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Native Tree/Plant Plight

Started by Onslow, February 23, 2019, 14:00:50 PM

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Onslow

http://www.dnr.sc.gov/education/pdf/quailhabitat.pdf

Some very informative nuggets in this article. 

While a young teen Franklin County NC, quail were present in and around the fallow that were surrounded by thickets of prunus americana.  When my old man turned the fields over to be leased, and the thickets were removed, the quail disappeared also.

I'm getting increasingly concerned as time goes on due to the seemingly persistent effort of nearly all farmers to keep farms clean and efficient.  This has resulted in the near elimination of plants/trees such as sumac and prunus americana, wild blackberry, black locust, and in some cases persimmon trees....shit that just gets in the way.

Last year, a lady in Wytheville asked me about keeping bees.  I explained to her that a nectar plant/tree inventory should be done before investing in hives.  A cursory look around revealed there was a lack of diversity in nectar producing plants and trees.

She had the following:

Dandelion...kinda scant (April bloom)
Tulip poplar (May bloom)
Dutch Clover (Spring-Summer)
Some goldenrod along the road (September bloom)
Some Fall aster. (October bloom)

There were not enough introduced species to make up for what should have been on the land within a mile radius of her property. This is a piss poor list.

Ironweed, Sumac, Persimmon, American plum, wild blackberry, sourwood should all be protected if possible. May I suggest we all invest in the future of the prunus americana.  These can be introduced in urban settings, large lots, or whatever. 

The most devastating loss imo is the American Chestnut.  This tree would have yielded lumber of the gods, protein for woodland critters, and tons of nectar in a time slot that is now a late Spring dearth period for the non native honey bees.  What is good for honey bees is good for all bees...just saying.




Woolly Bugger

f you move south through the US Appalachian region, between New York and Georgia, you get a feel for what Bill Bryson described in A Walk In The Woods as “mile after endless mile of dark, deep, silent woods”. Chestnut country once occupied some of the most spectacular wooded landscapes in the world, from the Shenandoah valley and the Catskills to Tennessee’s Smoky mountains. It is deep-gorge and clear-river country, where an understory of vibrant dogwood gives way to an imposing hemlock, a tulip tree or an exhilarating view. But something is amiss. When I visited last autumn, these woods would have been littered with fallen nuts from the magnificent American chestnut (Castanea dentata) â€" but for the blight that erased 4 billion trees from the landscape.

Just under a century ago, the American chestnut disappeared from the vast eastern forests of the US. A broadleaf of immense size and distribution, the chestnut suffered catastrophic decimation by the inadvertent introduction of an Asian blight, Cryphonectria parasitica. The blight arrived in 1904, on ornamental Japanese chestnut trees imported to furnish New York’s expanding Bronx zoo. Infection swept north and south, and by the 1950s the great “redwood of the east” â€" whose fruit was relied upon by herbivores such as the wild turkey, bluejay and red squirrel â€" all but vanished, a tragedy considered one of the greatest ecological disasters to hit the world’s forests. Thankfully, however, the story did not end there: following a monumental conservational effort, the chestnut now stands on the brink of return.

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2019/feb/09/blight-fight-the-story-of-americas-chestnuts-offers-hope-for-british-trees
ex - I'm not going to live with you through one more fishing season!
me -There's a season?

Pastor explains icons to my son: you know like the fish symbol on the back of cars.
My son: My dad has two fish on his car and they're both trout!

driver

Round-Up is likely one of the main causes for all of the above. You could just spray everything and not worry about if for a year. I believe the genetically resistant crops came out in the 80's and it was game over then. Everything got sprayed then.

Woolly Bugger

ex - I'm not going to live with you through one more fishing season!
me -There's a season?

Pastor explains icons to my son: you know like the fish symbol on the back of cars.
My son: My dad has two fish on his car and they're both trout!

Woolly Bugger

ex - I'm not going to live with you through one more fishing season!
me -There's a season?

Pastor explains icons to my son: you know like the fish symbol on the back of cars.
My son: My dad has two fish on his car and they're both trout!

Mudwall Gatewood 3.0

http://www.accf-online.org/index.html

 = only 100% American Chestnut genetic effort that I know of.   Other American Chestnut organizations are relying on hybrids. 
"Enjoy every sandwich."  Warren Zevon

Onslow

QuoteIn 1990, SUNY ESF tree geneticists William Powell and Charles Maynard (now retired) decided to try to create resistant chestnuts with the then-new technology of genetic engineering. Eventually, they inserted into the tree's genome a wheat gene that codes for an enzyme called oxalate oxidase, or OxO. It breaks down the oxalic acid the pathogen releases, which is what kills the trees. "We're basically taking the weapon away from the fungus," Powell says.


Researchers seal off the flowers of a chestnut carrying a wheat gene that neutralizes a fungal toxin. ANDREW NEWHOUSE
It didn't work at first. Then, the scientists changed the wheat gene's promoter sequence to cause OxO to be expressed at high levels. In 2014, they reported that a GM tree named Darling 58 both resisted blight infection and transmitted resistance to its offspring. Subsequent tests showed that it produces nuts indistinguishable from those of native trees, Newhouse says. And its pollen, flowers, and decaying leaves don't harm bees, beneficial soil fungi, or tadpoles that hatch in pools on the forest floor.

But the request to release it is likely to face a lengthy regulatory road. The United States, China, and Brazil have approved some transgenic trees for use in fruit orchards, biofuel plantations, and afforestation projects. But like GM crops and animals, GM trees are controversial, and ethical and ecological concerns are heightened because the chestnut trees would grow wild. Regulators from three federal agencies are likely to take a close look at those concerns. USDA officials, for instance, will seek to determine whether the tree could become a weed or otherwise threaten existing plants. The Food and Drug Administration will study whether the tree's fruit is safe to eat, and the Environmental Protection Agency will consider whether the trees' blight-blocking enzyme should be regulated as a fungicide.

https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2018/08/save-iconic-american-chestnut-researchers-plan-introduction-genetically-engineered-tree

Dougfish

"Why don't you knock it off with them negative waves? Why don't you dig how beautiful it is out here?
 Why don't you say something righteous and hopeful for a change? "
Kelly's Heroes,1970

"I don't wanna go to hell,
But if I do,
It'll be 'cause of you..."
Strange Desire, The Black Keys, 2006

Onslow

I wish more attention was paid to sumac and black locust.  These could be extinct in our lifetime, imo.

Sumac is a very important plant for nectar foraging bees.  It fills in the nectar gap between the mid June-early July sourwood, and the square stemmed goldenrod.  Back in the early 80s, there was enough of this around to where the many beekeepers would have a second harvest of honey consisting of sourwood & sumac.  However, now every farmer has at least one skid steer.

Even the invasive introduced hedge privet is loosing ground against the skid steer and brush killing herbicide. This pesky species benefits birds and bees.  Hedge privet blooms right on behind the tulip poplar, and helps bridge the gap between the poplar, and the rather spotty persimmon.


Mudwall Gatewood 3.0

I don’t believe all farmers/landowners are denuding the native vegetation.  Some are allowing wild veg to grow between open expanses, providing native bees/other insects what they need to do their thing.  We have a local couple that purchased property upstream on Little Back Creek.  They are wonderful stewards of their little chunk of Shangri-La, allowing native flora and fauna to flourish.  I don’t believe this sort of guardianship is that much of an anomaly in certain areas.

Different tastes of honey, produced by the Europeans, are certainly a joy, but I’ve always had mixed feelings about the “White Man´s Fly”.  After all, native insects and wild bees handled the task of pollination very well before we entered the picture.   
"Enjoy every sandwich."  Warren Zevon

Onslow

The white man is the blame for everything wrong in world, including this :laugh:
http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/confronting-the-approach-demographic-explosion-in-africa-a-1253189.html

Back on topic, Bath county VA has a neutral-declining population of just over 4K humans.  The "rural" county where I reside is home to 73K humans.  While the population in Surry is stable, the ag sector is expanding.  Bath county is not a suitable example for what is the prevailing trend in farming.

Mudwall Gatewood 3.0

“Research shows many women farmers and landowners have a strong conservation and stewardship ethic.”

https://www.farmland.org/press-releases/american-farmland-trust-reveals-positive-conservation-results-of-women-only-learning-circles-need-for-continued-work

Perhaps Surry County NC should let the women run the farming business.  Or at least let them have a say, equivalent control with their hubbies.  Let them have the key to that skid steer!     
"Enjoy every sandwich."  Warren Zevon

Beetle

The Bryant family is trying hard with the Chestnuts in Nelson County.  Doug, do you know them?  I’m considering taking the class on June 8th.   Check it out

https://virginiachestnuts.com/

Woolly Bugger

Heard about this film while listening to the dirtbag diaries

ex - I'm not going to live with you through one more fishing season!
me -There's a season?

Pastor explains icons to my son: you know like the fish symbol on the back of cars.
My son: My dad has two fish on his car and they're both trout!

Dougfish

Quote from: Beetle on February 24, 2019, 12:34:31 PMThe Bryant family is trying hard with the Chestnuts in Nelson County.  Doug, do you know them?  I’m considering taking the class on June 8th.   Check it out

https://virginiachestnuts.com/

Don't know them.
$450? Wowsers.
"Why don't you knock it off with them negative waves? Why don't you dig how beautiful it is out here?
 Why don't you say something righteous and hopeful for a change? "
Kelly's Heroes,1970

"I don't wanna go to hell,
But if I do,
It'll be 'cause of you..."
Strange Desire, The Black Keys, 2006