Direct Seeding Efforts Completed

Seed collected from the successful "Go Nuts" campaign http://www.metroparks.org/Reforestation/GoNuts.aspx
was planted at Carriage Hill MetroPark on November 9.  A twenty acre field at Carriage Hill MetroPark was plowed and disked by a local farmer.  MetroParks Conservation Staff Steve Sherman, Alyssa Balter, and Matt Parker distributed the precious harvest. Sherman drove the ATV in lines across the field while Parker and Baltar flung the seeds from the back.  The farmer then disked the seed into the soil.

Matt Parker and Alyssa Balter fling the harvest while Steve Sherman drives.

The seed was worked into the ground by disking

Planting area at Carriage Hill MetroPark

Mixed mast harvest from "Go Nuts" campaign

The seeding rate was about 4 gallons of mixed seed per acre.  The buckets of mixed seed contained white oak, bur oak, swamp white oak, chinquapin oak, pignut hickory, shagbark hickory, mockernut hickory, shellbark hickory, flowering dogwood, Ohio buckeye, and blackhaw viburnum.

This was the first try at large scale direct seeding for MetroParks since the 1990's.  That planting was at first deemed a failure.  In fact it turned out to be rather successful, which just goes to show that land restorers should not write off a project too soon because the results are not visible right away!  The next post will be about that interesting effort.