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Did you know Monarch butterflies are on the cusp of an endangered species? Unless there is involvement to help bring back their numbers - to use our "dominion of this planet" God gifted us with to care and provide for them. That's exactly what we are accomplishing here on the Stewardship. Our Stewardship efforts are providing habitat for these declining species native to this side of the globe. While fighting bugs that are not supposed to be on this side of the globe, sucking the life right out of our U.S. private and public forests.
Conserving Life
20 acres, or 1000 milkweed plugs, were hand-planted last summer, and you can be excited that the Monarch caterpillars have done great this year here, wildly. Why plant milkweed? It’s the only plant species that a Monarch butterfly will lay their eggs, because it’s the only food the caterpillar can eat!
"The first tagged Monarch butterfly, hatched from the wild, happened on June 1, 2017!"
It’s really neat to observe them - and we encourage everyone, young and old, to learn more about their mysterious migration and amazing lifecycle.
Combating Death
In March, Chris and I were coming out of some beautiful waterfall areas saving and treating hemlock tree stands dying from Hemlock Wooly Adelgids (HWA). Weary and tired from the steep terrain we traversed on a month-long project, day-in and day-out as weather permitted. Discovered pockets of our 15 year old Loblolly pine stands browning out.
Exhausted and faced with this unpredicted project overlay, sought the advice of our TDF area forester and forest health specialist to identify the bug(s) and prescribe the remedy. Thinking it was the dreaded Southern Pine Beetle at first, discovered it was the (aggravating) Ambrosia beetle and 2 different kinds of IPS. What's worse, the bugs not only were killing our trees but rendered our grant approval for forest clean up null and void. Leaving us with plan B and some creative thinking.
With the majority of the Hemlock areas treated, reluctantly shut that project down and focused on the Pines. Fortunately receiving heavy Spring rains, many of the trees were able to pitch the bugs. For the Pines beyond revival Chris felled, burned the brush, and pushed the small tractor beyond it’s capacity to gather and drag the logs for an end use – versus a pile of ash. While he was doing this, I became a human debarking machine with a tool called a drawknife. (May be nostalgic but I sure do appreciate tech advances thereafter.) On my best day maxing out debarking 12 logs a day until I stuck the drawknife in my knee. Leading to 4 stitches and an ER bill - because of course, it's after 5 when it happens.
Why take bark off in the first place? When a tree is felled it has a shelf life like milk in the fridge. The bark has to come off to resist rot, push back the life cycle of the bugs which caused the damage and undesired project in the first place, and preped for an end use. In this case, fence posts on the property, a wood cookie pathway, some educational wood cookies, and a few stories, with prayer and little luck.
Together it has cost us quadruple the time it would it for a small logging crew, a debarking machine, and a fire crew to tackle. Some of the debarking is still going on. Why go through of all this? We work a private certified forest, one; it’s what we do. Second to that, we are passionate about ensuring a healthy vibrant forest and have a unique opportunity to do such; it's who we are. Third, it seems like a waste to let bugs defeat our efforts and render beautiful, healthy trees useless - we had to combat that. Our hope one day is to have days where we can use these experiences as environmental education opportunities, with young and old alike; and share our love of stewardship with others.
Why did some of the trees die in the first place? The trees were weakened by the climate conditions of last year’s heat, drought, and water loss. Combined with present conditions of the bugs feeding on the trees in a weakened state, and the way hardwoods pull ground water before pines do in the spring. "Doing nothing is not an option, and while it may be overwhelming to accomplish what may need to be done, doing something is key. Nature will respond positively. Public and private forests need help everywhere."
It’s been a buggy year. With the best laid plans, the climate conditions may be predictable and other times unpredictable. On this private forest we believe God entrusted everyone on planet Earth to be stewards of this biosphere. We are trying to be examples of that mission and message starting here.
I hope you enjoyed this open letter of “what’s been happening in our neck of the woods” and encourage you to contact us or comment on the post with your thoughts. If you were inspired or motivated by this story and have a special memory you would like a tree or milkweed dedicated in it, would you consider giving a gift towards stewardship conservation in any amount through our PayPal button? It would really help the work we are trying to do here and spread abroad. You can see that funds would be utilized to help conserve species, combat the species that are sucking the life out of forests, and to share the significant message and mission of stewardship by all. Whatever you can do, we will send you a picture of your Memory Tree or Milkweed. Help us conserve a healthy forest and be part of beginning an e-Forest.
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AuthorChristina Anderson Archives
March 2018
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