saving the american chestnut , one tree at a time in wayne national forest

Tree Planting at Wayne National Forest

Here the representative from the American chestnut association is showing us their suggested method placing trees in hole and what is expected. 

     Last Saturday I had the opportunity to again do some volunteer tree planting only this time it was at Wayne National Forest at Nelsonville, Ohio. Nelsonville is about 6 miles north of Athens Ohio, and Ohio University and close to Hocking state university, both premiere colleges. Hocking state is known for its forestry program and provided students as well as buses and transportation to take us out to the planting site after we were registered and received some pertinent safety information from the U.S. Foresters regarding our planting at their site.

    We were planting American chestnuts which were bred to be blight resistant after crossing native America chestnuts with Chinese chestnuts that are blight resistant, being bred together in an elaborate crossing regime that yielded the special trees that we planted on Saturday. There was control trees of just American chestnut and as well Chinese varieties also mixed in to use as reference when evaluating the performance of the newly transplanted trees. Specifically they were looking for blight resistant capability as well as nuts being formed and overall performance of tree to maturity stage including overall growth. 

    The trees arrived in long elongated pots and were transferred to the site with a crawler tractor with tracks to navigate the steep terrain. We had to hike to the top of a sandy knob where they had pre- drilled the holes for the trees with an auger. We were planting 750 trees and had approximately 75 volunteers plus forestry staff of about 10.   the soil appeared to be a sandy clay for the most part and this site was picked as it was a tornado devastation area and also for its soil characteristics, although it wasn’t considered ideal as chestnuts, as they prefer a sandy soil to branch their root systems, this was the best site as it was mid-range in elevation on the hill, and this is favorable to American chestnuts in a natural setting.

 The tracked vehicle used to transport seedlings and tools to planting site. 

      We were divided into groups of three and issued safety equipment and specific jobs, as trees were all numbered. A specific planting style and a deer tube were placed over the new sapling to hopefully protect it from ground moles and deer. Tags were displayed on outside of the tube so information on type and variety as well location and planting sequence could be easily observed for some time or as along as tubes were being used to protect young trees. A stake was place along the side of the tube and both tube and tags were tied to a stake to assure stability of seedling and tube for some time from the weather or a variety of reasons that may hurt young seedlings. Eventually they will follow up with herbicide around the base of the young seedlings to control weed growth, something I am not fond of, but then this is not my game.

      Representatives from the American chestnut foundation in Maryland and Department of Forestry foresters went through the planting procedures and each member of our three man team’s individual duties, along with safety tips like no swinging shovels, or throwing trees at one another, and we were finally off to the races. 

before planting

    Planting American chestnuts is much like planting any other tree and that is to hold and identify the crown or the part where the soil ends and the tree begin at its base above the root line, and you hold that point between two fingers on one hand while covering roots with soil. Their pots were approximately a foot long and three inches in diameter and the roots were bound, after removing the tree from the plastic pot.  It was necessary to loosen the tree roots with one hand while firmly grasping the tree at the soil line. After loosening roots then place soil around the roots making sure you had a homogenous mixture of soil taking some from here and there blending and thoroughly compacting the soil around the root and breaking clods as necessary till soil is level again around the base of the tree and no roots are showing. Then we would take a  deer shield about 4 feet long, and in a spiraling motion spin onto tree assuring all branches are carefully tucked in and then push the tube’s soil end into the  ground lightly and place more soil at the base of deer guard. A stake was placed adjacent to the deer guard and ties were used in knockouts at side of deer tube to insert tie and wrap around stake firmly holding guard and tree in upright position. This system seems to work very well and tube would enhance growth much like a greenhouse would and would protect young seedlings from being inadvertently run over or destroyed by a variety of means including freezing and varmints. I planted the seedlings and a helper Jill would place the tube and use the stake driver to drive the stake firmly into the hole. She had to wear safety goggles and a hard hat as she was using tools. The third person in our crew placed the trees in the proper order in the hole, and it wasn’t long till we finished our row of 28, and then moved over to help others with theirs as we quickly went through our trees.

augured hole

    We took time and made sure we did as good a job as we could, and as well the foresters would check our work to make sure we were doing well in following directions. Within an hour after we started, we were finished and heading back to the bus and back to our cars at the Wayne National Forest main office building.  

      I pushed further for more information about American chestnuts as the foresters and the representative from the American Chestnut Association were not really sharing much in terms of history of the American chestnut and its demise. The American chestnut suffered from blight in the 1930’s to the 1940’s and by the 50’s the American chestnut was about wiped out as a tree. Due to the fact the trees don’t rot much they stood sometimes for years in forests and worms and bugs would infest the dead logs and created the wormy chestnut we see today in limited quantities. The one characteristic of the American chestnut is its ability to resist rot and was prized as a lumber source for that reason. As well it also provided a food source for squirrels and deer as well a variety of wildlife. The American chestnut was more of a lumber tree, whereas the Chinese variety had more nuts and limbs lowering its ability to be used as a lumber source.

tubes and stakes around trees that are hidden from view 

    After the blight hit, a few American trees were found and seed was recovered allowing horticulturists to cross with the Chinese variety and in the process saved a few trees through breeding and now they have bred enough to allow this program to commence at this location in Nelsonville Ohio. These trees are some of the first American Chestnuts to be planted and are very rare as they have no history as to how exactly these trees will do and they won’t for the next seven years assuming they all live.

    This whole experience was interesting and it was different from the first volunteer tree planting I had went to as conditions and goal of planting was much different. Before we were planting several varieties designed to exist on arid reclaimed strip mine lands with what they expect to be close to a sixty percent survival rate so areas were overplanted to assure there would sufficient coverage in all areas. Pines as well as hardwood trees, black locust, and others specifically designed to be planted in reclaimed strip mine lands were placed in ripped up clay hardpan. We would use a froe I think it was called, kind of a special spade that you would jam into the soil and push it forward then place the seedling in the gap behind where you pushed it forward. Then you pull the spade out leaving the tree in the hole. You would tamp around it.

a ham shot of volunteer from Hocking Tech and trees already planted in background

     Here all holes were augured with a tractor and trees were hand placed, and soil was loosened from the auguring process. Deer tubes and stakes were employed as compared to the strip mines, it was more important to give every advantage to the young seedlings. The personnel were less informative despite trying to make it a teaching session for various colleges. I had previously done work with the Soil Conservation Service and was aware of a government attitude and it seemed as if being a leader was all most of these guys ever did. Trying to find lessons of how to do things properly by showing us exactly what they wanted was not very evident , at times you wondered if they had ever planted any trees themselves and their conversation always distanced themselves from that fact also.

      What’s more the least they could have done was bought some lousy donuts to hand out to all the great volunteer help they received and no doubt saved their carcasses from actually performing the labor necessary to get the job done. As big as their office building was, I am sure somewhere in there was a box of donuts they hoarded for themselves. The strip mine guys provided their volunteers with a ten foot long sub sandwich from subway as well pizza, and would not let you leave till you had consumed your fair share, and your shoulder hurt from being patted on the back telling you how important you were.

      All in all, I was responsible for planting approximately fifty trees although I had help but it was a hands on with all of those seedlings. This along with other trees I have planted this year will bring me close to my tree a day for a year goal I have.  

     Tomorrow I will talk more about my trip on an overall basis and also about my recent bee inspection and how they appear to be doing heading intro winter.