires that occur when seed is ripe and
still on the tree [11].

balsam fir
balsam
Canadian balsam
Canada balsam
eastern fir
bracted balsam fir
blister fir

More info for the terms: cover, hardwood

Balsam fir provides important winter cover for white-tailed deer and
moose. Balsam fir stands attract ungulates because snow is not as deep
as in adjacent hardwood stands [30]. Lowland balsam fir stands are used
extensively by white-tailed deer as winter yarding areas [21], and by
moose with calves during severe winters [30]. During summer, deer,
bear, and moose often rest under the shade of balsam fir trees [30].
Young balsam firs provide cover for small mammals and birds. Martens,
hares, songbirds, and even deer hide from predators in balsam fir
thickets [30]. Grouse and songbirds seek shelter during winter within
the evergreen foliage [5]. In Maine, fishers often nest in witches
brooms in balsam fir trees [4].

More info for the terms: duff, tree

Balsam fir is a native, coniferous, evergreen, small to medium-sized,
upright tree. At maturity it may reach a height of 40 to 90 feet (12-27
m) and a d.b.h. of 12 to 30 inches (30-75 cm) [5]. Maximum age is about
200 years. Balsam fir has a dense, narrowly pyrimidal crown terminating
in a slender, spirelike top. Open-grown trees may have live branches
extending to the ground, but trees in well-stocked stands have dead,
persistent lower branches [29]. The needles are flat, resinous, and 0.4
to 1.2 inches (1-3 cm) long [5]. Erect cones occur on the upper side of
1-year-old branches in the upper crown. The bark is gray and smooth and
contains numerous raised resin blisters. On older trees the bark
becomes brown and scaly but is less than 0.5 inch (1.2 cm) thick [5].
Balsam fir has a shallow root system that is mostly confined to duff and
upper mineral soil layers. Roots rarely penetrate more than 30 inches
(75 cm) below the ground surface, except in sandy soils [21].

Balsam fir is widely distributed in northeastern North America. It
occurs from Newfoundland west across northern Quebec, northern Ontario,
central Manitoba, and Saskatchewan to northwestern Alberta, south about
400 miles (640 km) to central Alberta, southeast to northern Minnesota
and Wisconsin, and east to New England [21]. In the United States,
scattered populations occur in southern Minnesota, southern Wisconsin,
northeastern Iowa, Pennsylvania, West Virginia, and northern Virginia.
The two varieties are distributed as follows [5]:

var. balsamea - from Newfoundland and Labrador west to northeastern
Alberta and south to Minnesota, Wisconsin, southern
Ontario, northern Pennsylvania, New York, and New
England. It is local in northeastern Iowa.

var. phanerolepis - from Newfoundland and Labrador to Ontario and Maine
and in the high mountains of New Hampshire, Vermont,
and New York. It is also common in the higher
mountains of Virginia and West Virginia.

More info for the terms: fire regime, seed

Balsam fir is easily killed by fire. Seedlings establish after fire
only if surviving seed trees are present. Balsam fir is therefore a
rare postfire pioneer [14].

FIRE REGIMES :
Find fire regime information for the plant communities in which this
species may occur by entering the species name in the FEIS home page under
"Find FIRE REGIMES".

More info for the terms: fire suppression, fuel, herbaceous, prescribed fire, tree

Prescribed fire: Prescribed fire can be used to convert balsam fir
forests to other species. It is an important silvicultural tool in
spruce budworm-infested stands. Burning infested stands eliminates the
unaffected balsam fir understory and prepares the site for other
commercial species, particularly black spruce [25]. In northern
Ontario, prescribed burning on sites pretreated by tramping (leveling
the dead trees with bulldozers) successfully prepared a spruce
budworm-killed balsam fir stand for planting [38]. Tramping aided fire
spread in this summer burn, when green herbaceous plants might otherwise
have hindered it. The standing dead trees were dry before tramping.
Some large balsam fir boles were completely consumed and 55 percent of
balsam fir slash between 2.75 and 5 inches (7-13 cm) in diameter were
consumed. Prescribed fires can also be used to kill balsam fir
seedlings and saplings in pine and mixed-wood types. In these types,
low-intensity surface fires are sufficient to kill balsam fir saplings
[37].

Fire behavior: Balsam fir tree mortality is often between 70 and 100
percent after the collapse of a spruce budworm outbreak [25]. These
altered forests are more flammable because the dead trees provide dry
aerial fuel and the newly exposed understory is drier than normal. Fire
suppression in spruce budworm-killed stands is extremely difficult [25].
Experimental burns in spruce budworm-killed stands have been explosive.
In balsam fir stands with 30- to 90-year-old dead trees averaging 23 to
39 feet (7-12 m) in height, spring fires (before flushing of understory
vegetation), under conditions of high but not extreme fire danger,
burned with intensities as high as 38,000 KW/m and spread rates in
excess of 148 feet/minute (45 m/min.) [50]. Tree crown and surface fuel
consumption were nearly complete, and standing tree boles smoldered for
hours after the passage of the fire front. These hot fires transport
large amounts of peeling bark, fine twigs, and branchlets in convection
columns which start spot fires downwind [49].

Decay after fire: Fire-killed balsam fir deteriorates rather slowly.
Commercial salvage operations are possible for a number of years after
stand-killing fires [5]. However, budworm-killed trees quickly succumb
to wood-rotting fungi and are largely unusable after 1 to 3 years [34].

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More info for the term: phanerophyte

Phanerophyte

More info for the terms: bog, shrub

Balsam fir grows on a wide variety of upland and lowland sites. It
occurs on mountain slopes and glaciated uplands as well as on alluvial
flats, peatlands, and swamps. It is found in pure, mixed coniferous,
and mixed coniferous-deciduous stands.

Soils: Balsam fir grows on sites underlain by a variety of parent
materials, including gneiss, schist, anorthosite, diabase, slate,
sandstone, and limestone. It grows mostly on acid Spodosol, Inceptisol,
and Histisol soil orders [21]. It grows on all soil textures, from
heavy clay to rocky. It tolerates a wide range of soil acidity. In the
Lake States, balsam fir is most common on cool, wet-mesic sites with
soil pH values between 5.1 and 6.0 [21]. In northeast Wisconsin it
commonly grows on limestone outcrops [45].

Associated trees: Associated trees of uplands include white spruce, red
spruce, paper birch, aspen, white ash (Fraxinus americana), yellow birch
(Betula alleghaniensis), American beech (Fagus grandifolia), red maple,
sugar maple (Acer saccharum), eastern hemlock, and white pine. Lowland
associates are black spruce, white spruce, tamarack (Larix laricina),
red maple, black ash (Fraxinus nigra), and northern white-cedar [17].

Understory: Common shrub associates include beaked hazel (Corylus
cornuta), bog Labrador-tea (Ledum groenlandicum), mountain maple (Acer
spicatum), Canada yew (Taxus canadensis), red raspberry (Rubus idaeus),
sheep laurel (Kalmia angustifolia), and hobblebush (Viburnum
lantanoides) [21].

Elevation: Balsam fir grows from near sea level along the Atlantic
seaboard to timberline at 5,600 feet (1,700 m) in the Appalachian
Mountains, and to 6,200 feet (1,890 m) in the White Mountains in New
Hampshire [21].

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This species is known to occur in association with the following cover types (as classified by the Society of American Foresters):

1 Jack pine
5 Balsam fir
12 Black spruce
13 Black spruce - tamarack
15 Red pine
16 Aspen
17 Pin cherry
18 Paper birch
21 Eastern white pine
22 White pine - hemlock
23 Eastern hemlock
24 Hemlock - yellow birch
25 Sugar maple - beech - yellow birch
26 Sugar maple - basswood
30 Red spruce - yellow birch
31 Red spruce - sugar maple - beech
32 Red spruce
33 Red spruce - balsam fir
35 Paper birch - red spruce - balsam fir
37 Northern white cedar
38 Tamarack
39 Black ash - American elm - red maple
60 Beech - sugar maple
107 White spruce
108 Red maple
201 White spruce
202 White spruce - paper birch
204 Black spruce
251 White spruce - aspen
253 Black spruce - white spruce

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This species is known to occur in the following ecosystem types (as named by the U.S. Forest Service in their Forest and Range Ecosystem [FRES] Type classification):

FRES10 White - red - jack pine
FRES11 Spruce - fir
FRES18 Maple - beech - birch
FRES19 Aspen - birch

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This species is known to occur in association with the following plant community types (as classified by Küchler 1964):

More info for the term: forest

K093 Great Lakes spruce - fir forest
K095 Great Lakes pine forest
K096 Northeastern spruce - fir forest
K107 Northern hardwoods - fir forest
K108 Northern hardwoods - spruce forest

More info for the terms: seed, wildfire

Balsam fir is the least fire-resistant conifer in the northeastern
United States [48]. Most fires kill balsam fir trees and destroy the
seeds [14]. Trees have thin, resinous, easily ignitable bark and
shallow roots [1,21]. Seeds have no endosperm to protect them from high
temperatures. Cones are not necessarily destroyed by fire, but immature
seeds will not ripen on fire-killed trees.

If balsam fir trees are killed over extensive areas by summer fires, no
seed will be available to revegetate the burned area. This occurred
following the 1936 wildfire on Isle Royale which burned 26,000 acres
(10,500 ha). Most of the balsam fir trees were killed, and for 30 years
after the fire, balsam fir was largely absent from the burned area [27].

Balsam fir is a major food of moose during winter. It tends to be
utilized more when snow is deep and moose populations are high [41].
Moose may browse balsam fir in winter to save energy because the twigs
weigh 8 to 13 times more than deciduous twigs of similar length and
therefore it requires less time and effort to consume equivalent amounts
[41]. Balsam fir is unimportant in the diets of caribou and
white-tailed deer. Spruce and ruffed grouse feed on balsam fir needles,
tips, and buds, which often make up 5 to 10 percent of the fall and
winter diet. Red squirrels feed on balsam fir male flower buds, and
less frequently on leader and lateral buds in late winter and spring
when other foods are scarce [5]. Stands attacked by the spruce budworm
attract numerous insect-eating birds, especially warblers and
woodpeckers [30].

More info for the terms: climax, forest, tree

Balsam fir is more commonly found in mixed than in pure stands. It does
occurs as a dominant species in pure stands in Newfoundland, Ontario,
and Quebec. Its importance as a major forest tree declines west of
Manitoba [5]. Balsam fir is a principal tree of boreal mixed stands in
Canada, where it occurs with paper birch (Betula papyrifera), aspen
(Populus tremuloides), black spruce (Picea mariana), and white spruce
(P. glauca) [46].

In the Lake States, climax stands of balsam fir are relatively uncommon
[21,45]. In Maine, balsam fir forms pure stands on flats between swamps
and uplands [5]. In the Adirondacks, balsam fir sometimes dominates
upper slopes above 3,200 feet (975 m) [5]. In New England and the Lake
States, balsam fir is more commonly found in mixed stands, especially in
forests dominated by black spruce, red spruce (Picea rubens), white
spruce, eastern hemlock (Tsuga canadensis), northern white-cedar (Thuja
occidentalis), paper birch, aspen, and red maple (Acer rubrum)
[5,30,45].

Balsam fir is listed as a dominant part of the vegetation in the
following community type (cts) and ecosystem (eas) classifications:

Area Classification Authority

PQ: Gaspe Peninsula forest veg. cts Zoladeski 1988
ON forest eas Jones & others 1983

More info for the term: tree

Tree

More info for the terms: basal area, forest

Silviculture: Balsam fir is managed under both even- and uneven-aged
silvicultural systems [22,23,30]. Balsam fir types are usually
converted to other forest types because of their susceptibility to
spruce budworm outbreaks and because of the relatively low value of the
timber [30].

Wildlife damage: White-tailed deer, snowshoe hares, and especially
moose browse balsam fir reproduction on cutovers. This often retards
growth but is seldom fatal [30]. In Newfoundland, 4-foot-tall (1.2 m)
balsam fir survived up to 12 years of heavy moose browsing [8].

Release: Several herbicides are used to release balsam fir from
competing hardwoods. Balsam fir is resistant to 2,4-D, 2,4,5-T,
glyphosate, and hexazinone [30,40].

Insects: The spruce budworm is the most serious damaging agent of
balsam fir. Historically, cyclical spruce budworm epidemics have killed
trees over vast areas [55]. The most susceptible stands are those
with the following characteristics [30]:

(1) High basal area or percentage of stand in balsam fir and/or white
spruce;
(2) Mature stands (50 years or older), especially if
extensive;
(3) Open stands with tops of balsam fir and/or white spruce
protruding above the canopy;
(4) Stands on poorly drained soils that are extremely wet or dry; and
(5) Stands downwind of a budworm outbreak area.

Once an outbreak begins, trees usually die after 3 to 5 years of
continuous defoliation. Johnston [30] has outlined management
principles for spruce-budworm-infested balsam fir.

Other serious insect pests include the hemlock looper and blackheaded
budworm, defoliators primarily associated with mature and overmature
stands [30]. The introduced balsam wooly adelgid, which occurs in
southeastern Canada and the northeastern United States, attacks stems,
twigs, and buds and can kill trees within 3 years [21].

Rots: Several heart, butt, and root rots cause much decay in living
trees. Heart rots often infect more than 50 percent of 70-year-old
trees [6].

In Newfoundland, healthy balsam fir plants with dark blue-green foliage
are more nutritious than plants with yellow or light green foliage.
Chemical analysis of balsam fir browse during the growing season varied
according to color as follows [8]:

(percent composition on dry matter basis)

foliage color protein fat fiber ash N-free Mg K
Extract

very yellow 4.65 7.54 25.2 2.1 60.60 0.12 0.32
yellow 5.49 8.29 22.01 2.49 61.72 0.18 0.15
light green 6.33 7.71 22.83 2.44 60.69 0.13 0.27
green 6.89 8.08 21.36 3.24 60.43 0.13 0.42
dark green 8.59 7.88 20.67 3.54 59.41 0.09 0.44
dark blue-green 13.54 5.55 26.24 3.68 50.99 0.13 1.01

On logged-over land in Newfoundland, twigs from balsam fir saplings in
thinned stands contained 33 percent more protein and 17 percent more
crude fat than those from unthinned stands [53].

CT IA ME MA MI MN NH NY PA VT
VA WV WI AB LB MB NB NF NS ON
PE PQ SK

More info for the term: tree

Balsam fir is a popular Christmas tree in the East and grown on
plantations for this purpose. The branches are used to make Christmas
wreaths. The fragrant needles are used as a stuffing in souvenir
pillows sold in New England [21].

Balsam fir is occasionally used in landscaping. It can be used in
screenings, mass plantings, and windbreaks but requires abundant soil
moisture for these purposes [21].

Bark blisters contain oleoresin, which is used in the optics industry as
a medium for mounting microscope specimens and as a cement for various
parts of optical systems [21].

Balsam fir is moderately to highly palatable to moose in winter.
Palatability varies between individual plants. Green-foliaged
individuals are often browsed heavily, while chlorotic plants are
avoided [5]. This is attributed to the higher nutrient content of
healthy plants with dark green foliage.

The palatability of balsam fir to white-tailed deer and caribou is low
[5]. White-tailed deer may eat small amounts of balsam fir due to its
abundance, but it is not a preferred food [51].

In laboratory experiments, mice and voles preferred the seeds of pines
(Pinus spp.), spruces (Picea spp.), and eastern hemlock over balsam fir
seeds [5].

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Phenological events proceed as follows [5]:

Event Southern part of range Northern part of range

flowering begins early May early June
seeds ripen late August-early Sept. October
seedfall begins early September October

More info for the term: seed

Balsam fir is generally slow to reestablish after fire. Because most
trees are killed by fire, it relies on rare survivors found in protected
pockets within the burn or trees from adjacent unburned areas to provide
seed for postfire seedling establishment. Associates such as aspen,
paper birch, black spruce, and jack pine usually seed in aggressively
following fire and quickly dominate the site. Balsam fir is usually
rare or absent for the first 30 to 50 years after fire, but thereafter
gradually establishes under the canopy of its seral associates
[2,14,20].

More info for the terms: root crown, secondary colonizer

Tree without adventitious-bud root crown
Secondary colonizer - off-site seed

More info for the terms: hardwood, layering, litter, natural, seed, tree

Seed production and dispersal: Balsam fir is a prolific seed producer.
Seed production begins when plants are about 20 years old or 15 feet
tall [5], and regular seed production occurs after trees are about 30
years old. Some seed is produced every year, with heavy seed crops
occurring at 2- to 4-year intervals [21]. Most seeds are shed in
autumn, but small amounts fall throughout the winter and into spring
[21]. The winged seeds are primarily dispersed by wind. Most fall
within 80 to 200 feet (25-60 m) of the tree, but some travel up to 525
feet from the tree (160 m) [21]. Some seed is dispersed by small
mammals.

Only about 50 percent of balsam fir seeds are sound [24]. Germinative
capacity is relatively low, ranging from about 20 to 50 percent [5].
Seeds remain viable for less than 1 year under natural conditions [21].

Germination and seedling establishment: Most seeds germinate between
late May and early July [21]. If moisture is sufficient, seedlings will
establish on almost any substrate, but establishment is generally best
on mineral soil. Other good seedbeds include rotting wood embedded in
humus because it can remain moist even during prolonged drought, and
rotting logs and stumps because they have a tendency to shed hardwood
leaf litter which can smother seedlings [36]. Hardwood leaf litter is a
poor seedbed; seedlings on deep layers of hardwood litter usually die
within a few weeks of germination [5]. However, balsam fir establishes
more readily on shallow litter (less than 3 inches [7.5 cm]) than other
conifers because seedlings quickly develop a deep root system [21].
Seedlings are very shade tolerant. Once established they can withstand
many years of suppression.

Vegetative reproduction: Layering occurs in swamps and mossy areas, and
under white and jack pine (Pinus strobus, P. banksiana) overstories [5].
In the White Mountains of New Hampshire, prostrate balsam fir above
5,500 feet (1,700 m) in elevation reproduce almost entirely by layering
[5].

More info on this topic.

More info for the terms: climax, mesic

Balsam fir is a late successional or climax species. Following fire, it
is replaced by pioneering hardwoods and conifers, such as aspen, paper
birch, balsam poplar (Populus balsamifera), jack pine, and black spruce.
Except for scattered survivors, it is mostly absent for the first few
postfire decades. In Ontario, balsam fir seedlings often first appear
under aspen-birch-spruce types 30 to 50 years after fire [5,36]. Balsam
fir seedlings are shade tolerant and less exacting in seedbed
requirements than many associates. It readily establishes under a
canopy of hardwoods and conifers. In the Lake States, an understory of
balsam fir seedlings is almost ubiquitous in several upland and lowland
forests [30]. In boreal forests, it is usually a common understory
component beneath pines, aspen, and paper birch [7,15,28]. In the
continued absence of fire, balsam fir may assume dominance as the canopy
of the pioneering trees begins to break up.

In the Lake States, balsam fir can become climax on poorly drained clay
soils. It often succeeds aspen, paper birch, and sometimes black spruce
[17]. On mesic sites, it is often replaced by shade-tolerant hardwoods
such as sugar maple [30].

More info for the term: fern

The currently accepted scientific name of balsam fir is Abies balsamea
(L.) Mill [32]. The genus Abies consists of about 40 species of
evergreen trees found in the Northern Hemisphere. Nine Abies species,
including balsam fir, are native to the United States.

Balsam fir is widely distributed and exhibits geographic variation. Two
varieties based on morphological differences are recognized [47]:

var. balsamea
var. phanerolepis Fern.

Balsam fir is closely related to Fraser fir (A. fraseri). These species
are probably relicts of an ancestral taxon which exhibited north-south
clinal variation [24]. Trees in Virginia and West Virginia are possibly
hybrids between these two species [32]. Some authorities recognize
Fraser fir as a variety of balsam fir: A. b. var. fraseri [21].

Balsam fir hybridizes with subalpine fir (A. lasiocarpa) where their
ranges overlap in the Canadian Rockies [24].

More info for the term: seed

The use of balsam fir for rehabilitation purposes is largely unexplored.
It is probably best suited for long-term revegetation. Nursery-grown
stock is available for outplanting. Methods for collecting, processing,
testing, storing, and sowing balsam fir seed, as well as nursery
practices for seedling production, have been outlined in the literature
[5,16,24].

Balsam fir wood is used primarily for pulpwood and lumber for light
frame construction. It is also used extensively for cabin logs. The
wood is lightweight, relatively soft, low in shock resistance, and has
good splitting resistance. Balsam fir is not well suited for use as
posts and poles because it decays rapidly. Minor wood products include
paneling, crates, and other products not requiring high structural
strength [5,21].