The Doing In of 3,125 Ailanthus Trees
To help us in the understanding of a prospective forest we hire an expert to evaluate its quality as a 500-Year Forest. Our expert was Britt Boucher. In his report he identified some areas that were dominated by Ailanthus also known as Paradise tree or Tree of Heaven, an invasive tree from the China See attached map. Further visual inspection revealed that the forest south west of Mill Creek was also heavily infested with Ailanthus.
This was Donald and Joanna Sunshine’s first year as 500-Year Forest owners. As Donald said, “Thus, began a new adventure.” As reported in the last issue of the news letter, Donald set out to determine with whom he might contract to begin this eradication program. After several tries he was fortunately referred to Neil Ames Horticultural Services. Donald Sunshine, Deb Wessenborn, and Neil AmesNeil and Deb, a husband and wife team, were just the right people for this job.
In four separate months or phases covering about 50 acres as shown on the map, Neil and Deb worked over the landscape to put to death over 3,000 Ailanthus trees. A similar effort next year should finish off the infected remainder part of the forest. There will be on going effort to control new seedlings in the future.
The Ailanthus tree is either male or female. In some areas of this forest Ailanthus was dominant tree cover. In these places Neil and Deb’s effort was restricted to killing only the female trees opening up the forest to the younger native trees by not exposing the forest floor to full sun.
On a very positive note let’s leave this forest with Deb’s observations. “There were also wonderful patches of ferns of all types: Christmas, maidenhair, lady, male, giant wood, ebony spleenwort, walking ferns, and others we couldn’t identify. Our walks through the forest have been great horticulture experiences for us. We both grew up spending a lot of time in the woods, and this has been a treat. We hope to continue working with the Foundation in the future.”