The first time I strolled through Baltimore Woods in early
May, I was astounded by the number of beautiful wildflowers bursting with
color. Many of you probably saw the patches of red and white trillium lining
the trails, interspersed with delicate yellow trout lily. The wildflower
density and diversity at Baltimore Woods is surely leaps and bounds ahead of
most New York forests, but are they as dense and diverse as they have been in
the past?
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| White Trillium |
New York State’s extensive farming history has left us with
vast expanses of abandoned farmland covering over 50 percent of the state. If
you discount the Adirondacks and the Catskills, this figure jumps to
approximately 90 percent! As decades passed, trees, shrubs, and herbs regained
their long lost territory, but these lands still lack an important ecological
and aesthetic feature: their native wildflowers. SUNY-ESF professor GregoryMcGee has studied this phenomenon for the past decade and believes that there
is nothing inherently wrong with these post-agricultural forests. Rather, the
presence of
these species appears to be limited by their sluggish dispersal rates. For
instance, many of these species have migrated only 5 to 10 meters into
post-agricultural woodlands from adjoining forests during the past 70 to 100
years!
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| Trout Lily |
In the face of global climate change, these small and sparse
populations of native wildflowers have a poor chance of surviving. Given the
important ecological roles of these understory plants, we cannot wait for them
to reestablish naturally, but planting and monitoring efforts will either
require a lot of hands or a lot of time. Dr. McGee and I have created a
solution by launching a citizen science wildflower restoration project. By
involving volunteers and school groups we turn a need for many data-collecting
hands into a valuable educational opportunity. Participants can learn about
identifying native wildflowers, plant life cycles, creating experiments, and
drawing conclusions from scientific data. In addition to gaining a hands-on,
outdoor education, participants will gain a sense of accomplishment for
contributing to a professional study that impacts their own forests. These
so-called “citizen scientists” will also be given the opportunity to return to
the project year after year to see how their efforts have impacted the forest.
Surely it would be easier to simply organize volunteer
planting events and stop there. Why have we decided to set up study sites,
gather data, and monitor these plots? In order to restore our wildflowers
efficiently, we need to know which methods work for each species.
We will answer questions like:
Once this information is known, we can launch a large-scale restoration effort.
We will answer questions like:
- Is it worth relocating plants using root material or can we simply gather seeds?
- How many seeds do we need to sow to establish a reproducing plant?
- Can we break root material apart and grow multiple plants, or does the root need to remain intact?
Once this information is known, we can launch a large-scale restoration effort.
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| Foamflower |
We couldn’t have launched this project without help from the
community. We have set up plots at the Camillus Unique Area with Solvay high
school students, at the Skaneateles Conservation Area with the local garden
club, and with our dedicated Baltimore Woods volunteers here at the woods. So
if you see the little colored flags in the woods near Phillips Pond, you have
found our wildflower restoration study site. Please be sure to stay on the
trail in this area, and keep an eye out for some
beautiful new growth here in the years to come.
Blog post by Emily Van Ness
