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| Kiap-TU-Wish volunteers help DNR plant trees By Kasey Yallaly, photos by Tom Schnadt A group of Kiap-TU-Wish volunteers recently helped Kasey Yallaly and her DNR crew plant trees at the Martin easement on Plum Creek and at the Moody easement on the Kinni.Participants included: Kasey Yallaly, Sam Jacobson, and Dustin Schurrer (WDNR), Chip Robinson, Roy Erickson, Ed Constantini, Ken Hanson, and Tom Schnadt (Kiap-TU-Wish). Kasey says we have been purchasing larger/older seedlings to give the trees more of a head start and to increase survival rates. The goal with most of our tree plantings is to provide future shading to maintain good stream thermals and to provide more diverse terrestrial habitat. We have been planting trees in ways that will eventually provide a savannah type habitat with large “super canopy” trees and a grass understory that can still be maintained by mowing. The Plum Creek planting was a little bit different than what we normally do because we needed to replace some of the landowners privacy trees but in general this is what we try to do accomplish. We usually always provide tree protection in the form of tree tubes or cages which will protect the trees from deer rubbing and browsing until they are large enough to avoid this on their own. We have documented great survival rates for these larger seedlings. Here is a rundown by species of survival rates for some that we planted on Gilbert Creek. The overall survival rate was 81%. Swamp White-76% survival River Birch-100% survival Cottonwood-100% survival Tamarak-67% survival Kinnickinnic River-Moody Easement upstream of CTH M 45 trees total 12 Swamp White Oak 16 River Birch 8 Bur Oak 5 Hazelnut 5 Silky Dogwood 5 Yellow Birch Plum Creek-Martin Easement upstream of CTH U 49 trees total 18 White Cedar 13 White Pine 8 Black Spruce 10 White Spruce |
