Floodplain forest restoration nearly finished

SHEFFIELD –  The final steps of a multi-year project to restore the floodplain forest of Bartholomew’s Cobble are underway this week with the planting of native trees on The Trustees of Reservations property.

More than 1,800 trees will be planted to restore this important area, including Silver Maple, Box Elder, Cottonwood, Sycamore, Tulip Tree, Hackberry, and seven varieties of disease-resistant Elms.

“The Trustees are thankful to being able to partner with Project Native and Helia to ensure the success of this project and that we hope that we will be able to partner on other projects benefiting native plants at other reservations in the future,” said Julie Richburg, Project Manager for the restoration.

Bartholomew’s Cobble, a property owned by The Trustees of Reservations, is a National Natural Landmark (designated by the National Park Service) and provides critical habitat to more than 30 state-listed species. The Floodplain Forest Restoration and Habitat Improvement Project that is underway will restore 10 acres of floodplain forest, improve an additional 75 acres of state-listed priority habitat and eliminate threats from non-native invasive plants.

The Trustees of Reservations, Project Native, and Helia Land Design collaborated to bring this project to fruition. Project Native expanded its native plant nursery at its Housatonic location to accommodate and care for the trees used in the restoration.

“Converting three former hay fields that were dominated by invasive reed canary grass into floodplain forest has been an exciting and important project that we are glad to be a part of,” said Bridghe McCracken, owner of Helia Land Design and project manager for the planting. Much of the seed for the project was collected on-site to be cleaned by Project Native and later used in the restoration.

“This is important because it ensures that we are replanting with local genotype,” said McCracken.

In 2011, more than 300 tree seedlings were collected by The Trustees’ Holyoke Youth Conservation Corps and cared for at their nursery in Holyoke before transferring the trees to Project Native in 2012 for overwintering and preparation for the planting.

Partial funding for the project came from a Natural Resource Damages Grant. The Fund was established in 2000, when General Electric was required to provide $15 million to the Natural Resource Trustees for natural resource damages associated with the environmental harm caused by releases of PCBs (polychlorinated biphenyls) into the Housatonic River watershed in western Massachusetts and Connecticut.

The restoration does not end with the planting of the trees; monitoring of the site will continue for two years after completion.

Although invasive plant species will always require some effort to control, by the end of the project the major populations within more than 80 acres of the property will be brought to a level manageable by existing staff.

The Trustees is committed to ensuring that the forest becomes a mature floodplain forest which will take time well beyond the time frame of the grant.

The planting phase of the restoration will continue on Thursday, August 29 and will be completed on Tuesday, September 3.

Posted by Kameron Z. Spaulding on August 29, 2013. Filed under Community News,News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry