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by Linda Stonehill
As the pressure to develop land increases, so does the Conservancy’s commitment to protect migration corridors and connected tracts of undisturbed land.
But have you ever wondered what happens to the land after we acquire it? Does it, figuratively, sit on a shelf somewhere? No, not by a long shot. As the Conservancy’s Dave Gumbart and Adam Whelchel explain, once land has been acquired, our work there has only just begun.
What’s a Burbot?
The Hollenbeck River flows down to the Housatonic River from the Northwest Highlands, coursing through dense vegetation that shades and cools the rushing river water. On its way, the river passes through 1,000-acre Robbins Swamp, Connecticut’s largest inland wetland. The Hollenbeck’s cold water is ideal for fish such as the burbot (Lota lota) — a freshwater cod with an odd name — who needs cold water to survive.
Over time, people living along the Hollenbeck River farmed the valley and removed swaths of dense vegetation along the river’s edge. “Doing so created areas of exposed riverbank, where direct sun warms the shallow water too much for coldwater fish,” says Adam Whelchel, the Conservancy’s director of conservation programs in Connecticut. “The warm water effectively creates a dam the fish can’t get beyond.”
To remedy this, Whelchel and Dave Gumbart, assistant director of land management, joined a crew of volunteers in planting 400 trees along a half-mile stretch of river in the Conservancy’s Hollenbeck Preserve in Canaan.
“One thing we’ll accomplish by filling in the gaps in vegetation is to complete the habitat corridor for burbots and other coldwater fish,” says Gumbart. “Planting trees that shade the water and keep it cooler will also help make the landscape more resilient in the face of climate change.”
Riverside forests not only keep the water cool, they act like sponges, absorbing high water and filtering out sediment, fertilizers and pesticides before they reach our waterways. Another reason for planting these trees is to control erosion of the riverbed itself, which helps maintain habitat and steady the course and shape of the river.
Planting the Trees
Even counting to 400 takes awhile, so how long did it take to actually plant 400 trees? “It took just over a day with a half a dozen people,” says Whelchel. “But that didn’t include the days it took to prepare the area for the planting.”
”First, we needed to clear scrub vegetation from the bank area,” Gumbart says. “Then, on planting day, we used a brush cutter to remove all vegetation down to the bare soil where we were going to plant so that the large augur, which we use to dig holes for the trees, wouldn’t turn tough sod and brush into the holes.”
Another aspect of preparing for planting was selecting, ordering and transporting the trees. “We chose native trees, all purchased from a nearby organic nursery: the non-profit Project Native in Housatonic, Massachusetts,” Whelchel explains.
Now that the trees have been planted, the team is turning its attention to making sure they survive. “In the Hollenbeck, the mortality rate for newly planted trees has been pretty good — only between five and 10 percent,” says Whelchel. “But now that they’ve been planted, we need to get in there to water them periodically by either pumping water from the river or manually filling buckets at the river’s edge. We’ll also need to put mesh fences around the saplings to protect them from deer.”
Though it will be years before the green ash, swamp oak and red maple are big enough to create a leafy canopy shading the river, today’s work is an investment in the future that will yield long-term, lasting results.
A Step Beyond
But planting trees is just one way the Conservancy is restoring Hollenbeck Preserve’s most vital habitats. “We also maintain the Hollenbeck’s rare grassland fields which are the preferred habitats of threatened birds like the Eastern Meadowlark and Bobolink,” says Gumbart. Each fall, when nesting birds won’t be disturbed, the Conservancy mows the extensive grassland to maintain the open habitat these birds need to survive.
“In the Hollenbeck, we’re trying to reinstate pieces of the ecosystem that were taken away," Whelchel says, “because their loss further pressures fragile species. What we do after a parcel is acquired speaks to the uniqueness of the Conservancy. When there’s a need to protect threatened species, we actually go a step beyond stewardship to restore the landscape.”
“So we’ve got a tall order,” Gumbart says. “The government funding that helps finance our work in the field is getting harder to come by. We’ve been able to work on restoring the Hollenbeck Preserve thanks to a government grant, but once that funding is gone, there’s still work that needs to be done. And the Hollenbeck isn’t our only preserve: each one has unique assets, challenges and caretaking needs, and we monitor them all. We could always use additional help in funding this behind-the-scenes science and land management work.”
“You see, acquiring land is the end of the story for some organizations,” Gumbart adds. “But for the Conservancy, it’s just the beginning.”
Linda Stonehill is a Nature Conservancy marketing specialist based in Connecticut.
Nature picture credits (top to bottom, left to right): Photo © Alden Warner (Hollenbeck River); Photo © The Nature Conservancy (Hollenbeck Preserve).
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