By: John Holback, Stewardship Manager

One of our recent initiatives at Willistown Conservation Trust was the establishment of a small native plant nursery, designed to support our restoration projects and promote local biodiversity. Having our own nursery allows us to preserve the genetic diversity of local native plants through seed collection and propagation while saving a little money from purchasing plants (a small, yet significant benefit). Additionally, the nursery provides new and fun tasks for volunteers, who helped tremendously with construction, maintenance, and eventual planting. Being able to see the whole cycle – harvesting and sowing seeds, watching them sprout, caring for the plants, and finally planting them – is quite a rewarding experience for volunteers and staff alike. “Running” a nursery also served as a learning opportunity for staff who had to decide what plants to grow, how to grow them, how to propagate collected seeds, and how to deal with the impacts of environmental stressors like pests and drought.

This past winter, several volunteers came out to help construct our nursery tables with lumber that Beatty Lumber & Millwork Company generously donated. Four tables were built to accommodate about 3,000 small plugs (narrow but deep cone-shaped tubes allowing herbaceous plant root growth) and 600 small trees and shrubs. In late April two groups of students – one from Delaware County Friends School and one from The Episcopal Academy – came out to help fill the individual plugs and tree containers with potting mix, which they mixed by hand with sand for better drainage and root development. In May, staff planted each of the 3,000 plugs with native grass and forb seeds. Several species were planted including Indiangrass, Little blue-stem, Butterfly Weed, and Buttonbush. Between June and July, we had 2,500 seeds germinate into vigorous seedlings.

By August, the heat and dry weather began roasting the still small and vulnerable plants. It became difficult to keep up an effective watering schedule and some of the seedlings did not survive. A shade cloth was installed halfway through the summer to keep further sun damage to a minimum. Thankfully, the seedlings didn’t have long to wait, as September was our target planting month. Throughout several volunteer events, 1,500 seedlings were planted and watered in. The hard, dry ground made digging very difficult so a variety of hole-digging methods were tested. What worked best was using a small auger on a corded drill to dig the 2” wide holes necessary for the plugs. All of the grass seedlings were planted in Kirkwood Preserve and many of the perennial flowers were planted at the Rushton Conservation Center and in the meadow at our main office. 

In October, we collected acorns, viburnum fruits, persimmons, and buckeyes to grow in the tree containers. A previous group of volunteers from the Young Men’s Service League, collected and planted close to a hundred White Oak acorns which will germinate and grow outdoors this winter and be planted next fall. Once the rest of the tree containers are planted, we can put the nursery to sleep for the winter. In the early spring, we will repeat the process, making changes where necessary, in anticipation of another successful and fun year of growing our own native plants.

John Holback | Stewardship Manager

Our new 90 acre Kestrel Hill Preserve (KHP) contains about 25 acres of what were agricultural fields, historically used to farm corn and soybeans. After acquiring the property, we’ve begun the process of converting the field from agriculture to a warm season grassland. This is no small feat- a ‘no-till-drill’ was used to plant a variety of native grasses and forbs which will germinate over the next 12 months and begin to fill the fields. In the meantime, an annual cover crop of oats was sown to keep out unwanted weeds and help hold the loose topsoil in place. By replacing the old ag fields with a warm season grassland meadow, we can expect healthier soil, increased carbon sequestration, and more biodiversity.

On May 17th, John Holback completed the meadow seeding at KHP. Over the next couple weeks we can expect a flush of growth from the annual oats which will need to be mowed every so often to help the perennials get established. We may see some Black Eyed Susans and other flowering perennials this year, but they will be mowed along with the oats. Mowing is crucial for proper meadow establishment as it prevents weeds from going to seed while perennial plants establish healthy root systems. Agriculture to meadow conversion is a multi-year process in which our current work will be rewarded by lush growth in the long-run.

By John Holback, Stewardship Manager

When I think back on the springs of my youth in southern Chester County, I think of muddy boots and dirty pant legs. I think of those relished lingering snow patches that disappeared slowly in the lowlands and the heavy snowballs that could be made from them. I think of prying free ice sheets from the edge of creek side gravel beds and throwing rocks to break the bergs as they floated down stream. I think of the crocuses coming up and later seeing sprouting daffodils, marking where my dad once made my brother and me “help” bury the bulbs. Spring was, and is still, good in southern Chester County. Now, with several decades of life lived, I have new thoughts of spring; spring cleaning, days getting longer, work getting busier, and taxes. Still, childhood memories endure, and one that perennially returns, especially during muddy lowland hikes, is that of trying to find an uninitiated victim to sniff some freshly sprouted skunk cabbage. I thought I was very clever then and sometimes still do, as I now try to get my nieces and nephews to take a whiff.

I know I am not the only one to opine on this interesting and charismatic plant, but I hope to offer something of a fresh perspective. A little background: Eastern Skunk Cabbage (Symplocarpus foetidus) is a member of the Aroid family, Araceae, and is endemic to eastern Canada down to Tennessee and North Carolina. It is an obligate wetland species, meaning that you will only find this plant growing in wetland conditions. Starting in late winter you will first see the plant’s flowering parts poking up like purple and green alien growths through often still frozen mud and snow due to its thermogenic properties (it creates its own heat). The hood like spathe opens to reveal the spadix – a spike covered by tiny crowded flowers. Sound familiar? That’s because you are likely familiar with other Aroids like Peace Lilly, Jack-in-the-Pulpit, and the new social media favorite, the Corpse Flower. Like many other Aroids, the plant is reasonably toxic. Should you taste it (please don’t), you will learn that the calcium oxalate crystals present in the plant have prominent tasting notes of hot needles and broken glass.

Though there is plenty of skunk cabbage in our region, in Tennessee, it is considered endangered. It might seem strange that a plant that is so abundant here can be considered endangered just several hundred miles away but because many of Tennessee’s lowlands are being destroyed for development, skunk cabbage is now at risk of disappearing there. Our lowlands are at risk too. Development, landscape degradation, and fragmentation cause harm to our natural areas and ecosystems. Excess runoff leads to soil erosion that can fill in and alter the soil chemistry of low areas, making it hard for the plants and animals that have evolved there to survive. According to The Chesapeake Bay Foundation, The Bay’s watershed continues to lose forest land at a rate of 70 acres a day, and while not all of that is skunk cabbage habitat, the impacts trickle down. Next door in the 13,539 square mile Delaware River basin, where we are located, nearly 15 million people and the region’s diverse flora and fauna, require access to clean water – something healthy, intact wetland ecosystems play a critical role in providing.

Perhaps you do not have the attachment to skunk cabbage that I do but I bet you do have a favorite plant, bird, or insect. “Charismatic megafauna” (yes that’s a thing) like the blue whale, gorilla, or bald eagle have served as a rallying point for conservationists everywhere and for good reason. My argument is that “regular ol’ flora and fauna” can be just as charismatic and serve as a rallying point too. I hope this spring, when you find yourself in the wetland areas at Ashbridge Preserve, Rushton Woods, or in your backyard gully, you take a moment to convince someone to sniff the skunk cabbage and remember that it and the wetland ecosystem it depends on are charismatic and important too.