Trees

05 Apr 2019 - Tansy Arron-Walker

An overview of existing trees and our silvopasture and afforestation plans.

At present there are a mix of oaks, plane trees, black walnut and some honey or black locusts along the western boundary and the wooded ridge. In addition, there are a few poplars along the northern boundary, and three small wooded areas with oak, maple and red cedar.

We plan to run a silvopasture operation, so will be planting strips of fodder trees as well as fruit and nut trees roughly on contour over much of the western field. In addition we’ll be planting strips of native forest along boundary lines for privacy, wildlife habitat, windbreaks, and to mitigate any overspray from the surrounding farmland.

Windbreaks and Privacy Plantings

We get wind primarily from the south and west. In addition, we’d like to block overspray from surrounding farmland to our north and south, and provide some privacy from the road.

We plan to use the afforestation techniques as detailed by Afforestt to get a fast growing privacy screen that requires minimal maintenance and provides habitat for local wildlife and insects. This requires a minimum width of 4m.

Silvopasture

We’re aiming for a keyline design, so similar to what Mark Shepard and Grant Shultz have been doing.

So we’re looking at lines of trees at ~1% slope from valleys towards ridges, 30ft between rows.

The rows may be either mixed plantings (chestnut/pecan/walnut/oak overstory with interplanted fruit trees, berry canes and vines) or a monoculture (an entire row of hazelnut or blueberry shrubs can be mechanically harvested).

The areas between tree rows may be either crops (corn, soy, squash, asparagus, etc) or pasture. We contacted Quantum Land Design to help us lay out the tree lines, as well as to put together cut/fill diagrams for the ponds and driveway grading.

Other plantings

I happen to really love avenues, and will likely plant linden trees or similar along the driveway.

Willows near Conns creek and around pond sites for aesthetics, bank stabilization, coppice wood, and to maybe one day entice a beaver to come flood the place for us.

The lower field (the 13 acres adjacent to Conns Creek) will likely be planted as a silvopasture as well, but for the first few years we’re looking at planting it as a wildflower meadow while we get the house built and the rest of the land sorted. We’ll also have all the spring runoff through that feild to manage. Currently it’s in a tile, but we’d like to restore a bit of the wetland situation that must have been there previously.