Tuesday, November 24, 2009

Mountain Lakes Projects--Butternuts, Plant Rescue

Have a spicebush! As part of a planting project around Mountain Lakes House, Friends of Princeton Open Space board member Tim Patrick-Miller led a plant rescue on the old lower dam at Mountain Lakes. The dam will be enlarged this coming year, burying all existing vegetation. All told, we rescued five spicebush shrubs and four swamp rose.

In another project, initiated by Princeton resident Bill Sachs, we planted 20 butternut seeds outdoors, then covered them with metal screening to prevent pillaging by squirrels.

The butternut is a rare native tree threatened by an imported canker disease that is reducing their numbers even further. Bill, who edits the Nutshell, a newsletter for the Northern Nutgrowers Association, has been scouting out where these trees can still be found in Princeton. Until we get DNA analysis, we won't know whether the trees found are the native butternut, or a hybrid with an imported species.

2 comments:

  1. How did you make out with the butternuts? I have a cottage on the St. Lawrence River and there are an abundance of butternut trees there. I have some drying on newspaper right now!

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  2. My friend Bill Sachs has grown and planted quite a few butternuts, most of which are growing well. He might be interested in contacting you to find out more about your trees. My email address can be found via the "my profiles" link on this blog, if you want to send your contact info.

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