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.