Trees heading from nursery to Natural Area this week

A scene from a similar tree-planting event in the Natural Area last spring. The large photo behind the headline is from that activity too. (file photo)

Professor Trevien Stanger of the Saint Michael’s College Environmental Studies and Science faculty is coordinating with the campus environmental group Green Up to harvest trees from the Ecological Restoration Nursery in the center of campus this week and replant them in the College Natural Area.

Kristyn Achilich ’05, director of the College’s Institute for the Environment, said these three-year old shrubs, once sticks, “proliferated under the care of our stewards over the last three years — an initial financial investment in these cuttings and bare-root saplings has paid in spades.”

She and Stanger said the nursery collection will be thinned as they and students transplant mature species into the restoration work that has happened in partnership with the federal Natural Resources Conservation Service and U.S. Fish & Wildlife in the College’s Natural Area. Additional cuttings will be taken and nursed in tree tubes on the Farm for the winter and will fill in either the nursery and/or additional spaces in the Natural Area come Earth Week in the Spring. This initiative involves dozens of trees, with black willow and elderberry being most abundant, and also some shrub willow.

Here are the activities for this week:

The newly planted nursery in 2019. (file photo)

Thursday: Harvesting Student-Grown Trees for River Restoration. Come join Green Up and Environmental Studies and Science Instructor Trevien Stanger for two hours of hands-on skill building and eco-networking as we harvest three-year-old baby trees from the College’s Ecological Restoration Nursery (between Alliot and Joyce) and ready these saplings for their new home in the College Natural Area the following day. Meet at the Nursery at 2 p.m. Rain or shine.

Friday: Planting SMC-Grown Trees in the SMC Natural Area. Come join Green Up and ESS instructor Trevien Stanger for two hours of tree-planting along some of the newly-restored wetlands and river banks of the SMC Natural Area. Come learn about the flora, fauna, and fascinating history Natural Area while contributing to the ecological and cultural healing of this dynamic landscape. Meet at the Nursery at 1:45. Rain or shine.