We Need Volunteers, for Peat's Sake!

Volunteers introduce spruce seedling to its new home

Working together, the Maryland and West Virginia Chapters are restoring ecological health to our Cranesville Swamp and Finzel Swamp preserves. Funding through grants from American Forests Global ReLeaf and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service will enable us to plant more than 18,000 trees over five years. During April workdays, we will harvest spruce seedlings from a frequently mowed natural gas right-of-way in West Virginia's Monongahela National Forest, a nearby spot that ensures trees of local genetic stock. Then we will plant them at the two western Maryland preserves. It takes a large number of volunteers to collect and plant thousands of trees in one weekend. We need your hands, heart, and strong back to accomplish our task!

Red spruce (Picea rubens) was once a dominant tree in the mountain valleys of Western Maryland and nearby West Virginia. Logging in the late 19th century reduced spruce/hardwood forests by 99%, leaving only a few hundred acres intact. Our work at Cranesville and Finzel will help restore the conifer cover that helps maintain a cooler climate essential to the health of the open bog peatlands and conifer swamp forest.

Cranesville and Finzel swamps are mountain peatlands uncommon in the mid-Atlantic and characteristic of more northerly latitudes. Wind, water, mountains, and temperatures came together at these sites to create a natural occurence known as a "frost pocket." Coupled with the cool temperatures is the breakdown and compaction of sphagnum moss, which produces a substance known as peat. The resulting acidic and nutrient-poor soils produce environments where certain types of sedges, heaths (such as cranberry), and carnivorous plants (such as the sundew) thrive.

Hand planting is slow and labor intensive, but it is a necessity in sensitive environments like these squishy peat bogs. We believe that gradually reintroducing red spruce is the most effective way to restore the historical species of swamp and forest communities. Why is this important?

Intact spruce forests provide habitats for numerous state and globally rare species.
Birds benefited include the northern saw-whet owl, the alder flycatcher, the red-breasted nuthatch, and the Nashville warbler.
Peat bogs are habitat for rarely seen butterflies like the tiny bog copper.
Threatened plants protected include several sedges, Harned's clintonia, bog fern, mountain wood-fern, and the larch.
Conifer forests form an insulating blanket of vegetation that maintains water quality and quantity, keeps the underlying soils and bedrock moist, and prevents sun and wind from warming the soil.

Come out and help make the return of spruce dominance a reality! We will be collecting on Friday, April 29 and planting on Saturday, April 30. For more information, see our event schedule, and sign up at volunteermd@tnc.org !