Arboreal and Spiritual Rescue

Protecting a tree sapling in a wire cage

We've had perfect autumn weather this year in the northern Piedmont, and today was no exception.  So, I decided to "fly the coop" for an hour or so this morning to take care of two trees in serious need of attention.

I've got five guys on my stewardship (i.e., maintenance) staff who should be doing this kind of job. However, because the weather was so nice, and because it would have been harder to tell the guys where the trees were located than to just do the job myself, I went out in the field.

The first tree, a linden (or basswood) with a diameter of about 8 inches, was being rubbed by white-tailed deer bucks almost to death.  When rutting season comes around, the deer rub their antlers against trees they find suitable and, in the process, scrape off the bark.  If they scrape the bark all the way around the tree, it will kill the tree.  For some reason, the deer seem to find basswoods irresistible, and they will savage any specimen that is not adequately protected.  My staff either encloses the trees in wire cages or they wrap large trees with burlap sacks.  In the case of the basswood tree I went out to rescue, the burlap bag had slipped down and the trunk was exposed.  So, I firmly reattached the bag and I enclosed the tree in a wire mesh cage.

The second tree I went to rescue was a red oak sapling whose protective wire cage had been completely overwhelmed by the insidious invasive vine porcelain-berry.  Imagine the tree being planted in the image at the head of the post completely blanketed by a mass of vines and you get the idea.  I cut away and uprooted the vines, replaced the wooden stakes supporting the cage, and generally tidied up the planting spot - I'm an "anal" neat freak.

While I was working, a man stopped to tell me that there was a sizable snapping turtle alongside the trail about 50 feet away.  I had just walked the trail to get to the tree and hadn't even noticed the turtle, which looked like a big, gray rock when I went up to see it.  Cool!  Then, when I went back to the tree to finish up, a woman walked by and thanked me for saving the tree.

She went on to say that my preserve is the one thing in life that keeps her sane and she didn't know what she would do if she couldn't walk the trails and rejuvenate her psyche.  She knew my name (though I didn't recognize her), and she concluded by thanking me profusely for being the heart and soul of the preserve.  She told me that she had so much gratitude and appreciation for me and and my commitment to the natural world.

Deferential type that I am, I sorta' gave her an "Aw, shucks" response.  But, you know what?  She really did lift my spirits.

Earth Day Tree Planting

Stewardship Assistant Chris planting a tree aided by local 6th-graders

One of the school districts in our catchment area has committed to bringing all students from 6th- through 9th-grades to my preserve each year for an environmental education outing.  On Earth Day this year (Monday, April 22), about 125 6th-graders (half of the 6th-graders in the district) descended en mass for the morning.  The students broke into four groups, and each group headed for a different activity station.  Throughout the morning, at 45 minute intervals, the students switched stations so that all students got a chance to rotate through all four activities: tree planting, invasive plant control, stream ecology, and pond water testing. 

Smaller trees require smaller holes - always a consideration with 6th-graders

The tree planting occurred near our office.  Last winter, the staff and volunteers spent many hours clearing invasive plants from a hopelessly weedy and vine-infested thicket in preparation for planting this spring with the students. 

Chris positioning a deer-proofing cage while a student readies a stake

The students love getting out of the classroom - especially in the spring when the weather starts to improve.  I'm sure the teachers like the change, too.

At any one time, there were a dozen students planting trees

The second half of the 6th-graders came to the preserve on Tuesday and repeated the activities of the previous day.  Between the two groups, my Stewardship Assistant Chris reported that the students, teachers, and chaperones had planted over 100 trees.

Planting Trees and Spring Birds

Despite torrential rains Saturday night that totaled more than three inches, volunteers showed up to plant trees on the creek floodplain in my natural area the following morning.  A dozen hardy souls tromped through the mud to dig holes that, more often than not, filled with water before the tree could even be planted.  We'd selected trees that could withstand wet feet, though: swamp white oaks, sycamores, red and silver maples, river birches, black gums, and my favorite, hornbeams.

The riparian area had been part of a landscaped estate through the 1960s when it featured non-native specimen trees and lots of naturalized spring bulbs in a lawn sloping down to the creek.  But, with the passing of the estate into the hands of a church, the challenging riparian area was all but abandoned.  Parts of it developed naturally into a nice stand of native swamp rose, but for the most part, it was overrun by non-native multiflora roses.  When we acquired the floodplain and created a trail alongside the creek, we also began planting trees to close up the sunny, invasive-dominated meadow and to return forest to the floodplain and adjacent slopes.

The volunteers who showed up to help were members of three families plus two college students.  One of the families brought their young children, who had a great time helping out and getting as muddy as possible.  The group managed to plant 40 trees and surround them with deer-proof wire cages in less than two hours.

_____

Image by dpughphoto.com

For the last few days, I've noticed a Pine Warbler coming to the feeder outside my kitchen window to eat suet.  At first, not observing carefully, I casually wrote it off as an American Goldfinch that hadn't  fully molted into its glorious breeding plumage.  Then I realized that, if it hadn't molted by now - prime breeding season - it wasn't going to to molt and it must be some other species.  On more careful observation, I realized it was a Pine Warbler.  But, a Pine Warbler coming to a feeder?  Unheard of!  Nonetheless, there it was, and there was no doubt about its identity.  Then, as I searched the Internet for an image of a Pine Warbler to accompany this post, what did I find but an image of the bird taken at - you guessed it - a suet feeder?!

_____ 

Saturday night's torrential rains that made tree planting so muddy on Sunday morning also flooded the old farm pond down the hill behind my house.  The pond contained a small island commandeered for the last several years by the same pair of Canada geese.  Last year, the geese's nest was inundated by heavy April rains, and it happened again this year.  Certainly, we don't need any more Canada geese around, so I don't regret their loss for that reason.  But, clearly the female was distraught.  Last evening, I watched her just standing in the two inches of water above her former nest.  Perhaps this personal disaster is for the better, though; the pond harbors several snapping turtles, and the geese usually fail to raise a brood to adulthood anyway.  Is it better to lose a nest of eggs, or to watch your brood get smaller each day as a hungry turtle pulls your goslings, one by one, under water?

_____

Dark-eyed Juncos have forsaken my feeder for breeding grounds further north, but White-throated Sparrows are still here in force and stridently practicing their mating calls.  They always stick around a little longer than the Juncos, but they, too, will be gone in a few days.