WILLISTOWN CONSERVATION TRUST

Create Your Own Meadow – Step 2: Plant

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Mid April – Early May: Once your wildflower plugs arrive, it may be tempting to lay out plants in neatly arranged rows, but clustering plants together while still paying attention to plant spacing will echo the more organic patterns found in nature.

Planting wildflower plugs
It’s a great group or family project

In addition, wildflowers planted in clusters with several plants of the same species within a few feet of each other will also help to attract more pollinators. Use a handheld auger (2” +/- in diameter) or shovel to open holes for your wildflower plugs. Then you can easily insert each plug in the hole and tamp the soil around it.

Progress just 3 months after planting. This is in front of the Trust office.

Announcing Weekly Preserve Workdays

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We need your help! Willistown Conservation Trust maintains 3 public preserves, soon to be 4! With so much beautiful habitat, we need some help keeping these conserved lands looking their best for all visitors and ensuring they continue to provide healthy habitat for the many species that depend on them.

The Stewardship Team will begin hosting weekly volunteer work sessions, led by Preserve Manager Mike Cranney, starting on March 5. Each weekly session will run from 9 to noon and tasks will include:

  • Cutting/removing invasive plants
  • Clearing vines from trees and tree cages
  • Planting native trees and shrubs
  • Pruning trees and shrubs
  • Trail clean-up and maintenance
  • Stream clean-up

You can stay for the whole time or for as long as you’re able.

Interested? Visit our Event Calendar. Click “Volunteering” to see the March-April dates and sign up! Thanks! We hope to see you out there.

Explore Nature at Willistown Conservation Trust’s Preserves

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Did you know that the Willistown Conservation Trust has three preserves that are open to the public year round? This year we’ll be opening a fourth! If you would like to know more about these gems of Willistown, join us on our new monthly walk series where we will take in depth look at the beauty, history, and future of these community resources! In February, we’ll be on the hunt of the first signs of spring, then as the year warms up, we’ll learn about the ecosystems that support pollinators throughout the summer, and wind up the year looking at how the topography of the landscape impacts the plant communities, habitat, and microclimate at our preserves.

A path through the grasses at Kirkwood Preserve

Our preserve walks are free of charge, however space is limited 25 to ensure the best experience for participants. We ask that you register in advance on the event calendar on our website.

In case you missed it, our first walk took place at Rushton Woods Preserve where our discussion revolved around:

  • Distinguishing invasive vines from native ones and tips for removing unwanted vines.
  • The benefits of dead downed trees or “nurse logs” and their role in forest ecology.
  • Why beech trees hold their leaves in winter and other winter tree id techniques.
  • The danger of barberry (it’s a tick vector) and the importance of its removal.

The glorious weather that day was topped off with two foxes and a pileated woodpecker!

Our 2020 schedule is below and we have signups open for the first 4 on the list. Visit our calendar of events to register.

February 20th – Ashbridge Preserve: The Hunt for Skunk Cabbage
April 9th – Kirkwood Preserve: Meadow Management
May 14th – Rushton Woods Preserve: Welcoming Spring
June 25th – Ashbridge Preserve: Pollinators!
September 17th – Kirkwood Preserve: Meadows in Bloom
October 15th – Ashbridge Preserve: One for the Road
November 12th – New WCT Preserve: Lay of the Land
December 10th – Kirkwood Preserve: Winter of the World

Behold the Hackberry!

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The Society of Municipal Arborists recently announced its 2020 Tree of the Year. It’s the Hackberry (Celtis occidentalis). This tree is related to the American Elm and upon the introduction of Dutch Elm Disease, the Hackberry became a very popular substitute.

According to the US Department of Agriculture’s website, the common hackberry varies in size from a shrub to a tree exceeding 100’ in height. So why are we telling you about this? It just so happens that we have a remarkable specimen hackberry at Kirkwood Preserve, right at the corner of Goshen and Grubbs Mill Roads.

Measuring a leader on the Hackberry – this one is 8’9″

It is definitely larger than most hackberries at an estimated 70’ tall. Its girth is equally remarkable, with its trunk measuring roughly 15’ in circumference at the base and with three leaders measuring 6’5”, 8’9” and 6’7”. As for the age, it’s hard to estimate without looking at the rings. Hackberries are a faster-growing tree. This specimen is also out in the open (as opposed to being in a forest), which can further increase its rate of growth.

Hackberries are wonderful shade trees. They are also adaptable to a wide range of soil types and tolerate heat, drought, salt spray, wind, ice and even short-term flooding. All of those characteristics make it a great urban tree. But it’s equally well-suited to living on preserved land! As a bonus, the hackberry provides food for birds and small mammals.

Looking up – you can see the beautiful fissured bark

So, next time you’re out, stop by Kirkwood Preserve and take a look at our specimen hackberry. It’s particularly beautiful in summertime when its deep green foliage is on display. But winter offers you a chance to see its complex structure and deeply textured bark.

The Willistown Conservation Trust Staff and Trustees Mourn a Hero of the Countryside

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IN MEMORIAM: MRS. J. MAXWELL R. (BETTY) MORAN

August 7, 1930 – January 23, 2020

The Willistown countryside lost one of its greatest heroes on January 23, 2020, when Betty Moran passed away. She left a legacy of generosity, support for many worthy causes, close friendships, love of good times, a competitive spirit, and a passionate dedication to protecting the open spaces that she loved.

Willistown was blessed to have Betty as a champion and lover of its equestrian tradition and the conserved land that makes those activities possible to this day. Over the past 40 years, she played a significant role in helping maintain its rural character, participating in numerous land protection partnerships that saved beautiful parcels of land from development.

In 1980, Betty supported our first community partnership to acquire the “Hundred Acre Field”. She went on to become a lead investor in 14 additional partnerships to purchase, preserve and resell properties that would otherwise have succumbed to development, resulting in over 2,000 acres in the Willistown area conserved with Betty’s direct support.

The Willistown countryside simply would not look the way it does today without Betty. Executive Director Bonnie Van Alen attributes this to Betty’s dedication, saying, “In my 40 years of knowing Betty, she never said ‘no’ when asked to participate in an effort to save a beautiful property from development, including placing conservation easements on her own Brushwood and Bryn Clovis properties.”

The staff and Trustees of Willistown Conservation Trust are grateful for Betty’s insights, leadership and generosity during the time she served as a board member. We take comfort knowing that the more than 7,500 conserved acres of rolling fields, mature woodlands and stream valleys of the Willistown countryside will be a lasting part of her legacy forever.

Connect With Us

Willistown Conservation Trust

925 Providence Road
Newtown Square, PA 19073
(610)353-2562
land@wctrust.org