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By Bill Adamsen Director of The American Chestnut Foundation President, CT Chapter TACF Wilton, CT |
With the rush of autumn harvest over, The American Chestnut Foundation (TACF
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Did you know some plants actually benefit from fire? Recently burned areas often provide the sunlight and reduced competition that species like blueberries and American chestnuts need to flourish. 4 CommentsComment on Facebook Yes! Across the Eastern US, almost all of our most important keystone , overstory trees are fire adapted (pyrophytic 🔥). (Except in bottomlands/riparian/wetland zones, for the most part). This includes Hickories, the upland Oaks, certain pines, especially Longleaf, and Chestnuts. Many Oaks in particular are struggling with recruitment now due to fire suppression, among many other issues. This process is called mesophycation btw. Mesophytic natives like Maples 're-engineer' forests through their dense, moist leaf litter to retard-fires. Invasives make it worse. This is important because Oaks are THE top keystone plants here, hosting more species of Lepidoptera (Moths and Butterflies) than any other plant genus in the US: 500-900 species. Most of these caterpillars will become inconspicuous "little brown moths" , but they form an important massive bottom-tier of the food pyramid. After all, even though birds can source berries from a variety of plants , it takes 6-9000 caterpillars to raise a single clutch of songbirds. I really appreciate what you are doing. Thank you!
PICA, the Printing Industry of the Carolinas Awards, is celebrating its 60th year as the ultimate showcase of excellence in printing, and TACF has something to celebrate too.  1 CommentComment on Facebook Big congratulations to you Jules! 🎉🎉 This is a well-deserved honor.
We've prepared a completely legitimate and highly scientific quiz. 5 CommentsComment on Facebook
Just a few years apart: the same wild American chestnut tree before and after chestnut blight took its toll. 2 CommentsComment on Facebook |