VALUE AND USE
SPECIES: Acer spicatum | Mountain Maple 



WOOD PRODUCTS VALUE : 
Mountain maple wood is moderately light, soft, and low in strength.  It
is of no economic importance [27].


IMPORTANCE TO LIVESTOCK AND WILDLIFE : 
Mountain maple is browsed by moose, white-tailed deer, cottontails,
snowshoe hares, and woodland caribou.  The bark is consumed by moose,
white-tailed deer, and beavers.  Ruffed grouse consume the vegetative
buds [28].

On Isle Royale, Michigan, mountain maple is the second most important
summer browse for moose, and continues to be important through the fall
and winter [30].  In the eastern part of its range, mountain maple is an
important winter browse for moose, but usually not the most important
[50].  It is a staple winter food for white-tailed deer in the Lake
States [2].


PALATABILITY : 
Mountain maple is more palatable to moose than sugar maple (Acer
saccharum) is but not as palatable as red maple (A. rubrum) [3].  In
Ontario, moose will consume mountain maple in greater proportion than
its availability [9].  Mountain maple is ranked high in palatability for
white-tailed deer in New Brunswick [56].  Snowshoe hares prefer mountain
maple for winter browse [56].


NUTRITIONAL VALUE : 
Mountain maple is one of the most nutritious browse species for
white-tailed deer [27].

Nutritional values for mountain maple leaves (average for growing
season) are as follows [21]:

                        Percent of dry weight
Phosphorus   Potassium   Calcium   Magnesium   Ash   Protein   Crude fiber
  0.50          1.56       1.27       0.05     7.6     12.6      12.5 

     Milligrams per kilogram
Iron   Copper   Zinc   Manganese                Energy (cal/gm)
 282    11.8     49      560                         4,452

Nutritional values for mountain maple twigs, averaged from August to
April, were as follows (reported as percent of dry weight) [21]:

ash   protein    crude fiber    energy (cal/gm)
3.5   6.2        36.8           4,662


COVER VALUE : 
NO-ENTRY


VALUE FOR REHABILITATION OF DISTURBED SITES : 
NO-ENTRY


OTHER USES AND VALUES : 
Mountain maple is sometimes planted as an ornamental [27].


MANAGEMENT CONSIDERATIONS : 
Browse:  Mountain maple can withstand repeated and heavy browsing, and
produces the greatest amount of new growth when about 80 percent of the
annual twig growth is removed each year.  When it is not heavily
browsed, mountain maple usually grows out of the reach of white-tailed
deer in about 3 years [2,28,32].  It is commonly the dominant brushy
vegetation in overpopulated deer yarding areas, and continues to produce
well after 20 or more years of heavy usage [2].

Cutting the stems of mountain maple near ground level during the growing
season is the most effective treatment to increase the amount of browse.
The next most effective treatment is a breast-height spray of 2,4-D in
the spring [28,31].  In New Hampshire, clearcuts increase the
availability and nutritive quality of mountain maple browse [29].

Competition:  Where spruce (Picea spp.) and balsam fir (Abies balsamea)
are logged from mixed-wood slopes, mountain maple often grows
opportunistically, forming a thick shrub layer and suppressing conifer
seedling growth.  Dying mountain maples actually produce more stems than
healthy individuals [25,58].  After tree harvest in
aspen-birch-spruce-fir types in Ontario, mountain maple and gray alder
(Alnus rugosa var. americana) form closed shrub canopies.  Both
vegetative and seed reproduction occurs; cutover areas have
characteristic large, vegetatively produced clumps of mountain maple and
small, single stems that originated from seed [41].  Mountain maple
suppressed hardwood reproduction for 10 to 15 years after overstory
removal in Nova Scotia [14].  After logging in a red pine-white pine
forest in northeastern Minnesota, a mountain maple layer developed
underneath the conifer regeneration, and suppressed subsequent conifer
establishment.  Mountain maple was more dense in areas with low stocking
levels of regenerating red or white pine than in areas that were
adequately stocked [1].

Control:  Reduction of mountain maple is sometimes necessary to promote
tree regeneration.  A bulldozer can be used to eradicate mountain maple,
but care needs to be taken to uproot stems; merely crushing the crowns
will stimulate growth [31].  Burning can be used to suppress mountain
maple.  Piling slash on maple thickets will ensure a fire hot enough to
kill the roots [51].

Related categories for Species: Acer spicatum | Mountain Maple