FIVE PLUS! Inventory at the Intervale

FIVE PLUS!

That's always a good sign when doing Inventory!

For the past two weeks, Seth has been showing us how to do Inventory of the trees at the nursery. We've measured countless silky dogwood, red oiser dogwood and of course black willow. 

The process of inventory is relatively simple. Using a measuring stick, we measured the height of each tree per five foot area, every ten feet. As two people measured, one person tallied our findings. 

Inventory is important for the nursery to know how much of what species they have for restoration projects. It is also important to know the amount of each species average size. 

Here's a picture of Rachel doing Inventory. She looks so happy! She must have found a 5 plus! 

Striped and Sugars!

Today at the ICN rachel planted both striped and sugar maples in a raised bed made by our very own group member Meagan! 

After covering the seedlings with potting soil we addressed a major problem: squirrels!

We covered the bed with a wire table and covered it with leaf debris. Hopefully the leaf debris will provide a layer of insulation for the seedlings over the winter months. 

Katie

Everyone loves a rainy day...

Since the weather today is less than beautiful, I got to spend some time on the never-ending task of seed collection. Hemlock pine cones are small, and conceal the viable seeds with the hard outer shell. In the wild, the cones eventually dry out and open, dropping their seeds. At the ICN, all of this collection is done by hand, sitting on buckets rolling and picking away at hemlock pinecones to reach the seeds inside. The task is tedious, as the seeds are miniature and difficult to reach in many cases. HOWEVER, with good company and a positive attitude, three hours of seed collecting flew by! Many other nurseries around the state (and country, for that matter), have a mechanized seed collection method, or invest in big tumblers that physically shake the pinecones until the seeds fall out. Seth and Mike showed me a couple pictures of such tumblers, 'oohing and ahhing' like it was a fancy european sports car.

Personally, i'm much more impressed that they do it by hand, although it is extremely time consuming. Oh well, it gave me something to do on a rainy day, while sipping tea!

Weeks 4-5

For the past two weeks we have been calculating inventory down at the Intervale. We go out into the field with our marker sticks and count each and every tree within a five foot square and then skip down ten feet and repeat the measurements.

The first week we counted dogwoods. Lots of dogwoods. I can proudly point out the difference between Silky Dogwood and Red-Osier Dogwood. We counted one row of Silky's where we would yell which size the tree fell under. The next row I decided to take on the job of jotting down the dogwoods we found, and my what a task that was. First off, the second row was a mix between Red-O and Silky, and second we decided since it was a mixed row to count each and every tree. This was such a useful experience because now I know I can retain lots of numbers when their being yelled at me. After the total of 400+ trees was counted we went over to another bed to weed out the rye grass. Rye grass if left in the bed over winter will out shade the trees in the spring.

The second week we did inventory on Shrub Willow. There were many different species of willow mixed into the row. Luckily for this row we did not count every last tree, but we did have to get in the bramble of large weeds and large trees. Since willow grow relatively fast they were all taller than me and I nearly lost my group in the mix! Halfway through the counting I accidentally broke off a branch from one of the trees, and it was my buddy throughout the inventory. Driving back home I noticed him sticking out of my pocket, when I got home I stuck him in some planting soil so he could grow some roots.

Oh! one last thing, while doing inventory on the Willow, Seth was showing me the aphids on the willows. They don't harm the trees, but when you smush them or play around with them they leave a blood red stain on your fingers. Don't wipe them on your pants or a white shirt because its hard to get out, I should know that's what I spent my weekend doing. Whoops!

-Rachel

Tree-planting day

The ICN hosted a community tree-planting day today, at the Kwiniaska Golf Course in Shelburne. There was a great turnout, with families and students alike showing up to help plant what ended up totaling 362 trees. We planted shrub willows, green ash, and boxelders.

For me, one of the best parts about this event was seeing the families that came out to participate, and hearing the environmental insights of some of the kids. One little girl, when asked by her father why she thought it was important that we were planting trees, answered wisely "to help the turtles". As someone who also started out with the basic goal to help turtles, her comment struck a chord with me. I truly believe that environmental education is one of the most efficient means to changing our future, and I think events like this one hosted by the ICN are key in providing future generations with a connection to the natural world.

I would love to be part of more of these events, and perhaps in the future 206 students would be able to organize one independently!

Cutting staghorn sumac roots

At the Intervale today I helped cut staghorn sumac roots to collect.  The roots were cut into about 6 inch pieces.  For each sumac that we cut into we planted several trees around the area.  With the root cuttings that we collected (there were a few students there for work study and Seth our community partner was there) we sliced a bit of each end of the root piece.  After that a growth hormone was put on for when the pieces are planted.  It was fun and interesting work!

Today I worked in the field using a ring hoe to break up weeds along rows of tiny buttonbush seedlings as well as other species. This was to keep rye grass from out-competing the young plants as they grow. Doing this in the fall is important because rye is an extremely tolerant plant and can survive much lower temperatures than others. Cutting it in the fall keeps its roots from further developing and taking up nutrients that the seedlings need. The first picture above shows a row of seeds covered with leaf litter from local landscaping companies. The ICN uses leaf litter to protect the seeds and to simulate germination conditions present in a natural environment. The leaves break down and replenish the soil's nutrients which eliminates the need for fertilizers and allows for quality crops of trees year after year. Activities like this show that a tree nursery is not a seasonal line of work, but that there are things to be done throughout most of, if not all of the year.

-Josh

Working with volunteer groups...

The Intervale Conservation Nursery often has groups of volunteers come for the day to help out, in many cases escaping their offices to broaden their knowledge about trees and shrubs, and to get their hands dirty! I had the privilege of working with one such group, some folks from Dealer.Com, who were at the Intervale planting trees and organizing tubes, which hold the stems before they get planted in a bed.

Spending a day at the Intervale with colleagues seems like a great idea for any office get-away, especially after seeing how the Dealer.Com crew worked together to get hemlocks planted and the back of the greenhouse organized. Not only were they outside and exploring something different, but they were collaborating with their co-workers in a new setting to accomplish a goal.

In all, we got part of a row of hemlocks planted (some of the little ones didn't want to come out of tubes!), and cleaned up the back greenhouse, sorting stems and disposing of the ones that didn't properly germinate. 

Yesterday Seth, Mike, and myself inventoried this row of grey birch saplings. We recorded the number of trees and the height of each. All of these saplings are grown from local seed sources and will eventually be planted somewhere in Vermont. I found it particularly interesting how the heights were varied throughout the row of trees given that the seeds were all planted at the same time and have been subject to the same environmental conditions.

-Josh

Hoeing the field

Today at the Intervale I hoed the fields with a little hoe tool called a ring hoe.  This was done in the sections of some of the trees planted at the Intervale site.  The purpose of this was to cut the rye that has grown between the tree rows so that the rye does not ruin the growth of the trees.  It was a beautiful day today at the Intervale!  Meagan was there as well and it was nice to get to work with her. 

Construction!

It's the day before Halloween, and I'm gearing up for my costume! I plan to be Oscar the Grouch, from Sesame Street... because who doesn't love Oscar? Today at the ICN, I worked with another volunteer to construct a raised garden bed. We used old wood from a previous bed, trimming the edges of some of the heavier-weathered pieces. The raised bed will be used to house striped and sugar maples, which are unique in the sense that they can be planted immediately after seed-collection, without any sort of treatment or temperature variation.

Working on the creation of the raised bed was a little thrilling for me, as I got to learn something new about power tools (which is always fun), as well as general construction techniques. After we had the frame completed, we attached a section of old metal fencing to act as a rodent-guard, that will hopefully keep the mice and other furry friends from burrowing under and uprooting the seeds. I'm a little hesitant that the size of the grate won't be small enough to ward off any incoming mice, but it's better than no deterrent at all! Time will tell if planting in the raised bed is successful or not, I hope so!

Week 3

When we arrived at ICN this week there was a soil bed all ready and made for us. We were going to plant both Striped Maple and Sugar Maple in these beds. They were hoping that this new method would mimic the likes of a natural environment and find a new way to grow the maple trees.

We first smushed our fingers into the soil and drew a line. Then we filled the little trough with seeds and repeated until we ran out of room. Next we drilled screws into the wooden planks to mark where the rows were. Then we covered the seeds with the soil surrounding them, and covered the whole bed with a think layer of leaves. The leaves act as an insulator from the harsh winter environment. We then laid down a table over the bed to keep the squirrel from getting at the seeds. Who knows what may come from this experiment, but it something cool thats going on, and something to follow up with. 

-Rachel

At the Intervale today I helped plant silver maple and cedar trees.  There was a volunteer group at the Intervale helping to plant the trees as well.  They were from a local business in town.  The trees were planted in a section plot that the Intervale site has.  The sections are about 50 yards.  I really enjoyed planting the trees today!

The hunt for white ash!

Source: mushroomexpert.com

My first day at the Intervale Conservation Nursery, and I was not disappointed. Seth and I spent the day collecting seeds, more specifically that of the elusive white ash. The amazing thing about seed collection at the ICN is that they do it all by hand. Seth and Mike are constantly on the lookout when driving around the area, scouting what could be new stock for the current or next season. Seth and I headed out onto some Intervale land on a tip that there was a few white ash trees to see what we could find. At this point in the season, differentiating white from green ash is difficult (nearly impossible for me-- but Seth's a pro!). Things to look for included a U-shaped leaf scar on twigs, which is generally different from the more D-shaped leaf scar on a green ash. The difference is subtle, and it's worth mentioning that the leaf scar on the green ash also tends to be more inverted.

After exploring the area, we did come across a white ash tree, and spent some time collecting seeds (utilizing a ladder and hook) to take back with us. We tried a few other spots around town where white ash had been spotted in previous years, but were unsuccessful in finding any more samaras (fruit with a flattened wing as pictured below). 

Week 2

Week 2!

This week Seth and I went out into the field to Macrae farm in Colchester. There we collected Speckled Alder seeds, not to be confused with Alnus glutinosa or European Black Alder. Speckled Alder keeps its seed in its catkins, they look like little pine cones. When we got the Macrae site we walked around and collected these seeds from as many of the trees as we could. At first when we got there we thought it was bust because we didn't see any Alders, but once one popped up, they all popped up and we were set. I became a professional branch bender, allowing Seth to reach the seeds that were farther up. By the end of our time there we had two gallon sized bags full of catkins and seeds.

On our ride to the Macrae site, we talked about this cool thing that was happening with Butternut trees. With most trees you can pick seeds from anywhere in Vermont and they will adapt to the site. With Butternuts, since there is blight, they catalog them and look at the locally adapted species to see about the blight resistant trees. They then collect those seeds catalog them very well, and then plant them. This is very long term study, but they want to see if these trees are actually blight resistant, or whether that it was a happy accident that they were. All and all it is a really cool long term experiment.

-Rachel

First Day at the Intervale

On my first day at the Intervale I helped Seth, our community partner, gather willow cuttings.  A worker at the Intervale was cutting the willow shrubs and we gathered the cuttings into piles.  The willows were being cut and collected for sale and for projects that the Intervale does at various sites.

Week 1

Week one we got things started off by planting rows of trees to be harvested in the coming years. They were rows of betulaceae, both paper birch and yellow birch. First we had to drive the holes about 8 inches apart. Then we planted the trees from their tubes, dig and repeat until the entire row was finished. This was very tiring work, but after all was said and done it felt very rewarding, like we were making something better for the future.

Here's a fun story, Katie was hiking up Mount Mansfield and hear a bird she couldn't identify. She whistled the call to us hoping we might be able to identify it. We couldn't identify it but there was a mocking bird hiding in the bushes and repeated the song right back to us.

-Rachel