Poplar trees as a food source?

[Fantail]

According to this guy it's a short time frame, but could be significant. I always thought of them as something waisting space. Narrator starts talking about them about 2:25 - wondering what others think about this.

[G-Man]

These are tulip poplar. also know as green wood, made into poplar trim, not what most people think as poplar that would be aspen large tooth,quaking,and small tooth. yes deer eat the leaves. Is a fast growing timber tree and also one of our tallest and straightest in nys(if your lucky enough to have them). As a food source i believe they would be negligiable white oak , pear, apple will out produce them everytime. In the big woods in a bad mast crop year maybe. Personally my undergrowth would be browsed before these i believe. the woods he's in i can see a mile in...mine 70 yards tops, 50 in most places if your lucky.

[nyslowhand]

Never once have I seen a deer browse on what we in NYS call Poplar trees/leaves.

Of course, that's not to say they won't eat the leaves or feed on the saplings if other food supplies are limited.

Do have small plots of Poplar saplings that bucks love to rub on.

They have poor root systems. Don't tolerate wet conditions very well and high winds tend to blow them over.

When I find a Poplar that has fallen, won't waste my time trying to harvest it for firewood.

Oh yeah, I avoid setting-up a treestand against any Popular trees in the low lying areas on my property for obvious safety & health reasons.

Do know that deer prefer Maple over Poplar for browse. Not so much the leaves, but the twigs & ends of branches.

[erussell]

Good list put out by DEC on perfered plants deer like. Lists popular as food of last resort.

http://www.dec.ny.gov/animals/7195.html

Edited January 4, 2012 by erussell

[growalot]

There isn't much on that list we don't have on our property...but I'd have to take and put a few of those second choice foods and put them as preferred or readily eaten here

[k burke]

I haven't seen or hear of those tulips leaves being a food source previously, but now that I think of it I don't recall seeing any of those leaves down on the forest floor. Will keep an out for it going forward. As the guy says, it's a very short window - about a week.

Along those lines, what this guy says and the DEC list aren't conflicting since the DEC list is a WINTER food list and this guy says the leaves are only preferred for about a week when they first drop.

[G-Man]

Again the iist for nys is aspen / poplar ...not tulip treeor yellow poplar this is called tulip poplar it is not the same tree! tulip is a hard wood and can be used as trim and firewood, the poplar /aspen most of us are familiar with is a softwood and is terrable firewood and is used only as pulp. they are not common in my area but are found in ohio where i work quite commonaly. check a tree book...... tulip have waxy large leaves that look like the profile of a tulip... again maybe they are a food source in pa and other states where they are more common.

Edited January 4, 2012 by G-Man

[erussell]

I hate popular trees, I have a bunch of them around my yard and it never fails during the summer we get one good wind storm and a bunch of them fall over causing me more work removing.

[Doc]

I'm not sure why, but we do not have a lot of these tulip poplars where I live. However, I did run into a few of them over along Canadice lake just a few miles away. So for my local hunting, these don't really have any significance. However, when it comes to white oaks, we have several different varieties of them, and they are a powerful deer magnet during the occasional years that they are bearing. The acorns don't last very long because every critter in the woods likes them. What I read somewhere was that it is the lower level of tannin in the acorns when compared to the red oaks that makes them preferred. However as the red oak acorns lie on the ground, the rain leaches some of the tannin out of them making them a food source preferred a little later in the season.

As far as regular poplars are concerned, they are pretty much just a "weed" tree. Not really good for much other than in some areas they seem to be preferred as a "rub" tree for whatever reason.

[landtracdeerhunter]

Deer were eating Aspen Popular leaves here, the week before bow season opened. The roughage, sugar, content in the leaves comes earlier that most others. Some years, from an early frost, they have higher sugar content. Last year, I don't believe this to be true,as they dropped their leaves earlier. Next year, if we have an Oct. 1 bow opener, u will get to experience their consumption. Take advantage of Popular trees in the early season.

Edited January 5, 2012 by landtracdeerhunter

[G-Man]

I know the aspen "weed" trees are the best thing to have around for roughed grouse. as their buds are prefered as long as the tree isnt to high , about 10-30 ' is perfect. as for deer they like the red maple /oak/ clover over about anything here.