The Balsam Fir tree (Abies balsamea)

Today's post is about the balsam fir tree.  The Latin name is Abies balsamea.  This tree is found very commonly throughout eastern and central North America, and though parts of the northeastern US.  This tree is known by several alternative names in different regions, such as blister fir, silver pine (a name which really confuses some people), northern balsam, Canada balsam, eastern fir, and the balm fir.  The last name refers to balm of Gilead, a medicinal perfume described in the Bible.  This name is very deceiving since the biblical perfume was derived from a completely different species found in the Middle East, which is quite unlike balsam fir.

Here's a photo of showing some juvenile balsam fir trees on our Walker Road Managed Forest project:

As mentioned, the balsam fir can be found easily throughout central and eastern Canada.  Here's a range map, courtesy of Wikipedia:

In New Brunswick, balsam fir allegedly comprises twenty percent of all the trees found in the forests throughout the province.  That's a enormous presence for just one single species.  And it's impact on logging is even greater, as twenty-two percent of all harvested trees are balsam fir.  Those numbers came from this CBC article:

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/new-brunswick/forests-nb-anthony-taylor-balsam-firs-1.5486499

Certainly, balsam fir is of huge value to the lumber industry throughout eastern Canada.  It's a great option for pulpwood, and can also be used for some types of plywood and OSB products.

Before I go further, I'll clarify that I'm not a huge fan of planting balsam fir with respect to environmental reasons.  For one thing, it has a short life span.  It also has a very high success rate when it comes to natural regeneration after land is harvested, so there isn't much need to go to the effort of planting it.  Despite this, we occasionally plant small numbers of this species in some park projects, and in areas where natural regen is not a factor.  Even though we don't utilize it much for Replant.ca Environmental projects, balsam fir is planted quite frequently in post-harvest commercial work through eastern and Atlantic Canada.  Let's look at the physiological attributes of this species though, to understand more about the tree.

First of all, balsam fir is a true fir (as indicated by the genus Abies) rather than a false fir (such as Douglas fir).

Balsam fir is a pioneer species.  It tolerates shade, but loves sunlight.  If you travel along a logging road or highway, you'll probably see hundreds of tightly-packed young conifers along the road edges and in the ditches (such as the photo at the top of this post).  Most of these trees are balsam fir.  They take advantage of strong sunlight and grow very readily compared to spruce and many other conifers.  They also survive for quite a few years in very high density, with trees growing successfully just a few inches apart, although some of these clusters will die eventually.  You'll probably also see hundreds of tiny balsam fir germinants if you walk through any mature wooded area that contains even just a few trees, although if the overhead canopy is closed, most of these trees won't survive.  Spruce trees, hemlock, and cedar almost always win the race in shaded areas.

Balsam fir regenerates very easily, as I already mentioned.  In some places, it comes in thicker than a shag carpet.  It's not the fastest growing tree, usually putting on about a foot of height per year, although it seems to grow more quickly than spruce.  However, it has a short life span.  In theory, it can live to be a few centuries old.  However, they very frequently seem to die off very early, with large numbers of them dying by the time they are forty or fifty years old.  This of course is a problem, because a hardier species could have been planted there which will grow larger and last for centuries (and have better carbon uptake).  On some parts of some of the projects that we're managing, pre-existing balsam fir account for more than sixty percent of the trees, and the vast majority of them are dying.  This is also a bit of a safety hazard for recreational users.  We've spent several weeks this fall cleaning out a lot of the standing dead fir trees on one of our projects, leaving all the healthy spruce and hardwoods, and we'll do an eight-species underplant project through that particular area in 2021.

I'm not entirely certain what kills off so many balsam fir in the Maritime provinces.  Perhaps it is the spruce budworm.  Perhaps it is the balsam wooly adelgid.  It may also be a fungi that targets balsam fir.  More likely it is a combination of all three of these problems.  Certainly, the fact that balsam fir prefers much colder weather is an issue for the local fir population.  If any arborists read this and have insights, I'd love to see comments.  Here's a photo of a fairly young (50 year old) balsam fir that I'm removing from our Walker Road project for safety reasons.  You can see how rotten and unhealthy the tree has become:

Here's another photo of a younger and much smaller balsam fir.  Again, this one is rotten to the core:

Incidentally, it is common to see Old Man's Beard lichens on balsam fir.  These are definitely not what is hurting the trees!  This lichen (which is actually a fungus and an alga growing symbiotically in a relationship with each other) only uses the tree as a surface to grow on.  It doesn't draw nutrients from the host tree, nor does it interact with it.  The only reason that many people think it's hurting the trees is because the tree was dying first, and as needles are lost, it's easier for sunlight to get into the canopy, which encourages growth of the Old Man's Beard.  The fungus part of this lichen provides the visible structure, and embedded within it is the alga.  The alga are single celled organisms that photosynthesize in the sunlight and produce food for the lichen.  The water and nutrients needed by Old Man's Beard come entirely from the air around it.  Here's a photo of some Old Man's Beard, taken in our Walker Road Managed Forest:

Back to the balsam fir, this doesn't typically develop into a large tree.  A mature tree will rarely exceed 20 meters in height (65 feet).  What is more interesting is the needles and bark.  The needles are fairly flat, and stand out because if you look closely, the bottom side has two long white bands running up and down the length of the needle.  When the tree is still a juvenile, the bark is quite smooth (usually a grey or silver in colour) and has lots of blisters (full of resin).  Sometimes these blisters will pop, and the resin is quite sticky if you get some on you.  Here's a photo of some balsam fir needles:

Here are a few fun facts about the balsam fir:

1.  It is the provincial tree of New Brunswick.  That's fitting, considering how common it is, and how important it is to that province's economy.

2.  Balsam fir is a very popular choice for Christmas trees.  Large plantations of balsam fir are grown somewhat like vegetables, with careful pruning and maintenance to ensure a balanced and symmetrical shape before they are harvested and sold.  They have the strongest pleasant fragrance of any species used for Christmas trees.

3.  The needles of the balsam fir can be boiled into a tea.  This tea is quite healthy because the needles contain a lot of Vitamin C.  Balsam tea is reputed to have kept many early explorers from contracting scurvy.

4.  Balsam fir is VERY tolerant of cold!  This species can live in areas where winter temperatures consistently drop to well below -40 degrees for extended periods of time.  Many species cannot tolerate this kind of cold, and there are only about a dozen types of trees in Canada that grow in areas with extreme cold.  Balsam fir is one of the hardiest.

It's likely that some of the die-off of balsam fir that we see at low elevations in southern New Brunswick may also be related to this last point.  Balsam fir is better suited for colder climates.  The balsam fir forests of the Maritimes and southern Canada may be in great danger if global temperatures warm up by several degrees in the future.

Even though we plant very small quantities of balsam fir on our environmental projects, it's great to have a better understanding of this common North American tree.

Thanks for reading!

- Jonathan Clark

www.replant-environmental.ca

Replant.ca Environmental is a Canadian company that plants trees for carbon capture and builds community forests.  We also plant trees in national, provincial, and municipal public parks to mitigate damage from wildfires, storms, insects, and forest diseases.  We operate thanks to numerous small contributions from the general public, in addition to larger project sponsorships from businesses and corporations around the world.  If you'd like to learn how to show your support, visit our donations page.  Even if you aren't able to make a contribution, we very much appreciate when people are able to share our posts or our website link on social media, to help spread the word about the work that we're doing!

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