Current Events & Activities

EARTH DAY CHESTNUT TREE PLANTING 3-MONTH REPORT VERY POSITIVE

Today I surveyed the chestnut component of our 4/22/2019 planting on the BA Property. In general the white and red oak were much larger seedlings at planting and seem to be doing fine. I worked my way through the orchard earlier this summer and released the seedlings with a careful spray of glyphosate to control fern, stiltgrass, barberry and competing red maple. Results to date are very encouraging.

Of the 395 surveyed chestnut planting slots, only 34 were dead for a survival of 91% so far. A small percent died back and have resprouted and others look like they are stressed either from heat or residual OUST in the soil. I am hopeful these will settle in and begin to take hold by the end of the year. However most have adapted and put on a flush of growth, a few have already doubled in height and many are well out of the tubes (see below).

I may revisit in early September toward the end of the growing season and possibly touch up the herbicide treatment and make sure all the tubes are in good shape going into winter. All in all, a very successful planting so far.

Robin Wildermuth
Woodland Management Services, Inc

HISTORICAL MARKER EFFORT

The Towamensing Township Historical Commission, headed by Mr. Roy Christman, is putting together an application to the PA Historical and Museum Commission for Historical Status Designation and marker for the Wild Creek Reservoir Site, owned by the Bethlehem Authority and operated by the City of Bethlehem. You can read more about this from the recent Times News article at the following link. https://www.tnonline.com/local-history-buffs-hope-bring-historical-marker-towamensing.

EARTH DAY CHESTNUT TREE PLANTING

In cooperation with the PA Chapter of American Chestnut Foundation and under the management of the Authority's Forester, Robin Wildermuth of Woodland Management Services, 15 volunteers planted approximately 2.5 acres near the Wild Creek Reservoir with 400 chestnuts mixed with 600 red and white oak in a mixed planting that should mimic the native forest composition. Over the next several years seedlings will be tracked for survival and early growth to compare chestnut with our common oak species. It is expected that the chestnut will outgrow the oak on our typical soils, but the planting will serve as a demonstration to guide future efforts to plant and restore the chestnuts across the BA watershed.

American chestnut was once a dominant component of the forests around the Bethlehem Authority (BA) water supply reservoirs in Penn Forest Township, Carbon County. Original survey maps from 1793 indicate chestnut trees marking the corners of many warrant parcels and early settlers used chestnut for everything from firewood, to barn lumber and furniture. The early 1900's saw the chestnut blight from Asia sweep through the region and decimate the chestnuts. The blight killed the above ground portion of the tree, but not the roots. Root sprouts persist throughout the BA forests, a reminder of the species that formerly occupied a place in the canopy. Over the past 35 years PA-TACF has worked through volunteers, donations and grants to execute an extensive breeding program designed include the disease resistance from the Chinese chestnut with the character of the American chestnut in a potentially blight resistant (PBR) chestnut tree. After 6 generations of breeding and selecting for desired characteristics, this strain of the tree is hopefully ready to withstand attacks by the disease and once again assume its position in the future forest canopy.