2016 Marks Twelve Years of ALCS Fall Tree Planting
October 6, 2016
In the late Summer and early Fall, fruit and nut trees begin to drop their fruits. We collect as many as we can for planting.
Our main focus every year is chestnuts: Chinese, American, and hybrids. We also plant black walnuts, and rare butternuts, when we can get them.
Until 1912, America's Eastern forests were filled with a towering forest canopy of American chestnuts. When they flowered in the summer, the mountains looked snowy. When they dropped their abundant nut crops, every person, bird, and animal feasted until the snows arrived. In 1912 an Asian blight killed nearly all American chestnuts, and butternut trees. Some stunted trees remain, and though affected by their respective blights, they produce nuts. We view our role as conservationists and biodiversity curators, and planting these unusual crops contributes toward those two goals.
Now that Sudden Oak Wilt is in Pennsylvania, getting alternative sources of nut crops planted is imperative. Years are required before a tree can grow to a size where it can produce, and withstand wildlife.
We plant our seeds at job sites, where we have conducted forestry activities, in random forest locations, and where we are asked. Usually tree tubes and wire fencing are used, but a two-inch hole poked in the ground is a good way to plant, too.