It's Back, but Two Trees Planted!

 

Birch planted, but it needs a cage!

This week, we planted a second tree, a river birch, Betula nigra, along a band of the Japanese knotweed we are trying to eliminate between the driveway and the south property line. This six foot birch is a "keystone" tree for the Atlantic Highlands, although not really native to the Pocono High Plateau. We planted it here where we will see it from the sunroom and where the runoff from our sump pump and gutters flow across the driveway. We will need to not let this major project for this summer, reclaiming the knotweed infestation, become overwhelming. One approach can be celebrating small steps such as planting this tree, instead of fretting over the size of the task.

While planting the birch, we found several thriving rhizomes and dug them up. The large clumps of stalks and associated roots do appear dead, but some of the younger plants with smaller rhizomes are sprouting as seen in this photo. If you click on the photo to enlarge it, you can see the emerging red pods. Walking around in the field yesterday, we saw many new pods/leaf shoots appearing. Again, it will be a challenge to keep from becoming overwhelmed or demoralized. Focus on the new tree, which needs a cage to protect it from browsing. That may be our next small step!

The first tree, really a pair of twigs, that we planted a couple of weeks ago is surrounded by a cage to protect it. The twigs are red oak, Quercus rubra, seedlings growing together that we transplanted from right next to our house's foundation. Quercus rubra is also a keystone tree and clearly native to the Pocono High Plateau. We have several other oak seedlings growing next to another section of the foundation to transplant out to this back section of the knotweed fields. Since the monetary cost of transplanting these is low, we may transplant some on the far side of the property line. 

Earlier this week, we journeyed to Edge of the Woods,  a relatively close native plant nursery. We purchased the two Virginia bluebells, Mertensia virginica, to plant under the majestic oak at the south end of our house. Our plan is to allow that area to naturalize with leaf litter and some spring ephemerals there instead of turf. Although much harder to see in the photo, we also picked up three spicebush,  Lindera benzoin, seedlings (basically six inch sticks) and the one gallon pot with a young witch hazel, Hamamelis virginiana.  Although we don't have a specific final plan yet, we are thinking that these will be associated or visually layered with the birch. While the spicebush will be somewhat deer tolerant once established, we will need to cage them and the witch hazel while they become established and can be gobbled in a couple of bites. Speaking of caging, I just came across an interesting how-to video on making various kinds of cloches. It is kind of a rabbit hole, but kind of fun too! Celebrating small successes and having fun will be key moving forward!

Our Setting and Ecoregion

 

In considering joining the Homegrown National Parks, a movement restoring habitat and biodiversity by adding native plants and removing invasive ones, we need to know our ecoregion. An ecoregion is an area that shares common ecosystem characteristics. They range from broad regions to more localized regions. The screen shot here is from a map of ecoregions on the website of Wild Ones, another organization working towards a similar goal. In addition to Wild Ones and Homegrown National Park, the United States Environmental Protection Agency (at least for now) has a collection of online maps that break down the different ecoregions into four levels. 

In looking for the most appropriate and productive native plants or the keystone plants, finding an authoritative list based on ecoregion location seems prudent. Our property, as best as I can tell, can be identified as the following, going from broadest type to the most local type:

1. Northern Forest
2. Atlantic Highlands
3. North Central Appalachians
4. Pocono High Plateau

I want to consider our very local setting before joining the Homegrown National Park movement to put "your place" on their Biodiversity Map.  Our house is on a square lot just under .7 acre. We also own an L-shaped  area bordering it to the north and west at just over .7 acre, so combining the two, our "place" is 1.4 acres. In the front, to the east, is a somewhat busy, two-lane road, and on the other three sides are mixed woods owned by a local family corporation. 

Here, to the north, on our property and beyond is a lovely stand of eastern white pine, with some beeches, maples, red oaks, and a couple of younger hemlocks mixed in. This plot of woods contains about a third of our property. Looking at an arial photo from the late 1930s, this part was clear, except what may be the large red oaks along the road. So, my assumption is that although substantial, the eastern white pine stand is no older than around eighty years. 

To the west and beyond our back yard, the woods become more mixed. One red oak, right along our property line, is larger (and apparently older) than the rest. Almost entirely deciduous, these woods include a lot of maples. While the woods extend quite a ways to the west,  our property only extends around 75 feet into them. As seen in the photo here from 2022, the Japanese knotweed had started to spread to the edge between the woods and turf of our back yard. 

Here looking to the south in this photo from the winter of 2023, is another view of the Japanese knotweed infestation extending from our property into the mixed woods surrounding us. While the invasive knotweed here and fairly extensive yard around our house are obstacles, we do have several mature native trees. In the center of this photo one sees a black cherry. Next to the house, we have a large red oak, two red maples, and what I believe to be a black maple (the Yellow Sapsucker certainly likes it better than the others). 

Knowing our setting and ecoregion, we can move forward with  adding our "place" to the HNP Biodiversity Map. On a somewhat more pragmatic level, we can move on with planning and planting on this summer's goal of reclaiming the knotweed field. Knowing the ecoregion, we can be informed and purposeful in choosing native and keystone plants. As spring is somewhat here and we have already started planning, we will be posting with updates!