October 29, 2020 - Planting Willows at Main Street

 This week, our volunteers and I planted over 300 willow trees at the post-construction monitoring site on Main st. near the Carty Office! This area is to be restored and monitored for years to come - in order to ensure that the important wetland habitat that surrounds the reconstructed portion of Gee Creek - is restored properly for all the animals that utilize its streams (such as salmonids and other endangered species). This project spanned a two-day period, and we actually had the opportunity to involve some of our volunteers that have been working up at Pierce NWR - for the cutting of the willows themselves. 

Day One

    On the first day - Elena & I took volunteers out to Widgeon Lake to cut willow stakes for planting the next day at the Main St. site. We staged the volunteers each in their own willow patch, and asked them to pile up their stakes near their work site. Elena, with the UTV, then ran down the perimeter of Widgeon Lake and collected the stakes that had been piled up by our volunteers - which were then placed in the white buckets in the bed of my truck - seen below. We ended up collecting about 280 trees total that day! 

The truck we used to transplant and store the willow cuttings overnight. 

How to Take Willow Cuttings 

• Find yourself a nice healthy patch of willows
• Ideally we are looking for hardwood cuttings, so look for trees that have senesced their leaves 
• Sizing 
• Take a look at the tool you will use for planting, and be sure that the diameter of the cuttings you take are the correct size! You want the cutting to have good soil contact when you plant it.
• For us, we tried to stick to cuttings that were about as thick as our thumbs (1 inch) or smaller
• We decided on a minimum height of 4 feet
• Where to cut
• MAKE SURE you cut the willow at a node to ensure proper root growth 
• Trim the leaves off the top in order to allocate energy to the roots 
• trim top off at a node as well 
• clean off all extra branches and leaves 
• Place willow cuttings in a bucket of water for storage (so that their bottoms are completely submerged)
• treat with rooting hormone if you wish
• Do not leave cuttings in these buckets for more than a few days - as weak water roots will begin to grow, which are not helpful for transitioning these plants into the field. 

Elena,  our Volunteer Coordinator, carrying out the cuttings she took from her willow patch. 

A spooky-looking spider web I found on the morning of the work party - Happy Early Halloween! 🎃

Day Two 

On this day, Elena and I took our usual Thursday crew out to the Main st. site. We ended up tying bunches of willow stakes in bundles of 20 to 40 with twine, in order to make transportation easier! Once we got down to the site, we spaced out and each worked on planting our own patch of willows. The 280 willows collected the previous day,  combined with the small amount of trees Keith and I planted last week as a trial run, yielded about 310 trees planted in all! Woohoo!! 

How to Plant Willow Stakes 

• Take your planting pole and push it deep into the soil
• remember that we want these willows to be able to reach the water table 
• place at a minimum of 2 feet deep 
• Place a single willow stake into the hole, and push down until you feel it hit the bottom
• Use your planting pole to push the soil flush with the cutting's edges - to ensure proper soil contact
• this is done by simply making another hole right next to the one you inserted your willow into
• this pushes the dirt up against the cutting
• Space at least one foot apart from other willows (or more). Leave paths for walking in between 

Tom - planting away. 

Jon,  jumping on his planting pole. Almost looks like he is on a pogo-stick!

Elena, stepping on the pole to drive it into the soil. 

 A special thanks to our volunteers that made this amazing project possible! Planting trees is such an amazing event that we get to participate in here on the Refuge, and I am so excited for all the planting that is yet to come this fall/winter!