Volunteers Assist the Delaware Chapter of The Nature Conservancy With Habitat Restoration on April 5th in Kent County

2008 Habitat Restoration and Reforestation at Milford Neckis Helping to Protect One of Delaware’s Last Great Places

MILFORD, DELAWARE — April 5, 2008 — Community volunteers, including DuPont employees from the company’s “Clear into the Future Program,” assisted staff from The Nature Conservancy’s Delaware Chapter in a major, multi-year ecological restoration project in Delaware’s Milford Neck area. Staff from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service was also on site, providing technical and field support for this project, which is marked by the use of cutting-edge reforestation methods.

The Delaware Chapter of The Nature Conservancy received financial and technical support from the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation, who recently dedicated funding from their Delaware Estuary Watershed Grant Program towards this reforestation project, making it possible. The grant has also been enhanced by technical and on-the-ground support from the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service’s Delaware Bay Estuary Project.

The goal of the Milford Neck project, begun in 1999, is to restore and enhance forest habitat. Today’s planting continues work done last spring when volunteers planted 1,200 trees and shrubs in 29 distinct habitat islands on 44 acres of former farm fields surrounded by native forest.

This year, an additional 35.7 acres of abandoned farmland was selected and prepared for being returned to native forest. Volunteers today planted 912 native trees and shrubs into 25 habitat islands. These habitat islands will be pockets of native vegetation that will attract birds and animals that will, in turn, continue the reforestation process by spreading seeds. In addition to the volunteer effort, professional seedling planters have installed 28,600 hardwood tree seedlings.

The creation of “habitat islands” is an important restoration technique that helps to accelerate the reforestation. Returning forest to what was once farmland depends on succession and the creation of “habitat islands” helps to accelerate the succession process. Succession begins with the arrival of “pioneer species” which establish because their seeds are carried on the wind. In future years, mature forest begins to appear, because, “the acorn does not fall far from the tree.” Planting habitat islands accelerates the process by providing instant habitat to small mammals and birds responsible for moving seed in their droppings. The protective shelter of the habitat islands is crucial to the succession process because, these animals will not feed and drop seed in open fields because of fear of hunting hawks and falcons.

Habitat islands will be protected from drought and freezing weather by adding mulch made from recycled yard waste from surrounding communities. Islands will then be surrounded in deer-exclosure fencing to protect them from browsing during the first 5 years after installation.

The ecological benefits of this effort and of the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation (NFWF) grant are very significant. These 35.7 acres connect to lands reforested under NFWF in 2005 – 2006 and to TNC’s reforestation effort begun in 1999. In total, (including this planting) 59,000 native trees and shrubs are restoring 173 acres of forest. The restoration sites are connected to 2,365 acres of forested land, which connect to thousands of acres of marshes, dunes and beaches along the Delaware Bay. The wildlife habitat value of this land is enormous!

More Information or photos: Contact John Graham (302) 584-5680 or Ashley Sutton (302) 388-3159.

The Nature Conservancy is a leading conservation organization working around the world to protect ecologically important lands and waters for nature and people. To date, the Conservancy and its more than one million members have been responsible for the protection of more than 15 million acres in the United States and have helped preserve more than 102 million acres in Latin America, the Caribbean, Asia and the Pacific. Visit The Nature Conservancy on the Web at www.nature.org.