Chambers Brook Tree Planting

Let's do something a little different today; I'm going to talk about a tree-planting activity organized by Raritan Headwaters Association.

The last 3 days I've been planting native trees and shrubs in a field adjacent to Chambers Brook in Readington Township. My impression is that this land is owned by the township. (We needed to gain access through the cooperation of a Christmas tree farm though there are plans for public access in the future. You probably shouldn't rush out there to check on my work.)

The field used to be grazed by cows, probably before Readington owned the property. Though you can't tell it from this picture, the field is quite muddy and frequently quite lumpy.

Although humans can't currently access this field without either trespassing or bushwhacking, the central New Jersey deer population can easily get here. To prevent deer from devouring the plantings, each plant gets its individual protection. Trees, expected to grow straight up, get the plastic sleeves you can easily see in the picture above. Shrubs, on the other hand, are expected to spread wide, and they get wire cages. Technically deer can probably browse some leaves that should eventually poke out of the cage, this is presumably considered minor damage that won't kill the shrubs. It's quite a bit harder to see those metal cages, but you'll see some of them if you look closely.

Almost all the holes were dug before we got here using some mechanical auger. This did save some time, though not as much as I expected since:

1. The holes were much wider and deeper than needed, so a fair amount of time was spent putting the correct amount of dirt back in the holes.
2. The ground was fairly soft, not very rocky, and it wasn't very hard to dig the 1 hole I needed to dig. (There were issues in getting the auger into some spots, which was probably the only reason some holes weren't pre-dug.

Although it hadn't rained yet, the soil itself is so wet that many holes were half-filled with water, making it difficult to see the dimensions of the hole that you're working with. Still, I think I liked those holes better than the dry ones since those 1s needed to be filled with dried, rock-hard clay. Getting a snug fit required breaking these clumps up first.

I was glad I wore my rubber boots. Especially in the water-filled holes I'd stomp soil into place when trying to get a good fit for the plant. 

This wouldn't be a good activity for the arachnophobes out there; grass spiders were probably the field residents we encountered the most. While many were fairly small, a few were a little over an inch in size. Perhaps the spider abundance worked to our advantage; AFAIK I didn't pick up a single tick, and I suspect these spiders would happily prey of them.

I think I saw a mole cricket in 1 hole but it dived under water before I could get a good look. I'm not sure that was a good thing since some mole crickets can damage plant roots. Perhaps I killed it while stomping the mud in the hole?

My understanding is that they selected trees and shrubs that do well in wet conditions, and unless we have a repeat of the 2022 summertime drought, this seems like it'll be a wet area. Here's Chambers Brook that probably has a lot to do with the dampness.

This effort came about by a grant RHA received to plant 10,000 trees/shrubs. This location is scheduled to get 875 trees/shrubs. A year ago they planted about 1000 trees/shrubs at North Branch Park in Bridgewater.

I think that the Sunday tree planting is getting rained out; my plan is to return for Monday though. (I'm not completely sure we're going to get everything planted by the last day; we "only" planted 350 in the 1st 2 days.)