On the James River with Presquile NWR in view .... look at that cloudless blue sky!
The second trip I made to Presquile NWR was very different from the first. This was not a club maintainer trip, but a volunteer event, so most of the folks were not AT maintainers. When we arrived at the ferry dock, we were met by the James River Association's 28' pontoon boat ...... no jon boat ride this time and everyone could go in one trip. It turned out that there were Girl Scouts on the island for a weekend educational program and thus the JRA boat availability. The girls would be pairing up with us (one adult, one Girl Scout) to plant the 100 trees that Cyrus (Wildlife Refuge Specialist) had waiting on Presquile..
Once we got to Presquile and over to the work site, we met the group of girls and then Cyrus gave us a demonstration of how to properly plant the trees .... the size of the holes, how deep, etc. When we finished, we had black plastic 'skirts' to put around each tree to keep the weeds from taking over until the young trees could get established in their new homes. The trees were spaced out already and the species mixed up .... there were 5 species native to the area that were being planted - at least four that I recall in particular were red cedar, persimmon, poplars and dogwoods. Maples and various oaks have also been planted.
We paired off with the girl scouts and got busy planting. The fellow in the boots and blue shirt on the left was the JRA instructor/boat pilot for the weekend. The tree he's looking at is a red cedar and the planting is finished with the plastic skirt in place. The tree in the foreground is getting ready to go in a freshly-dug hole. One really nice aspect of planting these trees .... the ground, being former crop land, was very soft and easy to dig. On a previous work trip, where we planted about 17 trees on a James River NWR property, the ground had been like concrete and we had to chip away until we finally got a hole big enough to put the tree in ....... compared to that experience, this planting was a 'breeze'!
As you finished up a tree, you picked up your tools and headed on down the line to the next available tree(s). There were lots of folks and lots of tree planting going on.
Looking down the line, you can see the progress that is being made. It started out a little cool, but it didn't take long for jackets and sweaters to come off as everybody got busy. It was so clear and sunny, a few folks ended up with some sunburn.
This is the row of planted trees - 100 in 3 hours!!
By the time all the trees were planted, everybody was ready for a cold drink and lunch. Cyrus grilled hot dogs up at the equipment shed while everyone else was hanging out in the shade at the house, sitting on the edge of the porch (most of the adults) and hanging out at the picnic tables (most of the kids). It's a pretty long walk from the equipment shed to the house and as I watched Cyrus coming from afar carrying that big pan of hot dogs, I was really hungry and I remember thinking "please don't accidentally trip with our lunch!" Of course, Cyrus safely delivered the hot dogs and everybody was quickly busy eating. There were bags of cookies for dessert ..... even Oreos with orange filling because Halloween was just around the corner!
The girls were a hoot. They were having a grand weekend - a big pavillion sort of a tent had been erected and they had their smaller tents set up underneath. There were lots of educational activities that weekend to keep them busy. The morning before we planted trees, they had been on a nature walk and discovered a dead fox, which to their satisfaction, was subsequently buried. I about fell off the porch laughing when I heard two of the little girls commenting on the JRA instructor as he drove by in the pickup truck after making a trip to retrieve our planting tools. One little girl looked at the other in some astonishment and said "Do you know I think he's at least TWENTY-SEVEN!!" I guess at their ages (8/10 to 12/14 maybe?) that seemed like a very ancient age to be ..... it was all rather charming and amusing to hear their happy chatter.
It was finally time for us to leave after 2:00. The tree-planting volunteers were leaving the island first on the JRA pontoon boat and then the Girl Scouts would leave last. On the way back to the mainland ferry dock location, we made a short excursion down the river and were given a boat tour and brief talk/explanation about the sturgeon artificial spawning reef that had been recently constructed. The tour and talk were extremely interesting ...... and there will be more information on the sturgeons in a later post.
I have really fond memories of that day on Presquile and the feeling after was one of total satisfaction (and some surprise) when looking down that long, long line of newly planted trees. This was not the first tree planting project on Presquile. There have been massive tree plantings to help stabilize areas eroding along the shipping channel and other plantings, like the one we did, for habitat restoration to establish riparian buffer zones and help shade out invasive grasses. Here are some links to much earlier tree planting events on Presquile:
Since all of this habitat is being restored, here is a link to a birding list for Presquile which will give you an idea of the birds you might see there, in which season(s), and frequency (rare, common, etc.):
~ Merlot
(Photos: all photos by Lori A.)
No comments:
Post a Comment