VALUE AND USE
SPECIES: Acer saccharinum | Silver Maple 



WOOD PRODUCTS VALUE : 
Silver maple wood is moderately hard, brittle, and close-grained. It is
not as heavy or hard as that of sugar maple (Acer saccharum) [50,74].
Silver maple wood is used for furniture, boxes, crates, food containers,
paneling, and core stock [10,40].  Silver maple is cut and sold with red
maple as 'soft maple' lumber [16].  It is a valued timber species in the
Midwest, and may prove to be equally valuable in the Northeast [43].

On good sites silver maple can be managed for timber.  On poor sites,
it can be managed for cordwood [43].  It has potential for
short-rotation intensive cropping sytems for woody fuel biomass
plantations [59].  Biomass yields at various spacings have been reported [18].


IMPORTANCE TO LIVESTOCK AND WILDLIFE : 
Silver maple produces abundant annual seed crops; the seeds are eaten by
many birds, including evening grosbeaks, finches, wild turkeys and other
game birds [1,28], and small mammals, especially squirrels and chipmunks
[16,28].  Silver maple seeds were the most important food in the diet of
breeding wood ducks in southeastern Missouri [13].  The early buds of
silver maple are an important food for squirrels when cached food is
depleted.  Silver maple bark ranks high as a food source for beavers in
southeastern Ohio [16].  White-tailed deer and rabbits browse the
foliage [28].

In New Brunswick, wood ducks and goldeneyes frequently nest in silver
maples.  The soft wood of silver maple has a tendency to develop
cavities which are used by cavity-nesting birds and mammals, and which
otherwise provide shelter for a number of species including raccoons,
opossums, squirrels, owls, and woodpeckers [28].  Silver maple was one
of a few species of deciduous trees used as communal roosts by
red-winged blackbirds, common grackles, starlings, and brown-headed
cowbirds in Ohio [41].

Silver maple groves and the riparian communities in which silver maple
occurs are excellent habitat for wildlife [43,55].  Silver maple is a
dominant member of riparian communities in Indiana that are important to
the endangered Indiana bat.  However, it was not listed as a species in
which maternity colonies were observed [8].  Silver maple is often a
dominant member of seasonally flooded flats, which are important to
tree- and shrub-nesting species, colony-nesting waterbirds, and
passerines.  It also occurs in wooded swamps and other riparian
communities which are valuable breeding habitat for wood ducks, black
ducks, herons, egrets, warblers, flycatchers, woodpeckers, thrushes,
nuthatches, vireos, rose-breasted grosbeaks, hawks, owls, grackles, and
many passerines [35].


PALATABILITY : 
NO-ENTRY


NUTRITIONAL VALUE : 
NO-ENTRY


COVER VALUE : 
NO-ENTRY


VALUE FOR REHABILITATION OF DISTURBED SITES : 
In the Appalachian Mountains, succession on strip-mined lands can
include silver maple if a seed source is present [56].  Silver maple was
planted on surface-mined lands in Indiana between 1928 and 1975, and was
listed sixth (in order of number planted) out of 26 hardwood species
that were used for surface mine afforestation [9].

Silver maple is suitable for bottomland reforestation in the lower
Mississippi River Valley [1].


OTHER USES AND VALUES : 
Silver maple has been planted as an ornamental, but the limbs are easily
broken in ice and snow storms [10].  Its use as an ornamental has
declined due to frequent breakage, tendency to rot, and prolific
sprouting.  The shallow roots invade water systems, the seeds are a
nuisance, and it sheds a lot of twigs [71].

Silver maple sap can be used to make maple syrup [16].

Silver maple stands are considered as having lower aesthetic value than
other bottomland hardwood types, and are therefore less valuable for
recreation [43].


MANAGEMENT CONSIDERATIONS : 
Young stems of silver maple can be maintained as low, dense cover for
wildlife by frequent patch cutting [43].

Where eastern cottonwood is the desired tree species, removal of
competing silver maple stems is necessary to prevent silver maple
dominance [43].  Silver maple is intermediate to resistant to 2,4-D, and
susceptible to intermediate in resistance to 2,4,5-T [48].  There was no
sprouting from silver maple stumps with direct application of undiluted
triclopyr ester.  Other application methods were also effective [42].

Silver maple can be managed on good sites for sawtimber, and on poor or
wet sites for pulp or cordwood.  Rapid growth occurs in both pure and
mixed stands [16].  In the northeastern and north-central United States,
selective cuts and shelterwood cuts are silvical options for silver
maple [55].  However, silver maple trees will sprout along the bole
where they are exposed to sunlight, reducing the amount of clear new
wood that can be formed.  It is recommended that silver maple be left in
clumps where possible during selective harvest, or that openings not be
so large as to allow full sunlight to fall on the trunks of remaining
silver maple stems [42].  Clearcutting followed by pre-commercial
treatments to remove undesirable stems is recommended [45].
Clearcutting or group selection/uneven-aged management can result in
good regeneration if seed sources are present.  Relatively large open
areas are required for good seedling establishment [43].  In
regenerating stands, cull trees need to be removed.  Girdled silver
maple stems sprout vigorously; herbicide treatment is necessary to
completely remove a cull silver maple from the stand [42].  Direct
seeding has not been tested for silver maple [1].

The riparian areas in which silver maple occurs are of prime value for
wildlife.  No tree harvesting should occur within 50 feet (15 m) of
streams [44].

Silver maple has potential as a nurse tree for interplanting with black
walnut (Juglans nigra) in Ontario.  Such interplantings showed the best
5-year growth compared with black walnut alone, black walnut and white
ash, or black walnut and autumn olive (Elaeagnus umbellata) [64].

Silver maple is subject to damage by winds, ice, wood rot and insects
[14,40].  Relatively soft wood renders it susceptible to a number of
wood rotting fungi.  The moist conditions in which it grows encourage a
number of leaf molds and wilts to which silver maple is also susceptible
[16].  Silver maple seedlings are susceptible to rodent damage,
especially in heavy grass or weed cover [47].  Silver maple seedlings
exposed to 0.1 ppm ozone under laboratory conditions experienced a
reduction in leaf area and in total new dry weight after 40 days [31].

Silver maple foliage is fed upon by later stage gypsy moth larvae only
when preferred foliage is not available [21].

Related categories for Species: Acer saccharinum | Silver Maple