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TT: Lots of trees to plant

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Some good news from my community, for a change.

First a little history...

We had about 15 acres of woods behind our house when we moved in 4 years
ago.  A creek ran through the middle of these woods and on into downtown
Fairfield.  High School Tributary was the name given to this creek
because it runs right passed the Fairfield high school.  Anyway, back in
1978 we had a lot of heavy rains and this creek flooded, knocking out a
bridge and flooding the school land.  It was decided at that time that a
floodwater detention basin would be built to hold back any extra flood
water, and prevent flooding downstream.  An earthen damn was to be built
around the tributary with a small pipe going through it at normal ground
level.  If the water flow increased beyond pipe capacity then the water
would start to back up behind the damn.  The original plan was to remove
most of the soil behind the damn in order to increase capacity.  This
detention area would have backed up into our back yard.  We would have
lost all of the trees.  Of course, we didn't know this when we bought
the house.  So I was thrust headfirst into local politics within the
first year of home ownership.  I still don't know who or what was able
to change the plans but we ended up with a much smaller basin and a lot
less destruction.  Basically we lost one hill of trees, the dirt used to
construct the damn.  Unfortunately a lot of great old trees lived on
this hill.

Back to the future....

Now we have a bare area in the middle of the woods where the hillside
used to be.  I estimate the area to be about 2 acres.  Fortunately a lot
of trees around the creek were left standing, and land on the other side
of the creek was untouched.  This bare area was seeded with the Ohio
Department of Natural Resources recommended seed mix.  I am guessing
mostly fescues and the like. The dirt remaining is a rocky subsoil that
used to be the hill.  The bare area is surrounded by woods containing
Chinquapin, Red, and Bur Oak, Shagbark and Bitternut Hickory, Elm,
Hackberry, Black Cherry, White Ash, Walnut, Black Locust, Sugar and
Boxelder Maple, Pawpaw, and I am sure others that I haven't identified
yet.  Just on the other side of the creek in an undisturbed area stands
a grove of picture perfect Kentucky Coffee trees, with little ones
coming up all around.  In other disturbed areas across the creek
honeysuckle has taken over.

My mission, I hope.....

The entire area will be turned over to the Fairfield park district come
April.  I have already talked to the park commissioner and he is excited
about my plan to re-forest the area with native pioneering trees.  He
even recognized the Kentucky Coffee tree grove and being valuable to
this area.  We agreed that the first step would be to outline the mowing
area sometime this spring.  We won't be able to plant the entire area in
one season, and without mowing we would have a field of honeysuckle in
no time.  Then onward and upward!  It will be interesting to see if the
Fairfield Forest Commission will get involved in this project.
Hopefully I can get everyone interested and the project will proceed
smoothly.

It will be a great learning experience to see what we can get growing on
this stripped landscape.  By observing what has come up on it's own,
since they only mow twice a year, I have gotten some idea of what plants
can survive.  It's also a definite plus that this area is surrounded by
woods. Not only will we have a good seed source, but also the ability to
use less than desirable trees, since the project will be unseen by the
neighborhood.  One of the challenges will be keeping the honeysuckle at
bay.  We have a native dogwood shrub, Cornus drummondii (spelling), that
does a decent job of taking over on it's own.  We will also have to deal
with the planted grasses.

I plan (all very preliminary) to do plantings only in the fall, from
trees I have grown over the last year or so.  I know I can get 3 foot
Elms, Black Cherries, and Box Elder from transplanted seedlings in one
growing season.  I have become quite a fanatic when it comes to moving
unwanted seedlings into containers for later transplanting. Finally I
might be able to plant all of these trees, instead of having 30 or so
containers overwintering under our deck :-)

I know this isn't typical community forestry, but if any of you
treeplantin experts have any advice I would _love_ to hear it. As a
software engineer, my background in re-forestation projects is quite
limited.  Success or failure, it should be a lot of fun!

----

Mark Stephens,
http://w3.one.net/~markws - Our Backyard Forest
Cincinnati, OH z5



















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