The Nature Conservancy. Protecting nature. Preserving life.™

Growing seedlings from native stock for use in local restoration projects. © Murray McHugh

Murray McHugh, Southern Lake Champlain Valley Stewardship Program Coordinator, works with volunteers at the plant nursery.

Historically, a hurdle to performing forest restoration work in Vermont was the availability of local genetic plant material.  As a result in 2002, The Nature Conservancy created the Champlain Valley Native Plant Restoration Nursery in cooperation with the Poultney-Mettowee Watershed Partnership. 

The goal of the nursery is to produce seedlings from local genetic stock for restoration and riparian buffer plantings. The plantings will help stabilize stream banks (reduce erosion), restore native plant communities (clayplain and other floodplain forests), re-establish connectivity of habitat along riparian corridors, improve water quality, and prevent the spread of non-native plant material in the landscape.

Located on Conservancy property in Whitehall, NY, the nursery typically grows in excess of 20,000 seedlings annually. Murray McHugh, the Southern Lake Champlain Valley Stewardship Program Coordinator, leads the work with volunteers and interns to accomplish seed collection, propagation, and growing operations. Seedlings are sold to the Poultney-Mettowee Natural Resource Conservation District for planting in local federal cost-share programs and used by The Nature Conservancy in clayplain and floodplain restoration work. Seedlings are also sold to individuals for plantings in conservation project areas.

For more information, please call our West Haven, VT Office at 802-265-8645 x23.

Directions

From Route 4 just east of Whitehall, NY:
Turn onto Route 9A heading north (opposite a small business plaza); Travel 0.9 miles to T and turn right; Travel 0.5 miles and turn left onto Stalker Road; Travel 0.6 miles and turn right onto Route 10 (Sciota Road); Travel 1.9 miles and turn left - continues as Route 10; Travel 0.6 miles and turn left onto Ward Lane (dirt road); Travel to red barn and park; Nursery is beyond the barn. Walk down along the right side of the barn and look left.

Species List

Trees

Silver maple, Acer saccharinum                Sycamore, Platanus occidentailis

Red maple, Acer rubrum                          Cottonwood, Populus deltoides

Sugar maple, Acer saccharum                 White oak, Quercus alba

Musclewood, Carpinus caroliniana            Swamp white oak, Quercus bicolor

Shagbark hickory, Carya ovata                 Bur oak, Quercus macrocarpa

American beech, Fagus grandifolia           Chestnut oak, Quercus prinus

White ash, Fraxinus americana                Red oak, Quercus rubra

Green ash, Fraxinus pennsylvanica           Black willow, Salix nigra

Hophornbeam, Ostrya virginiana               Basswood, Tilia americana

White pine, Pinus strobus                        Eastern hemlock, Tsuga candensis

Pitch pine, dwarf, Pinus rigida                  American elm, Ulmus americana

Shrubs

Speckled alder, Alnus incana                    Carolina rose, Rosa caroliniana

Button bush, Cephalanthus occidentalis     Low bush blueberry, Vaccinium angustifolium

Silky dogwood, Cornus amomum              Maple-leaf viburnum, Viburnum acerfolium

Gray dogwood, Cornus racemosa              Arrowwood, Viburnum dentatum

Red-osier dogwood, Cornus sericea           Nanny berry, Viburnum lentago

Witch-hazel, Hamamelis virginiana            Highbush-cranberry, Viburnum trilobum

Winterberry holly, Ilex verticillata