When we moved from Macungie to Jim Thorpe and found our little house in the woods, we were delighted to find a very distinct looking little tree species growing all over our property.

I hate to admit it but I really never thought much about identifying it until I was hired at the Carbon County Environmental Education Center. I could name about 10 trees on sight but other than that, tree “ID” wasn’t really something I was interested in.

My mother worked for the U.S. Forest Service but I never thought to ask her for an identification of this tree. It just wasn’t really that big of a deal to know what these trees were.

Of course, when school children started asking me about various trees, I knew it was time to start learning to identify some of the more common trees and that sparked my curiosity about these trees in our yard. I took photos of them and asked Susan Gallagher to help me identify these trees. Immediately, she told me the trees in the photos were striped maples.

I wanted to know more about these lovely little trees all over our property so I started looking through field guides.

I was insulted by some of the descriptions of “our” trees. Most of the guides described this species as shrubby understory maples usually growing from 15 to 20 feet tall with some growing to a height of 40 feet tall. That didn’t sound shrubby to me and for some reason I was insulted for this species.

I became fascinated with these trees because of the unusual and interesting markings on their bark.

Striped maple trees have bark that is green in color with vertical white striping. The stripes sometimes fade as the tree matures with the bark turning reddish brown and becomes rough as it ages.

My fascination grew each spring as we marveled at the way the leaves unfurled and grew up to 7 inches long and resembled geese feet. These maples are often referred to as “Goosefoot Maples” because of this. The leaves are pale green in the spring and by summer the leaves turn to a deep green.

In the fall, their leaves change to yellow. Striped maple trees are also known as “snake-bark maple.” Other species of snake-bark maple exist, but Acer pensylvanicum is the only one native to the United States.

These trees develop little tiny and delicate clusters of yellow flowers that blossom after the leaves have budded out. By summer’s end little seed pods develop. I have spread the seeds of these trees hoping to increase the striped maple numbers on our property.

At a meeting my husband attended, the speaker stated that these trees are considered scrappy trees and are considered to be not much benefit in the environment. He was curious about this because nature has a reason for everything and he discovered that striped maple trees are beneficial for local wildlife.

This tree serves an important role as a browse plant for wildlife. Planting striped maple trees results in food for many animals, including red squirrels, porcupines, white-tailed deer and ruffed grouse so, I think I will continue my efforts of spreadingw seeds.

So much for being scrappy and shrubby. I think I will keep them.

Jeannie Carl is a naturalist at the Carbon County Environmental Education Center in Summit Hill. The center rehabilitates injured animals and educates the public on a variety of wildlife found in the area. For information on the Carbon County Environmental Center, visit www.carboneec.org.