CONNECTICUT Woodlands

INVASIVES From the largest tree to the smallest pathogen

The Magazine of t he Connecticut Forest & Park Association Winter 2009 Volume 73 Number 4 CONNECTICUT Woodlands

The Magazine of the Connecticut Forest & Park Association

The Connecticut Forest & Park Association, Inc.

Officers PRESIDENT, David Platt, Higganum VICE-PRESIDENT, Jean Crum Jones, Shelton VICE-PRESIDENT, Eric Lukingbeal, Granby VICE-PRESIDENT, David Sullivan, Haddam TREASURER, Gordon L. Anderson, Glastonbury SECRETARY, Eric Hammerling, West Hartford FORESTER, Dan Donahue

Directors Mark Ashton, New Haven Richard A. Bauerfeld, Branford William Breck, Killingworth Russell L. Brenneman, Westport George M. Camp, Middletown Starling W. Childs, Norfolk Ruth Cutler, Ashford Laurence Diamond, Coventry James Dombrauskas, New Hartford Caroline Driscoll, New London Astrid T. Hanzalek, Suffield David Leff, Collinsville Scott Livingston, Bolton Geoffrey Meissner, Southington Karen Mignone, Fairfield Thomas Mongillo, North Branford Bob Morrison, Manchester C. Anagnostakis Randall Miller, Hamden This Japanese walnut (Juglans ailantifolia) was planted in Leiden, Holland, in 1860 James Ritchie, Sandy Hook but is only 3 feet in diameter. How could this be? See page 30. Starr Sayres, East Haddam Donald L. Snook, Westport Deborah Spalding, Guilford Colin Tait, Norfolk Richard Whitehouse, Glastonbury Conserving Connecticut Annual Membership The Connecticut Forest & Park Association is a Individual $ 35 Honorary Directors Family $ 50 Harrol W. Baker, Jr., Bolton private, non-profit organization dedicated since Richard F. Blake, Milford 1895 to conserving the land, trails, and natural Supporting $ 100 Clyde S. Brooks, Gibsonia, PA resources of Connecticut. Benefactor $ 250 Ann M. Cuddy, Lakeville The Connecticut Forest & Park Association is Samuel G. Dodd, Mansfield Center affiliated with the National Wildlife Federation, Life Membership $ 2500 John E. Hibbard, Hebron Philip H. Jones, Jr., Shelton the National Woodland Owners Association, Edward A. Richardson, Glastonbury the American Hiking Society, and Earth Share. Corporate Membership David M. Smith, Hamden Club $ 50 L.P.Sperry, Jr., Middlebury Connecticut Woodlands Nonprofit $ 75 Sally L. Taylor, Mystic Published quarterly by the Sustaining $ 100 Henry H. Townshend, New Haven Connecticut Forest & Park Association, Mid- Landmark $ 250 Staff dlefield, 16 Meriden Road, Rockfall, CT 06481- Stewardship $ 500 Executive Director, Eric Hammerling, West Hartford 2961. Leadership $1000 Trail Conservation Director, Ann T. Colson, Clinton Indexed in the Connecticut Periodical Index, Development Director, James W. Little, Hebron ISSN 00106257. Office Manager, Teresa Peters, Durham Financial Management Assistant, Linda Cunningham, Portland Telephone: 860-346-2372. Land Conservation Director, Damon Hearne, Higganum Fax: 860-347-7463. Education Director, Lori Paradis Brant, Beacon Falls E-mail address: [email protected] WalkCT Director, Leslie Lewis, Lyme World Wide Web site: WalkCT Communications Coordinator, Jennifer Benner, Roxbury http://www.ctwoodlands.org Printed on recycled paper EDITOR, Christine Woodside GRAPHIC DESIGNER, Karen Ward 2 CONNECTICUT WOODLANDS Winter 2009 CONNECTICUT Woodlands

The Magazine of the Connecticut Forest & Park Association Winter 2009 Volume 73 Number 4

Contents FEATURES DEPARTMENTS

7 Invasive Species and Connecticut’s 4 President’s Message. Knocking back barberry, Forests. An introduction to their nurturing the Blue-Blazed Hiking Trails. impact—potential and realized. By David Platt. By Rose Hiskes, Robert E. Marr, and Claire E. Rutledge. 5 Executive Director’s Message. Reverse the breakdown of community in America. 14 We Did This. People encourage invasives. By Eric Hammerling. By Christine Woodside.

6 Editor’s Note. As newspapers struggle, a new 16 Earthworms Losing Hero Status. Learning model emerges for print journalism. to look with suspicion on a creature By Christine Woodside. everybody loves. By Christine Woodside.

22 From the Archives. Promoting skiing. 18 The Legacy of the Civilian Conservation By James W. Little. Corps in Connecticut. Trees, trails, roads, buildings, and more, gave work and pride to a generation of young men 24 Try This Hike. The Kingkillers: Taking public during the Great Depression. transportation to the Regicides Trail in New By Marty Podskoch. Haven. By Scot Mackinnon

Correction New England Musings. Forests of the far reaches. The regional trash-to-energy plant in 26 By Adam R. Moore. Preston generates 130 million kilo- watt hours per year, which is enough electricity to power more than 28 From the Land. Local potatoes, a golden treasure. 12,000 households per year, assum- By Jean Crum Jones. ing those households consume elec- tricity at what the federal goverment 30 Tree Page. The butternut that is not a butternut. describes as the average rate of 900 By Sandra L. Anagnostakis. kilowatt-hours per month. These two figures were incorrect in an arti- Book Review. Can a nonfiction book on botanists cle on trash incineration published in 32 grab you? When they climb the world’s largest the fall issue. trees, the answer is yes. By Robert Ricard.

33 WalkCT. Rx: Go walking. Working with the medical community. By Leslie Lewis.

34 Environmental Update. News from around the state.

On the Cover: 34 Letter. On a notable tree. Purple loosestrife. This magenta- blooming invader has crowded out 34 On the Trails. Sixth Annual Winter Trail natives along the coast. Photo by Maintenance Workshop. Robert Pagini.

35 CFPA Store. Buy books, maps, and clothing.

Winter 2009 CONNECTICUT WOODLANDS 3 PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE

KNOCKING BACK BARBERRY, NURTURING THE BLUE-BLAZED HIKING TRAILS

BY DAVID PLATT It’s not like chopping down invasive plants but rather like building something strong. For the past five years, we have very year, I do battle with invasive plants. My implemented our goals of strengthening programs and the property includes a field populated with an old financial structure to support them. Now we are updating E apple orchard and surrounded by woodlands. our strategic plan to meet our latest challenges and maxi- Like many species of wildlife and birds, the invasives love mize new opportunities. the “edge” habitat. When my wife and I bought our land At a recent CFPA retreat, we decided to redouble our 15 years ago, the canopies of all of the trees were infested efforts to focus on our greatest asset—the 825-mile Blue- with thick bittersweet and grape vines. The understory was Blazed Hiking Trail system. On the one hand, this unique dominated by winged euonymous (burning bush) and bar- Connecticut treasure is well established and meticulously berry thickets that suppressed the natural vegetation. CFPA President maintained by a virtual army of dedicated CFPA volunteers. David Platt That first year, I spent many long weekends chopping On the other hand, the trails face constant threats from down these vines and clipping and pulling the understory sprawling development. We need more and more resources plants. Those that have experience with this know that this is nasty to combat these mounting threats. The key to funding this battle lies work. The vines always seem to snag various body parts at exactly the in our development efforts, including expanding our loyal membership wrong time and place. One invariably emerges from this war battered base. So we are rededicating ourselves to attracting new members who and bruised by the myriad of prickered brambles and poison ivy. love the Blue-Blazed Hiking Trail system and to raising the funds nec- Hauling or burning the unwieldy debris presents opportunities for essary to protect it. more sweat and wounds. This strategic effort has generated some terrific ideas for new ini- My reward is a yard that is relatively free of invasives and that is mak- tiatives. We would like to hear your views, as our members, for what ing a comeback as native grasses and seedlings fight for their space. we do well and what we can better. Please visit our Web site at This delicate balance requires constant attention. Each year I knock www.ctwoodlands.org and contact us with your thoughts. It is not an back the invaders. The lesson that I have learned is that results require exaggeration to say that we can only go as far as our members will a good plan and persistent hard work. take us in building on our accomplishments. Thank you for your sup- A good plan and persistent hard work—not unlike the planning we port. are undertaking here at the Connecticut Forest & Park Association.

Advertising About Connecticut Forest & Park Association and Rates for Connecticut Woodlands Magazine Connecticut Woodands Connecticut Woodlands is a quarterly magazine published since 1895 by CFPA, the private, non-profit organization dedicaed to conserving the land, trails, Half page: and natural resources of Connecticut. $180 per issue Members of CFPA receive the magazine in the mail in January, $600 yearly (four issues) April, July, and October. CFPA also publishes a newsletter several times a year. Quarter page: $90 per issue For more information about CFPA, to join or donate $300 yearly. online, visit our newly expanded website, www.ctwoodlands.org, or call 860-346-2372. Eighth page: Give the gift of membership $60 per issue in CFPA over the holidays. $200 yearly Contact Jim Little at Design services available 860-346-2372 for special promotional membership gifts. for a fee.

4 CONNECTICUT WOODLANDS Winter 2009 EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR’S MESSAGE

REVERSE THE BREAKDOWN OF COMMUNITY IN AMERICA

BY ERIC HAMMERLING born in 1910 had a major depressive episode in their life- times, but those born after 1960 have a 5.3 percent chance Editor’s note: The following is from a speech delivered at the of having such an episode. In general, studies have sug- annual meeting of the Connecticut Forest & Park Association. gested a roughly 10-fold increase in the risk for depression across generations. he Connecticut Forest & Park Association’s sup- Indeed, this is pretty depressing stuff, but I guess you porters have earned a reputation as being a liter- would expect that from an author who came to prominence Tary crowd. The thoughtful responses we get after by writing a book entitled The End of Nature. Fortunately, each issue of Woodlands makes that clear. I was asked dur- the reverse is also true. It appears that our health and hap- ing the interview process to name my favorite book and piness increase the more we participate in communities: author. If I were running for President, the answer would CFPA The Old Order Amish of Pennsylvania, who live a life have been easy—the Bible and God. But for CFPA, that was Executive Director Ǡ Eric Hammerling poor in appliances but rich in community, had a depression much more of a challenge, like picking your favorite child. rate of only one-tenth that of their neighbors. The book I reference now is Deep Economy by Bill McKibben. In Deep Economy, McKibben talks about the connections Ǡ In a 1997 study, Carnegie Mellon researchers sprayed cold viruses between “community” and “happiness.” He notes how communities into subjects’ nostrils and found that “those with rich social networks are becoming less cohesive and more fractured, and suggests ways to were four times less likely to come down with illness than those with fewer get a renewed sense of community, and one hopes, increase our hap- friends.” piness at the same time. Ǡ The National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute found that “mid- What are some ways that we are losing our community? dle-aged women with large social circles had a 23 percent lower inci- dence of coronary artery disease.” Ǡ We are a much more mobile society than ever before. This mobil- ity is a major factor why the average person in her twenties or thirties Ǡ “People above the age of 80 with poor social networks have a 60 is half as likely to join a group of some kind as her grandparents were. percent higher than average chance of dementia.” Last but certainly not least, according to a New Economics Foun- Ǡ We are voting less and not casting the ballot that is a basic under- Ǡ pinning of community. In the 2004 presidential election when you dation study, “If you do not belong to any group at present, the act would have expected a maximum turnout, only 58.3 percent of the of joining a club or a society of some kind halves the risk that you will total voting population voted. Another 11.5 percent of the popula- die in the next year.” tion that was registered to vote chose not to. McKibben argues that our species is innately hardwired to be com- munity-based, but our modern world has allowed us to become sep- Ǡ Between 1974 and 1994, the percentage of Americans who said they frequently visited with their neighbors fell from one-third to arated from our communities. one-fifth. Just think about how many of us would actually have to get He summarizes some research that suggests that all primates live in in our cars to drop-in on the neighbors. groups and get sad when they’re separated. He notes one study with the key finding, “An isolated individual will repeatedly pull a lever with McKibben quotes from the book Bowling Alone by Robert Put- Ǡ no reward other than the glimpse of another monkey.” nam who tried to apportion the blame for why communities are frac- Speaking of people behaving like animals, he also wonders why turing. He suggests “people so often look back on their college days as the best years of • 10 percent of the decline comes from increased pressures at their lives?” He posits that for four years we live more closely and work. intensely in a community than ever before or after. In college, we live • 10 percent of the decline comes from suburbanization. roughly as we have evolved to live as humans in a community. • 25 percent comes from television / privatized entertainment. Now, we have limited space at our office and I’m not suggesting that you all move in to a “CFPA dormitory,” but McKibben notes • The balance comes from a generational shift where “younger some things you can do to make an extra impact on your communi- Americans are far less interested in giving their time to others ties. So that we can move on with our meeting, I’ll just mention two: and advancing non-monetary social goals.” 1.Open your home to your neighbors or friends. If you haven’t had So, how is this community breakdown affecting our physical and a house party in a while, use this as your motivation. Heck, if you’d mental health? like to hold a CFPA house party, please contact me or (CFPA Devel- Ǡ America, once the healthiest nation on earth, now ranks 27th, opment Director) Jim Little. By the way, we open our home at CFPA below all the nations of Western Europe and even countries like regularly. Did you know that our meeting room hosts more than 50 Cyprus and Costa Rica. different organizations representing more than 160,000 people in Ǡ We are also getting more depressed. Only 1.3 percent of people continued on page 13

Winter 2009 CONNECTICUT WOODLANDS 5 EDITOR’S NOTE As newspapers struggle, a new model emerges for print journalism

BY CHRISTINE WOODSIDE noncommercial sources, not by traditional display advertising of newspapers that paid Get over it; it’s going to happen. my salaries for the first two decades of my —Stewart Alsop, a journalist turned venture capitalist, on the transition of print media to the Internet. career. It’s been a year since I returned from a vaca- lsop’s comment, which I cut out Although that angry mob has already taken tion to find the print edition of The New York of a print version of the New York over reporting areas that formerly were writ- Times shrunk by a column width and full of A Times in mid-May, reflects a rapid ten by trained journalists—like obituaries, references to further articles and photos avail- change in the industry that no career journal- and the news blogs of some papers—what able only on the Web. This year, The Hartford ist can ignore. The Internet has taken over will pay for science and environmental cover- Courant, the nation’s oldest newspaper, made the national consciousness in one decade. It age? You can’t cover the environment on a drastic cuts to its newsroom staff and reminds me of a photo I saw in a London fast deadline, and you can’t do it very well as redesigned its front page to emphasize the newspaper in 1983. A crowd of soccer fans a blogger unless you are someone like address of its Web site. Every newspaper that stampeding their way to a stadium pressed Andrew Revkin, a paid staffer of the New has relied on print advertising for its revenue against a chain-link fence, trapping the people York Times. When this transition is complete, base is making similar cuts. Those who write at the lead against the wires until they could- if it indeed does go as far as it seems to be the news number fewer and fewer. I think that n’t breathe. Their faces looked horrible. The going, I predict that most environmental cov- many newspapers that have tried to move over crowd seemed to be killing them. erage will be paid for by grants and nontradi- to a Web emphasis by cutting back on news That’s how I imagine the power of the tional sources of funding. gathering are gambling. They hope that online World Wide Web over the editors of our old- That’s already happening in many ways. ad revenues could someday take the place of est, most respected newspapers. An angry This magazine is funded by the members of print advertisements, and that they can rebuild mob is out there screaming that they want all the Connecticut Forest & Park Association, a their staffs. Or, they hope that they can pro- of the information they used to pay for at no private, nonprofit organization that has made duce something for little. cost, on the Web. They want it now. They are communicating with the public about land, But they ignore the fact that many people pressing on even though some of the crowd trails, and natural resources a priority. Because still read print. They want to hold pages in are getting crushed. The papers’ editors and CFPA has made this a priority, Connecticut their hands and give them out to others. publishers have taken down the fence. They Woodlands can continue to publish. It is my Share this copy of Connecticut Woodlands, are putting most of their articles onto the Web mission as the magazine’s editor to bring to and be grateful for its commitment to envi- for free, even though they had to pay the jour- the public articles that journalists at newspa- ronmental communication in tough times. nalists who gathered the information. They pers might have written just a few years ago. know that unless some revenue stream previ- We continue to publish a print version — Christine Woodside ously undiscovered shows up soon, they can’t because we believe that many of the members subsidize good reporting and photography for who support it would rather read it in print. too long before they go out of business. Not everyone is on the Web all day. Papers have responded to the Internet But CFPA recognizes that the Web mat- COMING IN THE NEXT ISSUE OF frenzy by pouring resources into the Internet ters. CFPA has made the excellent move of CONNECTICUT before they have been able to replace their placing back issues of Connecticut Wood- advertising revenue base with online advertis- lands online—www.ctwoodlands.org. WOODLANDS ing. In the space of a few short years, the Another example of a newer model of envi- reporting staffs of every newspaper in Con- ronmental reporting is High Country News, Spring 2009 necticut have shrunk, as have the number of the western environmental paper. Donations articles they can write about the environ- and grants, some of them specifically noted GRASSROOTS LAND ment. Environmental reporters are rare birds after articles, fund the lion’s share of this fine CONSERVATION in Connecticut. publication. That paper never could have The story of a riverfront tract with a history of Mr. Alsop is right. Print newspapers as we grown as it did in the 1980s and 1990s on natural beauty, industry, and grassroots activism know them are going the way of the Arctic the traditional print paper/advertising model Also: New study tallies forests’ timber potential ice. They are shrinking at rates faster than that is now on the way to being obsolete. Coming in April even the experts predicted, and leaving its Several of the outlets, both online and print, writers stunned. that I write for as a freelancer are funded by

6 CONNECTICUT WOODLANDS Winter 2009 Right, a closeup of Oriental bittersweet. Below, purple loosestrife.

CAES and, below, Robert Pagini Invasive Species and Connecticut’s Forests An introduction to their impact — potential and realized

BY ROSE HISKES, ROBERT E. MARR, AND CLAIRE E. RUTLEDGE

his article will discuss invasive plants, insects, and pathogens in keeping with the authors’ areas of expertise. We will discuss species that have already become established, as well as invasive species that, looming on the Thorizon, are cause for concern and vigilance. Before we begin, we must acknowledge that the very term, invasive species, lacks a consensus definition among sci- entists and regulators. We will use the definition set forth by U.S. Executive Order 13112 in 1999, which describes an invasive species as “an alien species whose introduction does or is likely to cause economic or environmental harm or harm to human health.” However one defines invasive species, experience has informed legitimate concern when species are introduced to an area in which they are not native, whether intentionally or accidentally. In almost all cases, humans introduce exotic species. The Norway maple (Acer platanoides), for example, was intro- duced to North America from Europe as a street and shade tree, but because of its vigor in displacing native hardwoods, and its tendency to encroach from landscape into forest, it is now classified as an invasive species in several states, includ- ing Connecticut. The house sparrow (Passer domesticus), now a serious threat to numerous native bird species, was intro- duced into North America in the late 1800s as a control for cankerworm, a plant pest, and is now listed as one of the three

continued on page 8

Winter 2009 CONNECTICUT WOODLANDS 7 Invasive Species impact that global warming may have on programs in place to address this subject altering the dynamics of invasive species is from various perspectives and have recently continued from page 7 still unknown but an area of active debate formed a coalition to help inform and shape most abundant bird species on the continent, and research. public policy. A partial listing of online along with the invasives European starling What are the costs associated with invasive sources for additional information can be (Sturnus vulgaris) and rock pigeon (Columba species? David Pimentel, a professor at Cor- found at the end of this article. livia), also intentional introductions. The nell University and an expert on this topic, The following three sections address three zebra mussel (Dreissena polymorpha) serves as has written extensively on the impacts of groups of invasive species—plants, insects, a recent example of an unintentional intro- invasive species, from both environmental and pathogens—that either affect, or have duction. Native to the lakes of eastern Eura- and economic perspectives. He and his col- the potential to affect, Connecticut’s forests sia, it is now a serious threat to the ecology of leagues have estimated that approximately and parks. Our intention with these nine inland lakes and streams of North America, 50,000 species have so far been introduced stories, by no means an exhaustive list, is to presumably introduced via the ballast water of to the United States, with some small num- provide the reader with relevant examples ocean-going vessels. ber of these causing environmental damages that put a very broad topic in local context. What conditions or characteristics are estimated at $120 billion per year. Although likely to encourage an introduced species to 98 percent of the U.S. food system com- INVASIVE PLANTS IN become invasive? It is first important to prises introduced exotic plants and animals CONNECTICUT’S FORESTS understand that most introduced species do such as wheat, rice, cattle, and poultry, legit- According to Dr. Jeffrey Ward, Station not become invasive; take, for example, the imate concern over invasives focuses princi- Forester at CAES, Oriental bittersweet, many horticultural varieties of exotic plant pally on those species that compete with, winged euonymus, and Japanese barberry species — annuals, perennials, shrubs, trees prey upon, or in some other manner are the most troublesome invasive plants in — that have not independently proliferated threaten native species and, in some cases, Connecticut woodlands. A relatively recent beyond their intended uses. But a number of entire ecosystems. Invasives are considered arrival coming along quickly behind them, characteristics have been identified by among the principle agents of biodiversity and soon to pass them in importance to researchers that, singly or in combination, loss, and these costs are incalculable. Connecticut forests, is Japanese stilt grass. appear to predispose a species to invasive- Programs addressing invasive species issues ness. These include rapid growth, high exist at federal, state, and local levels, spearheaded Oriental Bittersweet reproductive rates, wide dispersal of young, by agencies within the U.S. Department of Agri- Oriental bittersweet, Celastrus orbiculatus, ability to thrive in a variety of conditions, culture (USDA). In Connecticut, scientists at the is a perennial dioecious vine that was intro- absence of natural enemies, and the ability to Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station duced from China as an ornamental. A outcompete native species for available (CAES) in cooperation with both USDA and the botanical python, it literally squeezes young resources. Also, an introduced species is Connecticut Department of Environmental Pro- trees to death. Young plants are able to grow likely to become invasive if it can exploit a tection (DEP) conduct surveys, inspect nurseries, in dense shade. Once they reach sunlight, previously unexploited resource, as is the and do public outreach and research aimed at growth increases rapidly until the foliage of case described later for the chestnut blight mitigating the impact of invasive species. The bittersweet totally shades the plants below, fungus. Changes in ecosystems—for exam- Connecticut Invasive Plant Working Group at thereby weakening and eventually killing ple, after a fire or a hurricane—can, by the University of Connecticut coordinates edu- them. Also, the added weight of this woody removing native competitors, open up newly cational and research programs on invasives vine can cause tree branches to break in available resources to an invasive species. throughout the state. windstorms and snowstorms. The native Human activity can also create ideal habitats Private agencies—such as the Nature species in this genus, C. scandens, only pro- for invasives; for example, many invasive Conservancy, National Wildlife Federation, duces berries at the terminal, whereas C. weeds find root in disturbed ground along National Audubon Society, Union of Con- orbiculatus roads or in agricultural settings. Finally, the cerned Scientists, and others—have major produces fruit at every node, along tall vines that can reach 60 feet in height. Greenish flowers in May develop into attractive berries that ripen from July through October. Fruits have a yellow ovary wall that opens to reveal bright orange-red berries. Oriental bittersweet is frequently used in dried wreaths and swags as fall home decorations. By Christmas, many wreaths are on the compost pile out back or thrown

This invasive beech scale insect wounds beech trees, leading to beech bark disease. Courtesy of CAES

8 CONNECTICUT WOODLANDS Winter 2009 into the woods, where birds find and eat the berries. Dispersal of this invasive occurs as the seed passes through the birds’ digestive tracts. Many trail managers in Connecticut’s forests and parks are kept busy cutting and pulling this invasive plant. Legislation passed in Connecticut in 2003 classifies Oriental bittersweet as invasive, and in 2004 the movement, sale, purchase, transplanting, cultivating, or distributing this plant was banned. Winged Euonymus

Winged euonymus, Euonymus alata, is a deciduous shrub native to China and Japan. A horticultural introduction, it is also known as burning bush because of its deep to bright CAES red fall foliage. Whitish unremarkable flowers Burning bush, or winged euonymus, dominates this forest scene. develop in May. The plant earns its “wings” from the longitudinal corky growths on the young green stems. Winged euonymus is one barberry invasions make hiking and logging removal of invasives from publicly accessed of the first plants to leaf out in the forest very difficult. Also on the Connecticut inva- lands in their towns. shrub layer each spring and the last to drop sive plant list, Japanese barberry is not INVASIVE INSECTS IN its leaves in the fall. Thus, it stores more car- banned because some believe the commer- CONNECTICUT’S FORESTS bohydrates and is able to produce more cially available yellow- and red-leaved vari- Invasive insects have already had an berries. Winged euonymus has a very tight eties may not be as invasive as the green- impact on Connecticut forests. Our “old fibrous root system and grows in dense thick- leafed varieties from which they are derived. friends” the gypsy moth and the European ets, choking out native plants and preventing Japanese Stilt Grass elm bark beetle (the vector of a fungus that their regeneration. Birds eat the reddish fruit causes Dutch elm disease), as well as some and disperse it over wide areas. Euonymus An example of an accidental introduction, more recent arrivals such as hemlock wooly alata is on the Connecticut invasive plant list Japanese stilt grass is an annual that was adelgid, have been responsible for dramatic but is not banned. Continued escapes from thought to have come into the country as changes in our forest composition and ecol- landscapes into forests will not stop until seed packing material in a shipment from tropical ogy. In this section, we will discuss two production from landscape plantings stops. Asia. The name comes from its habit of highly destructive beetles, the Asian long- Dr. Yi Li, of the New England Invasive Plant falling to the ground and then sending roots horned beetle and the emerald ash borer, Center at the University of Connecticut, esti- down from each node, giving the impression neither of which has been found in Con- mates that it will be about four years before a that the plant is propped up on stilts. The necticut. Both of these beetles bore into the sterile version of this shrub is available. upright branches look like individual plants and can grow as much as 6 feet in height trunks of trees and kill them. Japanese Barberry each season. Flowers develop in mid-Sep- Asian Longhorned Beetle Japanese barberry, Berberis thunbergii, is a tember, with seed ripening into October. The Asian longhorned beetle, thorny deciduous shrub native to Japan. Seed is mechanically dispersed via the pants Anoplophora glabrapennis, is a wood-boring Introduced as a horticultural plant, it was of hikers, fur of small mammals, or move- beetle that is native to far-eastern Asia. also good for hedgerows, natural fencing ment of soil. High rates of seed production, Unlike many invasive species, the Asian and for the yellow dye in the inner bark. In along with nearly 100 percent viability even longhorned beetle is a pest in both its home forests, it hybridizes with common or Euro- after three to five years in the soil, are quali- range and its introduced range. The beetle pean barberry, B. vulgaris, the plant the ties that contribute to this invasive plant’s attacks healthy deciduous hardwood trees, Civilian Conservation Corps tried to get rid success, allowing stilt grass to form dense including many found in Connecticut of because it is the alternate host for black monotypic stands that take over the forest forests. Its most preferred hosts are trees in stem rusts of grains (Puccinia graminis). floor. Japanese stilt grass has been reported the maple group (Acer spp.), followed by The result is a bush with intermediate char- to alter the soil surface habitat, making it horse chestnut (Aesculus spp.), birch (Betula acteristics. Japanese barberry is shade-toler- unfit for the germination of native species. spp.), willow (Salix spp.), elm (Ulmus spp.), ant and forms dense patches that prevent This plant is on the Connecticut invasive ash (Fraxinus spp.), and sycamore (Platanus regeneration of native forest species. Repro- plant list and is banned. occidentalis). The Asian longhorned beetle duction is by seed, which is dispersed via Thanks to legislation passed in Connecti- has the potential to transform the composi- droppings from birds that eat the berries. cut, municipalities can now apply for grants tion of our forests—our most common tree Because of its excessive thorniness, Japanese from Connecticut DEP to help with continued on page 10

Winter 2009 CONNECTICUT WOODLANDS 9 Invasive Species continued from page 9 Asian longhorned beetle. is red maple—and in so doing, wreak havoc Photo by Donald Duerr www.ipmimages.org on the lumber, maple syrup, nursery, and tourism industries. The first record of estab- our forests. Signs of infestation include typi- lishment in America was recorded in New cal symptoms of tree stress, such as branch York City in 1996. Since then, it has been dieback and general decline. In addition, discovered in three other locations, includ- other markers include distinctive larval tun- ing this past summer (2008) in nearby nels, D-shaped adult exit holes in the bark, Worcester, Massachusetts. The beetles are and the presence of the larvae or adult bee- most likely entering the country as larvae tles. Early detection is important to develop- hidden in solid wood packing material used ing management plans for this extremely to bring in goods from Asia. The adult bee- aggressive beetle. tle is shiny patent-leather black with white What can we do to decrease the risk of spots, one to two inches long and has introduction of these wood-boring insects? banded antennae as long as its body. The lar- One simple, but extremely important, tactic val stage is the most damaging to trees. The is to not move firewood. Evidence strongly larva bores into the trunk, interrupting the points to inter- and intra-state transporta- flow of nutrients and decreasing the struc- wood shipping material like the Asian long- tion of firewood, both by dealers and by pri- tural integrity of the tree. The beetles tend horned beetle. Since the beetles’ discovery, it vate citizens, as an important source of to re-infest the same tree for as long as it is a has spread quickly throughout the Midwest movement for these insects. The larvae and suitable host, and sometimes beetles will where it has killed many millions of trees. It pupae of these insects are inside of the wood inhabit a single tree for five consecutive gen- has been found in 10 American states, and 2 and very hard to see, and thus easy to bring erations. When the tree is killed, the adult Canadian provinces. There is widespread to a new spot. Make sure any firewood that beetles will reject it as a host and move off to concern that the beetles’ impact on ash will you buy to use while camping has been pro- seek new hosts. The result is that the beetle be as severe as the impact that chestnut blight cured locally or has been kiln-dried. Finally, tends to spread slowly, and in bursts. This had on the American chestnut. The adult burn all of your firewood before you leave gives us a chance to eradicate populations beetle is small, about the size of an olive pit, the campsite; that will ensure that you are with aggressive treatment and quarantine and a brilliant, metallic emerald green. The helping to prevent spread of wood-boring programs, as has been done successfully with larvae feed on the cambium layer leaving dis- insects. an infestation in Chicago. As always, early tinctive serpentine tunnels under the bark INVASIVE PATHOGENS AND detection is a key to success. Signs of infes- and girdling the tree. Heavily infested trees CONNECTICUT’S FORESTS tation include typical symptoms of tree can be killed in one to two years. Because a stress, the presence of egg-laying pits, per- large proportion of emerging beetles move Forest pathology is the study of the fectly-round dime-sized adult exit holes, to a new host tree each year, the beetle microorganisms and environmental factors rough “sawdust” at the base of the tree spreads rapidly in the ecosystem. that cause diseases in trees. The stories of (actually the beetles’ excreta), and of course, In Connecticut, ash can be locally abun- three diseases will be discussed here. Two the larval or adult stage of the beetle. dant, especially in pioneer, regenerating for- diseases, chestnut blight and beech bark dis- est stands. However, many ash trees in Con- ease, are already established in our forests, Emerald Ash Borer necticut have already been infected by a dis- and the third, ramorum blight (also known The emerald ash borer, Agrilus plan- ease called ash yellows, which kills the tree as sudden oak death), is one whose West nipennis, is another wood-boring beetle by blocking its vascular system of nutrient Coast story we hope will never have a chap- from Asia. As its name suggests, the beetle transport. This disease, combined with the ter in our forests. attacks all species of true ashes (Fraxinus maturation of the Connecticut forests, Chestnut Blight species, e.g., white ash) but not mountain means that ash is a minor, and vulnerable, ash (Sorbus americana) and other non-Frax- component of most Connecticut forests. The story of chestnut blight provides stark inus species. In its home range, the beetle Ash constitutes roughly 5 percent of our for- lessons on the risks posed by the unregu- plays a role in the natural ecosystem, attack- est stand. Thus, the impact of the beetle in lated movement of plants, particularly from ing severely weakened Asian species of Frax- Connecticut will be likely less apparent than one continent to another. The disease is inus and starting the process of degrading in areas, such as the upper Midwest, where caused by the ascomycete fungus, Cry- dead wood. However, the American species ash is a dominant canopy tree. Ash is also a phonectria parasitica, which is indigenous to of Fraxinus appear to lack any defenses common urban tree in Connecticut, with Asia. It has reduced the American chestnut against the beetle, so healthy trees can be more than 100,000 planted throughout the (Castanea dentata) from its stature as the attacked and killed. The emerald ash borer state. The impact of emerald ash borer, like dominant hardwood species of eastern was first discovered in Detroit, Michigan, in that of Dutch elm disease, could be more forests to a scattered patchwork of scarce

2002, likely entering the country in solid dramatic on our urban landscape than on continued on page 12

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Winter 2009 CONNECTICUT WOODLANDS 11 Invasive Species more susceptible than young trees) support an “advancing front” of scale build-up, fol- continued from page 10 lowed by a “killing front,” in which heavily above-ground survivors and below-ground scale-infested trees are rapidly invaded by the root systems, occasionally sending up root Neonectria fungi. The second phase occurs sprouts only to get struck once again by the in the “aftermath zone,” areas opened up to fungus. The legendary importance of the root sprouts and seedlings by the high mor- tree cannot be overemphasized. Prized for tality of phase one. Because young sprouts its decay-resistant lumber and for its fruit, and seedlings are not suitable habitat for the the tree also had an irreplaceable role as a scale insect, disease development in phase keystone species in the eastern forest ecosys- two is a much slower process, resulting in tem, providing shelter, food, shade, and rich rarely girdled but highly deformed trees. soil for a diversity of wildlife. Because of this dynamic, landscape plantings The first official account of chestnut blight of F. sylvatica rarely succumb to BBD. in the United States is from 1904, at the Although there is no practical chemical Bronx Zoo. However, Dr. Sandra Anagnos- control for BBD in forests, population takis, a plant pathologist at CAES, believes crashes of the scale insect have been the fungus arrived sometime in the late observed following exceptionally cold win- 1800s on Japanese chestnut. Both Japanese ters, and natural enemies have been and Chinese chestnut become infected with CAES observed on both the scale insect and the C. parasitica, but much less severely than the A pathogen attacks rhododendron leaves. fungus. In addition, genetic resistance to the devastating infections observed in American scale insect has been identified in a small per- (and European) chestnut trees. The resistance centage of naturally occurring American shown by Asian chestnut trees is the product Foundation, in collaboration with Dr. Anag- beech, and is an area of active research. Cur- of a long coevolutionary relationship, and is nostakis, has been implementing a backcross rently, the most effective methods for reduc- precisely the sort of “truce” that scientists strategy that introgressively breeds Chinese ing the effects of BBD in forest stands predict should happen when parasites and resistance into trees with American chestnut involve vigilant programs of surveillance and their hosts coevolve. In other words, Ameri- form and habit. management. can chestnut trees, having had no past expo- Beech Bark Disease Sudden Oak Death / sure to the fungus, have not had the oppor- Ramorum Blight tunity afforded their Asian cousins to evolve Some diseases are the result of combined resistance. and often synergistic effects of multiple Odds are good that any organism whose It is important to understand that attackers. In the case of beech bark disease scientific name, Phytophthora, means “plant- although the tree’s dominance in the canopy (BBD) on American Beech (Fagus grandifo- destroyer” (from Greek: phytón, “plant,” and forest ecosystem has been lost, the tree lia), wounds created by the invasive beech and phthorá, “destruction”) is a plant is neither extinct nor is it absent from our scale insect, Cryptococcus fagisuga, predis- pathogen that should be taken very seri- forests. Chestnut blight does not directly pose the tree to infection by one of two fun- ously. And that is indeed the case for many infect the tree’s root system, so root sprouts gal species, both in the genus Neonectria. N. of the approximately 90 species within this continue to appear even after the above- fagisuga, an invasive pathogen of European genus of “water molds,” which are more ground portions of the tree have died. These origin, is associated with most bark infections closely related to algae than they are to sprouts rarely live long enough to flower, following beech scale attack. However, N. fungi. Among the more infamous Phytoph- and even if they do, they are rarely near ditissima, an endemic species causing peren- thora species are P. infestans, causal agent of enough to a cross-pollinator to produce fer- nial cankers on a wide range of hosts (partic- late blight of potato, which initiated the tile offspring. The vigor with which this ularly black birch, Betula lenta), is also associ- Irish potato famine of the 19th century, and process of root sprouting occurs declines ated with BBD. the root-rotting P. cinnamomi, which, with with time, as root reserves depleted by The disease was first recorded in Europe its enormous host range, has devastated sprouts are not adequately replenished by in 1849 on European beech (F. sylvatica) forests on several continents. Indeed, P. cin- the products of photosynthesis. and entered North America via Nova Scotia namomi is still an important disease of But there is hope on the horizon for this around 1890 on European beech planting American chestnut. beloved icon of the eastern forest. Two stock. BBD was not recorded on American The Phytophthora species of current con- active breeding programs are well on their beech until 1920, by which time the disease cern in the eastern United States is P. ramo- way to producing trees with increased resist- complex had already begun its westward and rum, causal agent of sudden oak death, a ance to blight. The American Chestnut southward movement through Canada and disease that has been ravaging the coastal Cooperators’ Foundation, based at Virginia into beech stands in the southern Appalachi- oak forests of California and Oregon for at Tech, is taking an “All-American Intercross” ans. The movement of the disease through least the past 15 years, causing widespread strategy by crossbreeding among American eastern forests has two phases. In the first death of tanoaks (Lithocarpus densiflorus), chestnut trees. The American Chestnut phase, stands of large old trees (which are coast live oaks (Quercus agrifolia), and black

12 CONNECTICUT WOODLANDS Winter 2009 oaks (Q. kelloggii). Like P. cinnamomi, P. ceptible host list—that move each year from Online Resources: ramorum enjoys a broad host range encom- West Coast production nurseries to whole- Connecticut Invasive Plant Working Group passing more than 90 species of trees and salers and retailers in the eastern United http://www.hort.uconn.edu/CIPWG/ shrubs, including some important natives of States. In an effort to minimize the risk of eastern forests. A partial list of susceptible introduction without restricting commerce, Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station Invasive Aquatic Plant Program eastern species important in Connecticut USDA mandates and oversees annual sur- http://www.ct.gov/caes/cwp/view.asp?a=2799&q=376972& forests includes northern red oak (Q. rubra), veys conducted by participating state agen- caesNav_GID=1805&caesNav=| chestnut oak (Q. montana), eastern white cies, such as CAES. In these annual surveys, Invasive Plant Atlas of New England (IPANE): http://nbii- oak (Q. alba), mountain laurel (Kalmia lat- shipments of susceptible plants are inspected nin.ciesin.columbia.edu/ipane/ ifolia), and numerous Rhododendron and for suspicious symptoms. Because the symp- Viburnum species (see the list of resources toms themselves are not diagnostic, any sus- Columbia University’s Introduced Species Summary Project: http://www.columbia.edu/itc/cerc/danoff- for a link to the updated host list). Unlike P. pect material must be analyzed for presence burg/invasion_bio/inv_spp_summ/invbio_plan_report_hom cinnamomi, which is exclusively soil-borne of P. ramorum using more sophisticated lab- e.html and kills via the roots, P. ramorum infections oratory methods. Our laboratory at CAES is United States Department of Agriculture: National Invasive occur above ground. On some hosts, partic- one of several in the country authorized to Species Information Center ularly oaks, P. ramorum colonizes and perform the molecular diagnostic tests neces- http://www.invasivespeciesinfo.gov/unitedstates/main.shtml destroys the cambium and phloem, causing sary to confirm infection by P. ramorum. In U.S. Forest Service Invasive Species Program bleeding cankers that eventually girdle and the event that a nursery plant is confirmed to http://www.fs.fed.us/invasivespecies/ kill the tree. However, P. ramorum attacks be infected with P. ramorum —Connecticut most of its hosts, including mountain laurel, has had four “positives” in two of the past USDA-APHIS-PPQ list of plants susceptible to P. ramorum http://www.aphis.usda.gov/plant_health/plant_pest_info/pr rhododendrons, and viburnums, via foliage four years — state and federal officials, with am/downloads/pdf_files/usdaprlist.pdf and twig blights that much less frequently the cooperation of the nursery or garden kill the host plant. Rather, the infected center, take all necessary measures to contain National Environmental Coalition on Invasive Species http://www.necis.net/ foliage becomes a reservoir of inoculum, and destroy infected material. It must be consisting of two types of spores, one emphasized that there is no evidence that P. The Nature Conservancy adapted for long-distance dispersal and the ramorum has escaped or naturalized in forest http://www.nature.org/initiatives/invasivespecies/ other adapted for long-term survival. Con- or landscape settings, despite the surveillance Global Invasive Species Programme sequently, scientists in California have deter- efforts of state and federal agents focusing on http://www.gisp.org/ mined that the oaks at highest risk are those these areas. These surveillance methods are Global Invasive Species Information Network that co-occur with foliar hosts such as our only hope for preventing this insidious http://www.gisinetwork.org/ madrone and bay laurel. pathogen from wreaking its havoc in our A similar situation is mirrored in many forests and landscapes. eastern forests, where susceptible oaks co- The authors all work for the Connecticut Agri- What Can You Do To Help? occur with understories of susceptible cultural Experiment Station in New Haven. mountain laurels and rhododendrons. Help slow the degradation of Connecti- Rose Hiskes is an agricultural research techni- Hence, the motivation behind massive cut’s forests and parks. Volunteers are always cian in the entomology department. Robert E. efforts at both federal and state levels to pre- needed by groups such as the Connecticut Marr is an assistant agricultural scientist vent the introduction of P. ramorum into Forest & Park Association, Connecticut studying pathogens and microbiology in the eastern landscapes and forests. This effort is Invasive Plant Working Group and the Inva- department of plant pathology and ecology. not trivial, given the veritable flood of nurs- sive Plant Atlas of New England (IPANE). Claire E. Rutledge is an assistant agricultural ery plants—many of which are on the sus- See the following resource list. scientist in entomology.

Executive Director’s Message continued from page 5 Connecticut every year? What do we ask in return? We ask those omy by spending your money locally. One study found that for every organizations to be CFPA members, that is, we ask them to be a part $10 spent at a local business, there was a $25 benefit to the local econ- of our community. omy, but there would only be a $14 local benefit if that same shop- 2. Shop at locally-owned markets and make a special stop at your local ping were done at a supermarket. More conversations, more commu- farmer’s market. (You’ll note that we took special efforts today to pro- nity, and more local benefits means that your community wins. vide locally grown foods and beverages.) Studies suggest that people So, in conclusion, I’d like to thank you for being part of CFPA’s have 10 times more conversations at a farmer’s market than at a super- community. market. Taking this action turns you from being simply a consumer to being a participant in your community. You also help the local econ-

Winter 2009 CONNECTICUT WOODLANDS 13 and even something as simple as wearing the shoes used to garden while on a walk into the woods, spreading seeds of invasives with each step. Les Mehrhoff of the University of Con- necticut, director of the Invasive Plant Atlas of New England, known as IPANE, sketched a situation that has become almost like war in the forest. He and colleagues including University of Connecticut Coop- erative Extension forester Thomas Worthley have found success with a several-step WE DID THIS method of removing large clumps of Japan- ese barberry, starting with machine removal, and then, when the bushes start to rebound, application of hand blowtorches. Dr. Mehrhoff called Japanese barberry and People Encourage Invasives burning bush (or winged euonymous) “fast food plants,” both because you might find BY CHRISTINE WOODSIDE them growing outside of fast-food restau- rants, but also because they grow fast and ouglas Tallamy moved as a child we need native biodiversity. Plants and ani- reliably. Other invasives that have emerged into a development in Berkeley mals are the rivets holding the ecosystems as major problems only in the last few years DHeights, New Jersey. He played that sustain us together.” are the mile-a-minute vine, Japanese stilt with frogs in a pond across the street. One Plants are the key to animal diversity but grass (visible on the edges of the Airline day a bulldozer came to the neighborhood for some surprising reasons. They produce Trail, for example), amur honeysuckle, com- to prepare lots for more houses. It filled in oxygen, food, and the physical structure of mon buckthorn, and porcelain berry. the pond. Horrified, the young Dr. Tallamy homes. Plants determine the carrying capac- Crowded Symposium watched dirt suffocate pollywogs. This was a ity of any given area. “We can measure the terrible watershed moment for him because carrying capacity of any given space by On October 1, 2008, hundreds turned it showed the downside of counting the number of species that live out for a symposium of the Connecticut crafting a landscape to fit a there without degrading it,” he said. Invasive Plant Working Group at the Uni- parklike ideal. Dr. Tallamy, Now, nearly 80 percent of the population versity of Connecticut in Storrs. They professor of entomology lives in cities, but it is sprawling out into the included members of land trusts, foresters, and wildlife ecology at the countryside. Development has cut formerly amateur gardeners, conservation-minded University of Delaware, large expanses of forests into fragments. people, biologists, and students. The wrote Bringing Nature “We’ve paved 4 million miles of roads in the strongest call to arms, so to speak, came Home: How Native Plants United States. The United States is a from the keynote speaker, Dr. Tallamy. Sustain Wildlife in our Gardens (Timber human-dominated ecosystem.” He said that the key to understanding the Press, 2007), which is about the necessity of Invasive plants are spreading farther into problem of invasive plants is to understand rethinking our suburban way of life, from the forests of New England than a few years that insects are vital in a backyard. Insects what we plant to how we clear it, to encour- ago. Long identified as one bad aspect of a keep the system in balance by providing age more diverse landscapes that support global economy and people’s habits, the controls for plants and food for animals. many more species of plants and animals. experts warn that the situation is worse. Invasive plants support far fewer insects than “We have this notion that nature is some- Nonnative plants spread from suburban native plants do. In his yard, he found 35 where else,” he said to a full ballroom of landscape to the forests in numerous ways percent fewer caterpillars living on alien Connecticut residents who had come to unknown to those who make it happen. plants than on native plants, thereby pro- learn more about invasive plants and why These plants change the makeup of trees, ducing less food for birds and animals that they hurt biodiversity. “When life forms bushes, groundcover, and soil. People can eat them. A study he conducted with a stu- around you start to die, it’s time to think.” push back invasives by examining all aspects dent found four times as many caterpillars — Dr. Tallamy asked his audience to think of daily life in the suburban yard: the prac- food for many birds — on suburban lots about the death of insects — how bad that is tices of mowing lawns, spraying pesticides, dominated by native plants than on those in the backyard because so much of the rest planting easy-care cultivar bushes imported dominated by exotic plants. (“The Impact of of life forms depend on them. “Today’s talk from another continent, moving invasive native Plants on biodiversity in Suburban is about biodiversity — why we need it, why weeds from compost pile to woods edge, Landscapes,” by Karin T. Burghardt, Dr. Tal- lamy, and W. Gregory Shriver, to be pub- Above, barberry in bloom. lished in a forthcoming issue of Conserva- Les Mehrhoff

14 CONNECTICUT WOODLANDS Winter 2009 tion Biology) Although the group studied lawns and cultivated gardens, Dr. only six houses of each type, Dr. Tallamy Farnsworth said, “by creating a lot of edge said, “It’s significant because the data was habitat — half sun, half shade — we create consistent with every house.” habitat very conducive to garlic mustard and The antidote to a neighborhood domi- bittersweet.” Birds and deer, which eat the nated by nonnative plants is to begin replac- seeds of berries of these edge-loving inva- ing them with native specimens that for cen- sives, spread the seeds further through their turies have been living in harmony with defecation. Humans also unwittingly spread This 1908 map showed the progression native insects. “What I want you to do is go invasives with seeds that stick tightly to of chestnut blight across the state. home and make lots of insects,” Dr. Tallamy clothing. Something as benign and nature- CAES said. People must eschew plants sold as loving as going on a hike can be the conduit “pest-free.” for invasives to spread further into the Common Invasives in Dr. Tallamy acknowledged that ripping forests, Dr. Farnsworth said. Even patches of Connecticut Forests out some of the popular nonnative plants land that were animal paddocks a hundred Autumn olive (Elaeagnus umbellata). Asian and asking the neighbors to do the same will or more years ago — and now seem hidden tree first planted here in the early 1800s. create awkward conversations. The neigh- below second-growth forests — can be hot Winged euonymous or burning bush bors might question your sanity and cer- spots for invasives, she said. (Euonymus alatus). Planted widely on high- tainly your sense of order. “Most people Lawns are one of the main mechanisms ways, spread to forests by birds. want to fit into the social norm.” They like for spreading invasive plants. But, as Jessica Garlic mustard (Alliaria petiolata). Shade- plants that support few insects. “They’re not Lubell explained in her talk on the difference tolerant invader of the forest understory. thinking of the relationship between ‘neat between two kinds of Japanese barberry, not Japanese barberry (Berberis thunbergii). and tidy’ and death,” he said. all exotics are invasive. Japanese barberry has Thorny shrub arrived in New England in the And so he issued this challenge: Raise the been planted in America since 1875 and late 1800s as a landscape plant, widely carrying capacity of suburbia. became invasive in the forest by 1910. Con- found in forests. temporary cultivars of barberry have been Watching for the Progression Japanese stilt grass (Microstegium bred with purple-edged leaves. This form vimineum). This grass grows like crazy in Elizabeth Farnsworth, a consulting biolo- first emerged in 1926. The green form is the shade. It first arrived in the United gist for the New England Wildflower Society rarely sold today, she said, but many home- States in 1919 but invaded New England who has done plant inventories in the south- owners like the purple-edged varieties about a decade ago. ern New England woods, spoke at the sym- because they are tough and compact. So she Mile-a-minute vine (Polygonum perfolia- posium on the need for more studies on how studied four Connecticut sites and one in tum). Annual vine with triangular leaves invasives affect endangered plants. It might Massachusetts, conducting genetic finger- and blue fruits. Spreading crazily in habi- tats where forests meet fields. seem obvious to conclude that invasives are printing of purple-edged varieties. She always bad for rare plants, but it’s not entirely found that the purple and green varieties are Multiflora rose (Rosa multiflora). Widely clear. She said that only 6 of the 371 studies mixing in the forest, but minimal evidence planted as buffers, this Asian displaces other plants and animals. on nonnative plants have considered rare that the purple variety is invasive. plants at all. And so she asked the audience if Norway maple (Acer platanoides). An What to Do there might be any doctoral candidates out attractive European that out-competes the native sugar maple. there looking for a dissertation topic. Here are some practical ideas for those In a telephone interview a month later, with yards near woods: Tree of heaven (Ailanthus altissima). Asian Dr. Farnsworth said that rare plants aside, Conduct an inventory of the plants and native tree with red berries. nonnatives are without question the bullies trees in your yard, Dr. Tallamy advised. How Oriental bittersweet (Celastrus orbicultus). of the southern Connecticut forest. Humans many natives are there? Nonnatives? Plant Woody vine came from Asia in the mid- have created this situation in numerous alternatives like the native Virginia creeper. 1800s. It strangles trees. ways. As others have also said, most of the Wear different shoes to go hiking than to do Reed canary grass (phalaris arundinacea). invasives in the woods rooted from seeds gardening. In a landscaping setting, the Bishop’s weed or goutweed (Aegopodium that came originally from someone’s land- experts have said, you can pull out invasives podograria). Groundcover with Queen scaped property. With plants like Japanese by hand, but they probably will grow back, Anne’s lace-like flowers. Sold in garden barberry, this started in the late 1800s. so you have to keep on top of it. Many stores. Invasives also root from seeds carried in on experts recommend careful use of a product Morrow’s honeysuckle (Lonicer morrowii). our shoes. If we spread compost made from called Brush B Gone (by Ortho) on Orien- Bush invades old fields or woods where weeds removed from the garden, the seeds tal bittersweet. some trees have been cut, creating dense thickets. will sprout. Earthworms also will go where Talk about invasives with your friends and they’re not needed; in the woods, exotic neighbors. Check out the following Web sites: species of earthworms have done damage. www.ipane.org Christine Woodside is the editor of See the article on page 16 about worms. http://www.nps.gov/plants/alien/ Connecticut Woodlands. In the suburban landscape, with its neat

Winter 2009 CONNECTICUT WOODLANDS 15 EARTHWORMS Losing Hero Status

Learning to look with suspicion on a creature everybody loves

BY CHRISTINE WOODSIDE

University of Minnesota cientists have been trying to temper breakdown speeds up to the point where the people’s enthusiasm for earthworms woods ceases to be a “carbon sink” and Keep Earthworms Sfor some 15 years. Earthworms instead becomes a place where most of the Out of Forests break down plants and food scraps in a com- carbon dioxide from decaying leaves releases post pile, but in the forest, they chew and into the atmosphere. Ǡ Do not dump night crawlers out in the digest too much. There, they actually can This is not good. “We want our forests to woods. change the composition of the soil and con- be pulling carbon dioxide out of the atmos- Avoid spreading compost or material tribute to climate change. Several studies phere and combating the greenhouse Ǡ for composting in the woods. have documented such damage in many effect,” Dr. Groffman said. “Earthworms areas of North America and concluded that are turning forests into carbon sources.” Ǡ If you use worms in your compost, or forests would be healthier without earth- No earthworms are native to North find they gravitate there naturally, allow worms. America, at least not since they died out in the finished compost to freeze for a month to kill eggs and earthworms. “We thought earthworms were good,” the last Ice Age. Every single species here said Peter M. Groffman, an ecologist at the today came in by accident or in shipments. Ǡ Do not move leaves, mulch, compost, Cary Institute for Ecosystem Studies in Mill- Historic evidence suggests earthworms or soil from one place to another unless brook, New York. Dr. Groffman studies arrived in ship ballast to Jamestown, Vir- you know that it has no earthworms or worms in forests. “Little kids know that ginia, in the 17th century. More recent cocoons. earthworms are good. It could be some kind arrivals from Asia came here for sale to worm of inherent thing. Some people don’t like farms, bait suppliers, and gardeners who put Source: Great Lakes Worm Watch, Univer- snakes or spiders, and some people are afraid them in their compost. Because of this, the sity of Minnesota. of birds, but most people think earthworms forests here are not adapted to earthworms, are good.” and what comes naturally to an earth- http://www.nrri.umn.edu/worms/ So when experts such as Dr. Groffman, worm—burrowing, consuming plant mat- Melany C. Fisk of Cornell University, and ter, turning it into carbon dioxide quickly— Patrick J. Bohlen of the Archbold Biological does not benefit the northern forest. See also: Station in Lake Placid, Florida, among oth- They might be aliens to the forest, but National Public Radio feature from May ers, conduct studies that show earthworms worms are the heroes of the organic garden- 2007 on Jamestown, mentioning earth- are invading sections of the forest on this ing movement. The classic gardening book worms: continent and changing the soils and the by J. I. Rodale, The Complete Book of Com- http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.p landscape, this news can seem bizarre. posting (Rodale Books, 1960) devoted a hp?storyId=10158525 “It really shakes people up,” Dr. Groff- whole chapter to why we need earthworms, man said in a telephone interview. He calling them “nature’s greatest composters.” explained that when earthworms do what The Rodale book notes that even Darwin comes naturally in a forest instead of a gar- thought earthworms were noble, laying out Web page about earthworm den, they speed up the decomposition of the his argument in his late volume, The Forma- studies at the Cary Institute of dead leaves that cover the ground in most tion of Vegetable Mould Through the Action of Ecosystem Studies: northern forests. “Whenever you accelerate Earthworms, with Observations on Their http://www.ecostudies.org/people_sci_gr things, you also accelerate the loss,” he said. Habits (published just before his death). offman_earthworms.html This means that the usually slow release of Darwin apparently did not think it was good carbon dioxide back into the air as leaf for a layer of duff, or slowly decaying leaves,

16 CONNECTICUT WOODLANDS Winter 2009 to sit on the forest floor. “Where, in cool climates earthworms are few or absent, there is much less mixing; the dead vegetable matter accu- mulates on the surface, becoming a partly decomposed, acid, peaty mass, in which the normal soil decomposition are not completed,” Darwin wrote. Why he thought this was not good, who knows. The entire north- ern forest grew without them. Dr. Groffman noted, “I do a lot of work in the White Mountains and the Adirondacks and the Catskills, and those soils for the most part do not have any earthworms.” But now, he said, researchers are starting to see patches of the for- est where earthworms live. Researchers don’t know why they have spread, but probably suburban and exurban development brought worms to the area. For those who keep compost piles near forests, there is a chance the worms can migrate out. For those who go fishing, night crawlers (Lumbricus terrestris), a rel- ative of the worms that came over to Jamestown, often provide the bait. If you dump out the unused worms on the ground or toss them into the water, they aren’t leaving that area. Night crawlers go deep into the soil and make permanent burrows, Dr. Groffman said. Uglier, and newer to the region, are members of the Amynthus fam- ily. They’re bigger than other earthworms. Many people have less trouble hating them than hating night crawlers. No mass killings will help, Dr. Groffman said. His advice is to be careful and avoid doing things that would move worms into the woods. (See the list.) Worms are still fine in a garden, but maybe they’ve lost their superhero status. Darwin, are you listening?

Winter 2009 CONNECTICUT WOODLANDS 17 BY MARTY PODSKOCH

rom 1933 to 1942, thousands of young Connecticut men joined the FCivilian Conservation Corps, living in camps around the state, making new THE LEGACY OF THE trails, planting trees, building campsites, roads, and buildings—and working at a hun- dred other conservation jobs. Their work Civilian Conservation Corps left a legacy still visible in the state parks and forests. We have inherited thousands of acres of conifers that are 67 to 75 years old, IN CONNECTICUT planted by the “CCC boys.” The many miles of the gravel roads they built, many of them including stone bridges and culverts, were so well constructed that they are still in use. Dams, lakes, ponds, picnic pavilions and recreation areas we know came into being because of the CCC armies bending their backs to the work at hand. The CCC began during the Great Depression, just after Franklin D. Roosevelt took office. At his inauguration, he said, “I propose to create a civilian conservation corps to be used in simple work, not inter- fering with normal employment, and confin- ing itself to forestry, the prevention of soil erosion, flood control and similar projects.” He wanted to take millions of unem- ployed young men from poor families and give them jobs restoring our natural resources. Clear-cutting, pests and diseases, fire, and erosion had destroyed many forests. President Roosevelt had already tested a Trees, trails, roads, buildings, and more, gave similar program as governor of New York, where thousands of unemployed men refor- ested one million acres of land. work and pride to a generation of young men By July 1933, 250,000 men were working in camps, just as President Roosevelt had during the Great Depression promised. The CCC was the nation’s largest mobilization of manpower and equipment in U.S. history. It required the cooperation of many federal agencies. The Labor Department worked with the state and local relief agencies in selecting the enrollees. The departments of Agriculture and Interior planned and organized the projects. The War Department was in charge of construct- ing and administering each camp. The Army provided the food, clothing, medical care, and lodging. Each applicant was required to be between 18 and 25 years of age, unmarried, Boys at the Cobalt CCC camp in 1934 unemployed, healthy, not in school, and capable of working. The young men were take a break from wood-chopping. eager to join because they would earn $30 a Kathy Goodspeed month. They were also helping their parents

18 CONNECTICUT WOODLANDS WINTER 2009 because $25 went straight home to their such a beautiful state. My wife and I had parents. The young men received three full spent 33 years teaching and raising our fam- meals a day, clothing, shelter, and medical ily along the west branch of the Delaware care. River in the Catskill Mountains. In 2005, we On April 6, 1933, Connecticut had its moved to Colchester to be close to our first enrollee, and by May 31, eight camps daughter, son-in-law, and granddaughters. with 200 to 250 men each were established. We built our house right next to the Salmon By the end of December, there were 15 River State Forest just a mile from a CCC camps. President Roosevelt also established campsite. veteran’s camps for unemployed WW I vet- In spring 2008, Carl and I visited Chat- erans. One veteran camp in Connecticut was field Hollow State Park in Killingworth. The located at Housatonic Meadows State Park. park roads were closed to vehicles, but hik- ers crowded the park. It was at this state for- A Brief Catalog of the Connecticut est that a group of 250 young men had CCC Camps arrived on May 23,1933, to what was then I began researching a book a year ago, called Camp Roosevelt. The young men set and gave more than 60 talks at libraries, his- up Army tents until wooden barracks were Marty Podskoch torical societies, and retirement homes. built. Their largest project was building a CCC boys built this stone building in CCC members and their families came and stone dam creating Schreeder Pond. They Paugnut State Forest. State conservation shared their stories and pictures. also built a beautiful Adirondack-style build- officials once used it as a headquarters. When I visited Niantic, I met Carl Stamm, ing called Oak Lodge along the pond, as Today it stands in an out-of-the-way sec- a retired state park and forest supervisor who well as 23 miles of truck trails, and numer- tion of Burr Pond State Park. offered to help search for the location of the ous hiking trails. The camp closed on March CCC camps. It was a great adventure for 31, 1937, but thousands of visitors still both of us trying to find concrete founda- come each year to enjoy swimming, hiking, Island, where they had been given physicals, tions, pipes, wells, and buildings amidst and picnicking. equipment, and training. A boat transported debris, trees, and brush. As we traveled, I On May 24, 1933, a group of 212 men them back to New London. From there, realized how fortunate I was to move to left the Army Camp Wright on Fishers they traveled in old World War I liberty trucks to New Fairfield. Michael Popovich of Waterbury told me they arrived at Squantz Pond at about noon and began set- ting up their tents. “It was quite hectic pitching tents and digging a latrine,” he said. “We were exhausted at night. Our big project was building a road through the nearby Pootatuck Forest. We cleared the trees and brush and then used picks and shovels to level the road. I learned how to use a jackhammer to break the rocks.” They also built a foot trail along Candlewood Lake. After a little more than two years, the camp closed on October 30, 1935. Camp Graves on Route 190 in Union was the third Connecticut camp. It began on May 27, 1933, and the enrollees worked in the Nipmuck State Forest where they established softwood plantations, built forest roads, fire ponds, and recreation areas. They also built the entrance road to Morey Pond, its caretaker’s cabin, and bathhouses. Camp Graves’ boys also built the beautiful Moun- Marty Podskoch tain Laurel Sanctuary. They also worked in This metal bridge in Natchaug State Forest in Eastford rests on stone supports built by Shenipsit Forest thinning the forest, and the CCC. It replaced the CCC’s original wooden bridge after floods destroyed two center supports in 1936. Today it handles only foot traffic. continued on page 20

Winter 2009 CONNECTICUT WOODLANDS 19 CCC continued from page 19 making road improvements on Soap Stone Mountain. Camp Graves closed on April 22, 1936. In May 1933, Camp Wolcott in Burrville was established in the Paugnut State Forest near Torrington. The men replaced the old wooden dam on Burr Pond with a solid stone masonry one. They constructed a three-mile foot-trail around Burr Pond, a stone administrative building, truck trails (including two-mile-long Guerdat Road), and many miles of cross-country ski trails. Black Rock State Park near Thomaston is another Mecca for swimmers and hikers. Men at Camp Roberts (May, 1933–Sept. 1937) built truck and hiking trails, planted trees, and thinned the forests. Work details also traveled south on Route 8 and worked in the Naugatuck State Forest. Camp Chapman (June 1933–October 1935) was established in East Lyme on Stone’s Ranch Military Reservation. The Marty Podskoch young men worked in Nehantic State Forest CCC boys built this stone building in Paugnut State Forest. State conservation officials once used it as a headquarters. Today it stands in an out-of-the-way section of Burr Pond building a two-mile road, battling Dutch State Park. elm disease and planting pine trees. They also began constructing roads in Devil’s Hopyard State Park in East Haddam. a cement foundation for the future sawmill, was in Natchaug State Forest in Eastford Camp Lonerghan (June 1933–May a lumber shed, a creosoting plant for fence and Hampton. The work accomplished here 1942) was located in Voluntown in Pachaug posts, miles of trails, and bathhouses on included the building of Kingsbury and Fer- State Forest. The enrollees cut trees that Great Hill Road. now roads, a new ranger house, a ware- were made into lumber in the camp sawmill Camp Cross (June 1933–April 1941) house, a sawmill, a sawdust and a planer or used in the shingle mill. They built water was set up in the Housatonic Meadows State shed, a machine shop, and three lumber holes for firefighting, miles of truck trails, Park in Sharon. The enrollees were World sheds. The CCC boys also built a dam cre- the Green Falls and Lawrence roads, and War I veterans who pitched their tents across ating Darling Pond and a large bridge over dams and bathhouses at Phillips Pond and the road from the Housatonic River. They the Natchaug River near Route 198. They Green Falls. The young men also built built 12 miles of truck trails (Cream Hill and planted thousands of pine seedlings. Hopeville Pond State Park, where today Yelping Hill roads) and campsites and picnic Camp Filley (December 1933–July people enjoy hiking, biking, hunting, and areas near the Housatonic River. The area 1941) was built on the eastern part of Cock- more. had been frequently clear-cut to make char- aponset State Forest. These enrollees were Camp Robinson (June 1933–July 1941) coal for the iron industry. The CCC men lucky because they didn’t have to live in was established in Tunxis State Forest in planted thousands of seedlings and built tents because wooden barracks were already East Hartland. Truck trails, roads, and dams many waterholes in the forest. completed. The young men constructed 23 were major projects. Some of the hiking Camp Toumey (June 1933–April 1941) miles of truck trails throughout the forest. trails were to Bragg Pond, Council Rocks, lasted longer than many did. Enrollees did They also made hiking trails, thinned the and Roaring Brook Falls. Workers also built many projects in the Mohawk State Forest in forest, planted trees, fought fires, and built a miles of cross-country ski trails, a stone West Goshen. They built Toumey Road lumber shed, garage, and a brick charcoal house for the forest ranger, and a swimming from the Bunker Hill Road (Route 4) to the kiln. area at Bragg Pond. summit of Mohawk Mountain, where they In December 1933, Camp White was Camp Jenkins (June 1933–January erected a steel fire tower. The workers built established in Riverton, in the American 1936) in Cobalt was located off Gadpouch a sawmill, sawdust storage shed, warehouse, Legion State Forest. The camp was located Road in Meshomasic State Forest. The and lumber shed where they made lumber on the western side of the Farmington River young men improved North Milford Road products from the harvested logs. They con- but the boys also worked in the Peoples For- and built Reeves and other truck roads. The structed miles of ski trails that are still used. est on the eastern side of the river. They con- men harvested many acres of wood and built Camp Fernow (June 1933–May 1941) structed many miles of truck trails including

20 CONNECTICUT WOODLANDS WINTER 2009 Greenwoods Road and widened and resur- Poquonock, a section of Windsor, workers In 1933, CFPA held its spring meeting at faced three miles of River Road. They made planted trees and eradicated insects. The Camp Roosevelt and its annual meeting at many trails, including a nature trail from camp was converted into a migrant farm Peoples State Forest—driving afterward to Matthies Campground through Ullman pic- camp for the tobacco farms. check out work at nearby Camp Robinson. nic area and a one-mile foot hiking trail from The Wooster Mountain camp was located The following year, the CFPA met at Camp Camp White to Tremendous Cliff in Amer- on Route 7 in Danbury. It was called Camp Walcott. They had lunch in the stone build- ican Legion Forest. The workers built the Fechner (September 1935–May 1937) after ing and presented plaques to Camps Robin- Stone Museum and other buildings. They Robert Fechner, the national CCC director. son and Lonerghan for their work. On June also built a dam, pond, swimming area, and CCC men removed and burned more than 15, 1935, CFPA was at Mohawk State For- pavilion in what is now Stratton State Forest 10,000 trees suffering from Dutch elm dis- est and dedicated the new road built by the in Simsbury (then known as Massaco State ease. The campsite is presently rented as a CCC men to honor the late James Toumey, Forest). Camp White closed in 1942. shooting range. who was a professor at Yale School of CCC men at Macedonia Brook Camp, Camp Buck (September 1935–July Forestry. The road went from Bunker Hill established by the National Park Service, 1941) was located in Meshomasic State For- to the summit of Mohawk Mountain. Then built picnic and campsites and a three-mile est in Portland. Its workers built truck roads on June 13, 1936, the CFPA traveled to road with impressive stone walls. They also and hiking trails, a fire tower, and water- Peoples Forest to see the work of the CCC. built a trail along Kent Falls and a picnic holes. It had a sawmill, charcoal kiln, and In the late 1930s, applications declined area. creosoting plant that made numerous wood because of increased employment opportu- Camp Stewart, in Salmon Forest near products. A few of the buildings from the nities. By 1941, the number of enrollees had my home in Colchester (July 1933–May CCC days stand here. One of them is a decreased nationwide from 600,000 at its 1937), was responsible for a new dam on storehouse for the Connecticut Department peak to 200,000. After the attack on Pearl Day Pond, pavilion, hiking trails, swimming of Environmental Protection. Harbor and U.S. entrance into World War area, and the Comstock covered bridge over II, our young men were now needed for the Working with Locals Salmon River. war effort. The CCC program was never Camp Hadley (September 1935–April The local economies benefited from the officially closed but no longer received fund- 1941) in Madison was in the southwestern camps because local experienced men, called ing. section of Cockaponset State Forest. The LEMs, acted as foremen. They taught the From 1933 to 1942, the CCC program men built truck trails, thinned the forest, CCC boys masonry, carpentry, forestry, employed 3.5 million men in the 48 states planted trees, and fought fires. They also mechanics, and cooking skills. including the territories of Alaska, Hawaii, helped remove fallen trees and debris after The camps’ firefighting groups could Puerto Rico, and the Virgin Islands. In the Hurricane of 1938 damaged nearby leave within one minute to answer a call in Connecticut, 28,447 enrollees and 2,223 Hammonasset State Park and surrounding the area. The CCC men built a network of officers and supervisors were employed. The communities. Hammonasset State Park truck trails throughout the forest enabling federal government funded the program and campers and sunbathers can thank these them to get to a fire quickly. They also built pumped $20,728,000 into the state’s econ- CCC boys for the roads, the bathhouse, and 1,000 water holes on state land and another omy. campsites. 200 on private land that provided water to The young men benefited from the CCC At Camp Conner (September 1935 – combat fire. Hikers frequently find these program with improved self-esteem, self-dis- May 1941) in Shenipsit State Forest in along trails. cipline, and a sense of purpose. They Stafford Springs, CCC workers built Avery Since the average education of the received technical training in more than 150 Road, truck roads, trails, and the forest enrollees was eighth grade, camps employed marketable skills, from engine repair to ranger’s house. The officers’ barracks build- education advisors who held evening classes cooking. ing is one of the few CCC camp structures for interested boys. The subjects included left standing in Connecticut. It serves as the conservation and forestry, machine con- Marty Podskoch of Colchester is a retired Connecticut CCC Museum and contains struction, photography, reading, archery, reading teacher. He and his wife, Lynn, the second largest collection of CCC mate- mechanics, and writing. raised their three children in an old farm- rials in the United States. The CCC also helped residents recover house along the West Branch of the Two CCC camps were “bug camps,” from the devastating 1936 flood and the Delaware River. He is the author of three where workers fought blister rust that 1938 hurricane. Enrollees went to Hartford books on fire towers in New York State, all attacked white pine trees. The CCC men in 1936 and shoveled mud and cleaned up published by Purple Mountain Press. Marty removed currant and gooseberry bushes debris. Governor Cross showed the state’s nearby because they were the hosts of the gratitude by inviting the boys to the Hart- also writes a weekly newspaper column, disease. Enrollees also fought the gypsy ford Armory for a dinner and a watch. “Adirondack Stories,” in five newspapers. moths by banding trees and destroying the The Connecticut Forest & Park Associa- Contact Marty at 860-267-2442 or egg clusters by coating them with creosote. tion encouraged the CCC early on. CCC [email protected]. See also his Web sites, At Camp Britton (September 1935–May workers built several of the Blue-Blazed http://www.adirondackstories.com/ and 1937) on Connecticut Agricultural Experi- Hiking Trails maintained by CFPA volun- www.cccstories.com. ment Station land on River Road in teers today.

Winter 2009 CONNECTICUT WOODLANDS 21 FROM THE ARCHIVES

Promoting Skiing

BY JAMES W. LITTLE

ou know about the Y Connecticut Forest & Park Association and its support of forests, parks, environ- mental education, land conserva- tion, and the Blue-Blazed Hiking Trials. Did you know that CFPA was an early proponent of using the trails for skiing? Connecticut Woodlands featured this article on skiing, and the early editions of the Connecticut Walk Book had a section on ski trails. CFPA had a Ski Trails Committee that worked closely with the State Forest Service and the Connecti- cut Winter Sports Association. The committee gave assistance in “laying out downhill runs on some of the State Forests.” How- ever, while CFPA helped create ski runs it also offered this early wis- dom. “Although these trails are believed to be reasonably safe, it is understood that skiers use them at their own risk.” Something tells us there must have been an attorney on the ski committee.

James W. Little is the develop- ment director of CFPA.

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Winter 2009 CONNECTICUT WOODLANDS 23 TRY THIS HIKE The Kingkillers Taking Public Transportation to the Regicides Trail in New Haven

BY SCOT MACKINNON As the train trundled along making stops in Westbrook, Clinton, Madison, Guilford, From the time he had gotten down off the train and Branford, commuters boarded, taking and the baggage man had thrown his pack out their accustomed seats to chat with friends of the open car door things had been different. or read the paper. Some adventurous types Seney was burned, the country was burned brought bicycles on board to finish their over and changed, but it did not matter. It journey when the train reached New Haven. could not all be burned. He hiked along the Now there’s a concept. road, sweating in the sun, climbing to cross the It turns out that the city buses are dead range of hills that separated the railway from simple to use. You pretty much have to try to the pine plains. mess up to miss a connection. Nevertheless, we managed to miss the B3 Whalley Avenue Ernest Hemingway, in “Big Two-Hearted bus that would have dropped us practically at River” the entrance to the Regicides Trail. Undaunted, we chased that bus for six stops, almost catching it only to see it pull away each iking is great exercise and a useful time we drew close. Just as in the movies. character builder, but I usually Connecticut Transit posts SUVs at strate- Fdon’t try to walk to the beginning gic positions around the city with supervisors of the trail I intend to explore. Most Con- on board ready to intervene if a bus has a necticut trails are impractically far from my mechanical failure or some other crisis arises. home. To get there, hike any distance, and The supervisors suffer fools gladly, which get back home in a day, is a challenge even Scot Mackinnon helps those of us who do not completely get with a car. Still, I do suffer guilt twinges at Ready for hiking, Nancy waits for the bus. it. Standing in line behind us at the Union the narcissism of using a pollution-emitting Station bus stop was a guy who I will call device just to cart me and a backpack to the used the New Haven bus system before— Albert, a Dungeons and Dragons designer trailhead for a little fresh air. confusing. Happily, my wife Nancy agreed to from Philadelphia who was on his way to a My family and I have done our best to accompany me as navigator and field biolo- “Fur and Fright Convention” in Waterbury. limit car and air trips and, like Nick Adams gist. But first we had to reach New Haven. Albert, dressed in black raincoat and long in “Big Two-Hearted River,” we use public Though centrally isolated, our home- dark hair, was not only clueless about public transportation whenever practical. Less fuel, town, East Haddam, is not completely with- transportation, he seemed to be a little con- less smog, less guilt. Is it possible to daytrip out connections to the outside world. A fused about the whole space/time contin- by train, bus, and so forth to a prime Con- shuttle bus service to the Old Saybrook rail- uum thing. When his turn came to stick his necticut Blue-Blazed Hiking Trail and still road station is available one town over in head inside the shift supervisor’s SUV and have fun? As Ernest Hemingway would say, Chester. We were running behind, so we ask his question, the supervisor nodded “Yes.” hitched a car ride with our daughter, Kat, patiently. “Which bus will take me to Water- I chose New Haven’s immaculately main- who was heading to Old Saybrook anyway. bury?” (He had arrived by train.) tained Regicides (Latin for “Kingkillers”) This was a sensible decision, as the 9:14 a.m. Supervisor: “This is New Haven. Trail, at West Rock State Park in the city’s Shoreline East train for New Haven was Albert: “But, which bus will take me to north end, because I was intrigued by the about to pull out on schedule as we pulled Waterbury?” tales I had heard about the two renegade into the parking lot. Nothing like a bracing Supervisor: “These buses only serve . . . English judges who lay low there three cen- sprint up and down stairs to the far platform New Haven.” turies ago in a successful attempt to avoid the to get the blood pumping for the day’s Albert: “But, I still don’t . . . ” long reach of their victim’s son, Charles II. activities. Fortunately, an indulgent conduc- Supervisor: “We like to say it’s because Reaching the start of the Regicides Trail via tor waited patiently as we scurried aboard. this is New Haven as opposed to say Hart- public transportation promised to be exhaust- So far so good. No need for deep knee ford or . . . Waterbury. Waterbury has its ing, informative, and—because I had never bends at the trailhead. own buses but you would have to go there

24 CONNECTICUT WOODLANDS WINTER 2009 first in order to use them.” He wasn’t fin- though I would steer clear of the cliffside For trivia fans, about the only thing not ished with Albert, but when we realized we Regicides. Wandering around the east side mentioned in the indispensable Connecticut were not going to find the B3 bus, we base of West Rock, near the recently closed Walk Book on the subject of the Regicides changed course. We had wanted a hike—and Brookside Public Housing Complex, we and West Rock is that the tunnel is featured we got one, on Whalley Avenue, which, in a stumbled on the Common Ground School. in the 1958 Doris Day classic, The Tunnel of way is the approach trail to the Regicides It’s a charter school with its own trail system Love. In watching a clip from the movie, I anyway, since Whalley Avenue is named after that ties into West Rock. The kids were noticed that the trees on the ridgeline above one of the judges. In fact, all three of the going to set off on a hike on West Rock the the tunnel are a lot taller now. local fugitives have roads named after them next morning. Common Ground’s director, Heading back into town, we easily found (Whalley, Goffe, and Dixwell) that meet Oliver Barton, showed us around and out- the right bus, which went right past Claire’s over by the old Yale Coop. Go figure. lined the school’s mission as a “center for Cornercopia, a veggie restaurant where we So we walked the two miles from the New environmental learning and leadership.” In stopped before finishing the route to the Haven Green to West Rock State Park. We addition to 20 acres of forest that adjoin train station. Waiting for the B3 in the West- encountered helpful, talkative people every- West Rock, the school hosts an organic ville section a few hundred yards from the where. When we stopped to ask a police offi- farm. These New Haven kids can definitely trail, we felt confident enough to answer a cer how to find a cross street near West Rock find The Park. stranger’s question about the bus schedule. State Park, he helpfully advised us to try We spent so much time at the school that We were old pros now. Boarding the bus, we another route because of the risk of bodily we did not get in as much hiking as we had could look out the window to the northeast injury in that neighborhood. But no matter hoped. But we did see plenty anyway. The and see the sheer cliffs of West Rock glow- whom we asked for directions to West Rock Judges Cave, the weird cairns on the Green ing red in the sunset high over town. We State Park and the Regicides Trail, we were Trail, the magnificent views north to the con- must go back again, maybe continuing on to met with looks of bafflement. Even the tiguous Quinnipiac Trail as well as Sleeping the Quinnipiac Trail next time. chivalrous shift supervisor was undone by Giant State Park. We also managed to reach the question. the gigantic stone ventilation shaft for the Supervisor: “I can tell you what bus to West Rock Tunnel on the Wilber Cross Park- Scot Mackinnon — former Appalachian take to get to East Rock Park but I have no way that the Regicides crosses. The ventilator Trail thru-hiker, plant experimenter, for- idea how you would get to West Rock.” mer town selectman, and family man — We discovered that the city folks are rather is kind of spooky-looking, like Jabba’s Palace lives in East Haddam. spoiled by their public transit system. We in Return of The Jedi. conjectured about what a New Havenite does if their neighborhood bus does not drop them off in their front hallway. When we took a hard look at the detailed bus schedule, we found that both the B1 and B3 RIVERICE buses make stops within a few hundred yards Like cellophane stretched tightly over the mouth of of the park, but local folks acted as though a jar, a thin skin of ice spans the slack water while we were talking about some obscure corner Elizabethan collars of frozen lace grace crusted of Yellowstone. Local expectations for buses and glossy rocks congregating in the riffles. Thick are high. I got the feeling that maybe the old chunks huddled along the shore are healed buses are telling the passengers what to do together from days of thaw following frost. Lumpy but not exactly where to go. Distances in the and uneven, in fleeting sunlight they appear like city take on interstellar dimensions for the solidified clouds. locals. Capering about via ankle express for more than a block takes on aspects of The Mergansers swim skittishly in pockets of dark open Iliad. Talking to car-bound visitors to the water. Formally dressed in a duck’s tuxedo of black overlook on top of West Rock, I let slip that and white winter plumage, they dive and disappear having missed our bus we had walked (and into the frigid current. Fishing wherever the river run) the two miles to the park from the hasn’t frozen, they resurface nearly dry, often a Green. Conversations around us stopped. silvery minnow grasped in saw-edged jaws. Small Visitor: “You walked from The Green?” and slender, their spikelike orange bills are lit with Nancy: “Yesss.” the sharpest color yet alive. I started to blurt out that furthermore we —David K. Leff intended to hike the 7-mile-long trail that started behind them—but I thought better of it. Reprinted with the author’s permission from his new book The park and its various trails, including of prose poems, The Price of Water (Antrim House, 2008). the Regicides, is a delight. You can even mountain bike on the trails if you wish,

Winter 2009 CONNECTICUT WOODLANDS 25 NEW ENGLAND MUSINGS Forests of the Far Reaches

BY ADAM R. MOORE island and where fires have not burned for some time, one finds the oaks succeeding to American beech and, notably, et there be no question, towns like Litchfield American holly. One may walk along the dirt surface of and Pomfret are quintessential New England. Middle Line Road in Chilmark and find hollies 30 feet tall, L Sugar maples (once elms) line the streets, with their progeny sprouting up all about them. Inciden- flanked by elegant 18th-century houses. They have tally, American holly (Ilex opaca) is indeed a native tree of steepled, white-clapboard churches, pumpkins on Octo- Southern New England, and the Association should add it ber porches and blaze-orange autumn leaves wafting to its tree book, Forest Trees of Southern New England, about stone walls while falling to the earth. White steeple, when the time comes to revise and reprint. There are the stone wall, sugar maple: New England. unusual frost bottoms, depressions in the outwash plains Yet, there are trees and woodlands in other parts of this where frost may occur in any month of the year, and in region that are equally New England, if not quintessen- which only the hardiest trees — scrub oaks, post oaks and tially so. Spruce and fir clothe the rocky islands off the dwarf chestnut oaks — can persist. And then there are the cold coast of Maine. There is the Presidential Range, forests of the grotesque. where one ascends to krummholz and lichen on soaring Some years ago, the Connecticut chapter of the Society rocky peaks. Even the familiar Metacomet Ridge in Con- of American Foresters met to discuss proposed forest prac- necticut, though it crosses much that is quintessential tice regulations. The proposed regulations were designed New England, does not always call to mind “New Eng- to promote good forestry, in other words, growing land.” Just glance at the chestnut oaks and stunted cedars, straight, tall, timber-producing trees. However, one and observe the rocky profile of the sheer basalt cliff—so forester asked, what if he wished to create a “grotesque” stark, so wild, it seems transplanted here from Monument forest? Would he be violating the regulations? The ques- Valley in the southwest. And on the Atlantic island of tion stumped the speaker and everyone else. A grotesque Martha’s Vineyard grow forests unfamiliar to most. forest, the most curious that I’ve seen, grows at Quansoo Together, these are the forests of New England’s far Farm in Chilmark. This is a maritime forest of mature reaches. oaks. These oaks, and the stand itself, have been sculpted Block Island and Nantucket are largely pastoral, open, by an ever-present wind, the Atlantic Ocean being just and wind-swept, but Martha’s Vineyard is clad in forest. yards away. One walks through the woods on the trail and The Manuel F. Corellus State Forest alone covers some hears the pounding surf on the barrier beach; one is amazed that beach grass upon sand is enough to hold back this powerful wilderness of water. Sugar maple is and ought to be the chief tree Grass may withstand the sea, yet grass cannot hold back a salt-laden wind. So at Quansoo these oaks, sprouting from what may have been pasture at one time, or what of our region. Yet, we must know Connecticut, may have been a woodland leveled by a hurricane, began to grow with enough sunlight and enough space between them that each tree has assumed a grotesque, twisted and New England, encompass far more. form. These are gnarled specimens, many-stemmed, whose stunted trunks curve and bend this way and that. In serpentine fashion, the massive limbs arch upward, then 5,000 acres in the center of the island. Although this for- bend toward the ground, sometimes contacting the soil est needs a good management plan and extra manage- and taking new root, then curve again upward, toward the ment help, it is a mix of old, untended pine and spruce sun. They are climbing trees indeed, a delight of children, plantations and areas of native oaks. Across the rest of the perfect bases for tree houses and young imaginations. And island, oaks and pitch pines predominate. The pitch pine, these are clearly the type of oaks that would have inspired incidentally, signifies the wild and inhospitable New Eng- such dread, such base fear, as forests did to the Puritan land. In Connecticut, pitch pine is generally found on colonists almost four hundred years ago. infertile, rocky ridges. On Martha’s Vineyard, pitch pine From a distance, the stand appears somewhat uniform: may be found almost anywhere because it grows in both the top of the stand is curved, shorter at its seaward side the good soils and the poor, droughty sands. In the and taller inland. It exhibits a curved, clipped profile, as if forests of the glacial moraine, in the western part of the it were a boxwood hedge in an English garden sheared to

26 CONNECTICUT WOODLANDS Winter 2009 Hull Forest Products Inc. Serving The Needs of Forest Landowners Since 1972. perfect form. Here, though, the shears are just the bud-breaking, twig-snapping winds. When one actually enters the stand, one mar- Providing Numerous Forestry Services: vels at one spreading, stunted tree after another. A portion of this Four Certified Foresters On Staff Quansoo forest is known as the picnic woods because for a time sheep Forest Management Planning grazed among the oaks, and perhaps made for an herbaceous ground cover suitable for spreading a blanket and eating a Sunday lunch. Tree Farm Certification Today, however, pignut hickories grow straight and skyward amid the Wildlife Habitat Management broad oak crowns, sassafras mingles in and viburnum and huckleberry Timber Stand Improvements shrubs occupy the ground. The woods host picnics no longer, but CT Forestland Property Tax Classification one may sit on an inviting curved branch and perhaps enjoy the arbo- Purchasing Standing Timber. real perch for a time, eat an apple, listen to the surf, or watch the shrouds of fog blow through. These, too, are the woods of New England. Sugar maple is and For A Free Initial Consultation or Sawtimber ought to be the chief tree of our region. Yet, we must know Con- Appraisal Please Call: necticut, and New England, encompass far more. There are twisted eastern red cedars clinging to the edge of trap rock cliffs in Middle- Hull Forest Products Inc. field, hundreds of feet above the broken pile of talus below. That is New England. There is an Atlantic white cedar swamp off Route 80 101 Hampton Road, Pomfret Center, CT 06259 in Madison, where on a cloudy day one can get just as lost as the deer (860) 974-2083 or (800) 353-3331 whose carcass lies on the sphagnum mat, where if one bores a hole www.hullforest.com into the soil one can set fire to the escaping gas. That, too, is New England. There are carnivorous pitcher plants in black spruce bogs at the Great Mountain Forest in Norfolk; New England, too. And yards from the mighty Atlantic, a forest of maritime oaks grow and twist and bend against constant salt winds, here, in the forests of New Eng- land’s far reaches. SCOTLAND HARDWOODS A ROSSI COMPANY Adam R. Moore is the former executive director of CFPA. He now lives on Martha’s Vineyard, where he directs the Sheriff’s Meadow FORESTRY SERVICES DIVISION Foundation. P.O. BOX 328, SCOTLAND, CT 06264

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Winter 2009 CONNECTICUT WOODLANDS 27 FROM THE LAND

Local Potatoes a Golden Treasure

BY JEAN CRUM JONES ounce; it was all the rich add-ons that con- 1872 and 1874 and sold partial rights to this tributed to a possible excessive caloric load. potato so he could travel to California and ast summer, when food and gaso- Actually, the potato is remarkably nutritious. purchase a small farm where he could breed line prices were soaring and peo- If eaten in sufficient quantities with a little plants year-round. Later, a natural sport of the L ple renewed their interest in local bit of dairy foods, it can provide all the Burbank potato with russetted skin was agriculture, my farmer husband and son nutrients the human body needs. selected by a grower in Colorado and named decided to plant some additional autumn In the early 1970s, I began eating my the Russet Burbank potato. Today, nearly all food crops to sell alongside our squash and baked potatoes plain and began discovering the potatoes grown in Idaho are this variety pumpkin harvest. In went broccoli and cau- the taste variations inherent in the different and all McDonald fries use the Russet Bur- liflower plants along with 10 different vari- varieties that we grew on the farm. The fam- bank variety. eties of potatoes. Because of the Irish back- ily’s traditional favorite potato was the So, back to this past October, as I stood Green Mountain, now an almost forgotten ground of the “first” Philip Jones who proudly behind our bins of freshly dug, beau- Vermont native. This potato variety, devel- started farming on our Connecticut lands in tiful potatoes from our farmland soils, I was oped in 1878 by a plant breeder from Char- the late 1850s, potatoes have always been an astounded to find that relatively few people lotte, Vermont, was a result of the blight essential part of the Jones diet. In fact, I wanted to buy potatoes. Customers brought that nearly wiped out the New England remember clearly as a newlywed in 1969 the broccoli and cauliflower, but said they just potato crops around the time of the cata- hearing my mother-in-law say that a day didn’t cook with raw potatoes. If I did make a strophic Irish potato famine. For more than could not go by without serving potatoes at potato sale, customers would buy the potato 50 years, this tasty, but oddly shaped, Green a family meal. Lacking an Irish heritage and as an individual unit at 50 cents a piece and Mountain was America’s most popular bak- having spent food holidays in the South, I would generally buy two or four. Some folks ing potato, until the more consistently oval enjoyed reminiscing with me about their fam- could not imagine my meals without rice. Russets took over. My 90-year-old father-in- ily ancestors and their potato stories. I remem- But, then as now, we grow a sufficient law still talks fondly of Green Mountains and ber one older woman telling me that every day amount of potatoes on our farm to last us I hope to try them someday now that heir- as a child her mother would walk to school through the winter until spring, and not a loom varieties are more available. with two roasted potatoes, one in each pocket, day does go by without some daily potato Unfortunately, most Americans find only preparation during this cold season. a few varieties grown commercially for the to keep her hands warm, and then she would I also recall many years ago as a young supermarket stores. The most widely culti- eat the potatoes for her lunch. My storyteller nutrition educator discussing the merits of vated variety in the United States is the Rus- bought no potatoes for herself. eating potatoes with my clients. There was a set Burbank—a bland, high starch type that Historically, potatoes have been considered potato prejudice during those times; weight- absorbs fat well. Luther Burbank, developer a humble food. The first Europeans to see and conscious women were shunning potatoes of the Burbank potato, was a self-educated taste the potatoes were Spanish conquistadors because they were “starchy and fattening.” horticulturist. He was born in Lancaster, in the 1530s looking for gold in the Inca My mantra was that the potato itself was Massachusetts, in 1849. He bred the Bur- Empire. High up in the Peruvian mountains, not fattening with only 30 calories per bank potato in Massachusetts between the Spanish found Native Americans cultivat-

28 CONNECTICUT WOODLANDS Winter 2009 My mantra was that the potato itself was not fattening ing a crop they thought was truffles. To with only 30 calories per ounce; mention of potatoes in the Bible, a sure sign grow potatoes as they had been doing for they must be a creation of the devil. thousands of years, the Incas leveled small it was all the rich add-ons On the other hand, the advantages of areas up and down the mountainsides into that contributed to a possible potatoes were so overwhelming that con- flattened narrow terraces. They constructed sumption did grow, until ultimately they canals to carry water from one field to excessive caloric load. became the primary food source for Euro- another to irrigate the crops. This multilevel pean farmers. During this period, farmers farming method meant that each terrace had generally leased their land from wealthy its own type of soil, growing climate, and landowners. Lease payments were typically moisture conditions. The Incas produced Actually, the potato is made in the form of grain, and were usually potatoes of all sizes, textures, and colors, so steep that the farmer needed a lucky year from whites and yellows to browns, purples, remarkably nutritious. to have enough grain leftover to feed his oranges, and red. My husband, Terry, and I family. Potatoes were not a useful commod- had the opportunity to witness this amazing If eaten in sufficient quantities ity to landowners. However, the farmer agrarian system about 450 years after the could grow enough potatoes to feed his Spanish first came upon it when we visited with a little bit of dairy foods, family well from his small personal garden Ecuador in 1972. plot. Potatoes had another advantage, which Inca experimentation with potatoes it can provide all the nutrients also triggered their acceptance in Europe. extended to a unique preservation method, Territorial wars were rife in Europe in the “freeze-drying.” Spreading the harvested the human body needs. 1700s. During wartimes, hungry soldiers potatoes on the ground, they were left were likely to loot all stored grains and other overnight to freeze. The next day the Incas foodstuffs. Potatoes, however, could be left walked on the potatoes to squeeze out the where they customarily dried their catch in the ground and survive the ruthless water, then left them to dry in the sun. This before returning home, and transmitted wartime requisitioning. This happened first process was repeated for four or five days potato culture to the Irish before 1650. The in Flanders, where Louis XIV ravaged the until the potatoes were thoroughly dry. Irish, having an ideal climate for potato land in the 1680s. Potatoes then spread Called “chuno,” the potatoes could be growing, established an entirely new style of across Germany and Poland in the 18th cen- stored for several years, then later reconsti- subsistence farming with potatoes, which tury, becoming important in southwest Ger- tuted by adding water. The Incas also grew was particularly necessary as they relied on many during the War of Spanish Succession, maize and beans, but the potato was the potatoes for food when they were cruelly 1700–1713, and reaching into Prussia and Incas most important crop and enabled the harassed by Cromwell’s army during its Poland during the Seven Years’ War, civilization to grow into an empire. occupation of Ireland. 1756–1763. The wars of the French Revo- The Spanish conquistadors were not par- Otherwise, for most of Europe, the lution and Napoleonic era, 1792–1815, ticularly interested in the potato—they were potato remained a botanical novelty for brought the potato to Russia. No other crop interested in the precious metals of the nearly two centuries after it was brought produces as many calories per acre as the Incas. To mine the gold and silver, the con- back from South America. Monks grew potato and the soil and climate of northern quistadors enslaved the Incas and fed them potatoes in monastery gardens and the Europe helped make the potato an indispen- the chuno from their storehouses. They also wealthy upper classes grew them as curiosi- sable food. France and England disdained fed potatoes to the sailors on the Spanish ties. Agriculturists recognized that this pecu- the potato until the late 1700s and even ships offshore in the Pacific. It is not really liar new plant could produce more food on then, considered it a food primarily for peas- known how the potato spread from Peru to less land than any other crop and that this ants and animals. Europe, but some historians theorize that tuber could be a good source of nourish- The potato arrived in colonial North some Spanish sailors took the potato back to ment for the poor. But, peasants were suspi- America at the beginning of the 17th cen- Spain for their use. They did not get sick on cious of the dirty lumpy brown tuber, which tury. William Penn, in 1685, described how ship from scurvy while eating a diet of pota- they thought caused leprosy. Potato plants well the “Irish” potato grew in his Pennsyl- toes, which are rich in vitamin C. Before the looked a lot like a weed called deadly night- vania colony. A group of Scots-Irish immi- end of the 16th century, Basque sailors’ fam- shade. Their suspicions were well founded in grants brought potatoes with them to Lon- ilies along the Biscay coast of northern Spain this area. Both the leaves and the fruits of donderry, New Hampshire, in 1719, and were growing potatoes, which they used for potatoes contain a chemical, solanine, which from there, the culture of potatoes spread shipboard food. Basque fishermen brought is the same poison as in nightshade. Further throughout New England. Easy to grow, potatoes ashore on the coast of Ireland, concerns were reinforced by the lack of any continued on page 33

Winter 2009 CONNECTICUT WOODLANDS 29 TREE PAGE The Butternut That Is Not a Butternut Sometimes trees are notable for more than one reason

BY SANDRA L. ANAGNOSTAKIS

Readers of Connecticut Woodlands will remember the recent article about the Notable Trees Project in Connecticut. This article, which replaces our usual book excerpt from Forest Trees of Southern New England, explains how a tree can be notable in an unusual way.

ne of our native trees is called butternut or white walnut (Juglans cinerea). Long a favorite of wood carvers and nut Oenthusiasts alike, the trees are usually found near running water. This tree species has never been numerous in Connecticut, so the recent decline in populations associated with the introduced fungus Sirococcus clavigignenti-juglandacearum is particularly troubling. In addition to losses in Connecticut, butternuts are declining throughout the native range, and efforts to find trees resistant to the pathogen that kills them have been under way for some time. The Connecticut Agri- cultural Experiment Station has maintained a list of reported butternut trees in the state since 1994, each tree numbered and tagged. Starting two years ago, we began checking the tagged trees for evidence of Sandra Anagnostakis cankers and sampling tree tissue to isolate the canker organisms. We are Jeri and Dale Bergdahl, butternut experts from Vermont, also taking samples from many of our tagged Connecticut trees for with the former National Champion Butternut in Chester, DNA tests to check the species. These tests reveled that many of our Connecticut. tagged trees are not pure butternut, but hybrids with Japanese walnut (Juglans ailantifolia) or Japanese walnut cultivars known as “heart- really good way to determine the age of a tree that big. The size nuts” (Juglans ailantifolia var. cordiformis). In the nut trade, these attained by a tree will depend on the conditions under which it is hybrids are known as “buartnuts.” growing. A Japanese walnut tree in the botanical garden in Leiden, My first big surprise was the result of a DNA test done by a col- Holland, was planted in 1865 and is 3 feet in diameter. This means league, Jeanne Romero-Severson of Notre Dame University in Indi- that it has increased in diameter an average of 0.3 inches per year for ana, on twig samples from the national champion butternut in its 143 years. The Arnold Arboretum in Boston has a Japanese walnut Chester, Connecticut. Ed Richardson of Glastonbury, who has docu- planted in 1892 that is 12.5 inches in diameter, making its average mented many of the state’s notable trees, showed me this remarkable diameter increase only a little over 0.1 inch per year over its 116 years. tree. Its stature is astounding. The trunk of this tree is 7 feet 4 inches I have been looking at cut trunks and branches of butternut hybrids in diameter, and it towers over the other trees in the area. Jeanne’s in Connecticut, and counting and measuring growth rings trying to DNA tests reveled that this is not a butternut tree, but that its mother estimate how fast they can increase in trunk diameter. One hybrid had was a Japanese walnut tree and its father was a butternut. Another tree growth rings 1/4 inch wide, and grew at that rate (almost 1/2 inch in Chester had a Japanese walnut mother and a tree that was probably of diameter increase per year) for the first 32 years of its life and then a hybrid for a father. The trunk of that tree was almost 6 feet in diam- grew much more slowly for another 43 years for a final diameter of 2 eter. This would be interesting, but not surprising, except that when feet 7 inches. In the historic district of Old Wethersfield, Mr. Richard- we consider the potential age of these trees, something doesn’t fit. son has found a tree with two “sprouts” that he thinks is a Japanese That something is associated with when Japanese walnuts were walnut. The two trunks of this tree are both more than three feet in imported into the United States. diameter. If these “sprouts” have grown by a half-inch in diameter per How old is the former national champion butternut? There is no year, they would be about 88 years old (planted in 1919). If they have

30 CONNECTICUT WOODLANDS Winter 2009 grown at the rate of the tree in Holland, they could be twice that old. If our (former) national champion grew at the remarkable rate of a half-inch in diameter every year, it would have been planted in 1832. And if it grew more slowly? Its mother, the Japanese walnut tree, was probably at least 10 years old before it flowered and crossed with a native butternut.

And when was that Japanese walnut brought Courtesy of Scott Schlarbaum to this country? Advertisement in the 1902 issue of Forestry Plants from Japan have not always been and Irrigation. available to plant fanciers in the United States. plants from Japan were after Admiral Perry W. P. Corsa’s 1896 book on nut culture states sailed into Tokyo Bay and then to Nagasaki that the oldest Japanese walnut tree growing in with four armed U.S. steamships in 1853. He the United States was “grown from a seed demanded a trade agreement, and “opened” planted about 1860 by a Mr. Towerhouse in Japan to commerce. This lends additional Shasta County, California.” Japanese walnuts glamour to the story reported by Peter Fetchko soon became common in the nursery trade in the third chapter of the Peabody Essex and by 1900 were available from many mail Museum catalog that a ship from Salem, Mas- order houses. The Peabody Essex Museum of sachusetts, sailed into Nagasaki harbor flying a Salem, Massachusetts has published a wonder- Dutch flag, and returned to Salem in the spring ful catalog of their exhibit, Worlds Revealed: of 1800 with a cargo of objects from Japan. The Dawn of Japanese and American Starting in the middle 1700s, Chester, Con- Exchange. In the first chapter, William Sargent necticut, was known for ship building and sail- writes that in 1639 an “exclusion policy closed ing vessel repairs. The property next to the big Japan to the greater part of the outside world tree in Old Wethersfield was owned by a sea for almost 200 years. Only the Dutch and Chi- captain, Richard Bunce, in the 1790s. Were nese, who did not proselytize the Christian some of our ship captains transporters of seed? faith, were allowed to carry on trade.” Thus, in Does Connecticut have Japanese walnut trees the early 1800s, the Dutch ships that carried that are older than the first recorded plantings? trade goods around the world were still able to This complicated history puzzle will not be conduct business in Japan but U.S. ships were easily solved. I will continue to search old not. The first “official” U.S. importations of records of trees planted, and rely on Mr. Sandra Anagnostakis Richardson to find old trees. The presence of so A Japanese walnut tree in Wethersfield, Connecticut, found by Ed Richardson. many hybrids that look like butternuts certainly complicates my work on butternut canker dis- ease. However, that I have only found the pathogen once, so far, in Connecticut may be References: Corsa, W. P.1896. Nut Culture in the United States, Embracing Native and Introduced due to resistance in the trees growing here. If Species. U.S.D.A., Division of Pomology, Washing- this is true, there is real hope for breeding but- ton, D.C., 144 pp., Fetchko, Peter. 1999. Winds of ternut trees adapted to Connecticut and with Change: American Ships at Nagasaki. Pp. 60–61 in Worlds Revealed: The Dawn of Japanese and resistance to the canker disease that is causing American Exchange. The Peabody Essex Museum, so much damage in the northern part of the Salem, MA., Sargent, William 1999. First Western range. Have you seen any nice butternut trees Contacts: The Portuguese and the Dutch. Pp. 4–5 in Worlds Revealed: The Dawn of Japanese and lately? American Exchange. The Peabody Essex Museum, Acknowledgements: Our cooperators in other states Salem, MA. include Dale Bergdahl in Vermont (tree pathol- ogy), Michael Ostry in Minnesota (tree pathology), Sandra L. Anagnostakis is a scientist in the Jeanne Romero-Severson in Indiana (DNA tests), department of plant pathology and ecology at and Scott Schlarbaum in Tennessee (forestry). the Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station.

Another large hybrid Juglans in Chester, Connecticut. Sandra Anagnostakis

Winter 2009 CONNECTICUT WOODLANDS 31 BOOK REVIEW Can a nonfiction book on botanists grab you? When they climb the world’s largest trees, the answer is yes.

The Wild Trees: A Story of Passion becomes a botanist but is first an exceptional athlete. Steve is a tormented soul (Mr. Pre- and Daring, by Richard Preston. ston narrates the primary characters lives Random HouseTrade Paperbacks: throughout) who found his calling while NewYork, 2008. 291 pages. making the 1987 borderline suicidal freeclimb to the top of an enormous redwood with Marwood. At the top of this tree, Steve BY ROBERT M. RICARD discovers a world of ecological diversity and richness, and finds himself in gardens of ferns, genre of eco-adventure books lichen, and moss. Steve eventually, almost may claim a literary lineage accidentally, turns this experience into a noble A beginning in the late 1800s and and distinguished career. early 1900s, telling of hunting big game Meanwhile, Michael Taylor, the unfocused (shades of Teddy Roosevelt and Ernest Hem- son of a wealthy real estate developer, had a ingway), Arctic adventures, and climbing revelation in another redwood forest 200 remote and difficult peaks. We are all familiar abound throughout and anyone who has ever miles to the south. Michael, who had a para- with such stories. Today, however, more eso- climbed a tree eager to experience the magic lyzing fear of heights, decided to go in search teric adventures are showing up with greater of the world seen from its heights will be of the world’s tallest tree. Their obsessive frequency. enthralled. The narrative begins by introduc- quests led these young men into a potent One such book is Richard Preston’s latest. ing the primary characters—three young peo- friendship and the discovery of some of the The Wild Trees: The Passion and the Daring ple in “A baby-blue Honda Civic with Alaska most extraordinary organisms that have ever has been on the New York Times bestseller license plates, a battered relic of the seven- lived. The characters collective passion led to list for more than a year. Mr. Preston, a sci- ties.” Here unfolds the story of Steve Sillett, a better understanding of a previously unex- ence writer for The New Yorker magazine his older brother Scott, and friend Marwood plored yet nearby ecosystem—tree canopies. and author of other bestsellers such as The Harris who, in their college careers, become Mr. Preston adds a personal twist to the Hot Zone, the terrifying tale of the Ebola restless and begin their personal discovery of story by mastering the arcane tree climber’s virus, has an uncommon gift for turning the thrill and terror of climbing these giant art of “skywalking” and then accompanies complex biology into riveting page-turners. trees. Steve and Marie on some of their ambitious Now he has turned to trees — the largest The opening chapter describes the terror- ascents. The Wild Trees is an entertaining organisms on earth, the giant sequoia izing climb into a 300-foot-tall redwood by account of the tallest redwoods and the (Sequoiadendron giganteum) and the coast Steve and Marwood in 1987, a climb that amazing wild gardens that flourish in the redwood (Sequoia semipervirens) found scares them both nearly to death. Yet, this treetops. It is also the story of some young among the old-growth and protected forests climb launches Steve into a new world of people who became so emotionally attached of the Pacific Northwest. This is much more canopy daring and science. Other important to the trees that they redirected their own than a science book. This is a story of daring characters weave in and out of the narrative lives. It is well worth your own discovery. and the thrill of exploration, about people — and all are scientists or thrill seekers in with quirky personalities who find some their own right. There is Canadian Marie peace among the majestic trees and forests of Antoine, and the tiny group of daring Robert M. Ricard is a senior extension edu- the Pacific Northwest and find some resolu- botanists and amateur naturalists that found a cator in urban natural resources and public tion to their tumultuous or damaged lives. lost world above California, a world that is management with the University of Con- Could a nonfiction work about the scien- dangerous, mysterious, and unexplored. necticut Cooperative Extension System. tists who devote their professional and per- During this period, innovation in climbing sonal lives to the study of botany hold my equipment and techniques also occur, but the attention? It certainly did. Thrills and tension book revolves around Steve, who later in life

32 CONNECTICUT WOODLANDS Winter 2009 FROMTHE WALKCT DIRECTOR

Rx: Go Walking Working with the Medical Community

BY LESLIE LEWIS hesitant to take the first step toward better health. e are pleased to announce that Connecticut Forest & In the future, we hope to expand Park Association received an $85,000 grant from the our outreach to pediatric practices, WConnecticut Department of Public Health in order to hospitals, and HMOs and insurance establish the WalkCT program. We will use the money to develop a carriers to get residents around the state out of their cars, off their comprehensive, interactive Web site of trail and walking activities couches, and into our cities, villages, parks, and forests. Our goal with around the state. In addition, we will be reaching out to health care WalkCT is to make walking so much fun that you forget it’s good for you. providers with information on WalkCT that they can pass along to patients who are at risk for lifestyle- related diseases. We are very excited to announce a partnership with the Connecti- Leslie Lewis is CFPA’s WalkCT director. WalkCT stands for “walk cut Academy of Family Physicians to promote WalkCT. Working with Connecticut,” which aims to bring together recreation, health, the academy, we developed a prescription pad that can be given out to tourism, historic preservation, and economic development interests to those patients who need more activity in their daily lives. It includes promote walking in the state. Contact her at [email protected]. the WalkCT web address for their convenience. We will also work with the doctors to find or start walking groups for clients who might be

From the land town’s Half Moon Hotel. One day a dis- toes on a significant commercial basis. At one gruntled patron sent back his fried potatoes, time, there was a vibrant potato industry continued from page 29 saying they were too thick. Angrily, Crum along the Connecticut River. The number of easy to store, easy to prepare, potatoes sliced the potatoes paper-thin, fried them in varieties of potatoes available to consumers is became a popular crop for the new settlers. deep fat, and salted them heavily. The patron greatly diminished, unless one makes an effort By the time of the Revolutionary War against was delighted with the results and thus, to shop at farmer’s markets. However, after Britain, potatoes were widely grown and potato chips were created. our farm’s recent potato sales fiasco, there is became a part of every soldier and sailor’s During the 20th century, many inventions not much incentive for farmers to grow local rations. As the country moved west and encouraged the processing of potatoes for potatoes if there are insufficient sales. became urbanized in the 1800s, potatoes easy consumption; mechanical potato-peeling I sadly reflect upon my Connecticut neigh- took their place as one of the country’s most machines, dehydrated “instant” potato flakes, bors who complain about rising food prices, important crops. Streams of immigrants from and the freezing and packaging of fries, hash yet could certainly eat more affordably and Ireland and Eastern Europe depended on browns, and mashed potatoes. Consequently, nutritiously by choosing to purchase and potatoes as the basis of their diet as they about 65 percent of potatoes now grown in cook native potatoes. The potato is a deli- became established. Boiled or fried, potatoes the United States are for processing. McDon- cious food of enormous versatility, able to became a breakfast mainstay as well as grac- ald’s has become one of the largest purchasers satisfy on the most basic level either boiled, ing the dinner’s stew or roast meat platter. of potatoes in the world and transforms them mashed, or baked, while also being able to be There was not a class connection surround- into “American fries.” At home, Americans cooked in innumerable elaborate and refined ing the tuber as in Europe—everyone ate “save time” by buying frozen prepared pota- recipes. There is a large range of potato vari- potatoes in America. toes at five to 10 times the cost of raw pota- eties in different colors and textures with During the 1800s, the delicious quality of toes. Unfortunately, the processing adds many taste variations. The potato is an Amer- potatoes when combined with fat was discov- excess fat and salt and greatly diminishes the ican culinary treasure and its disregard needs ered. French fries were born on the streets of superior nutritional value of the potato. In the serious reconsideration as we approach living Paris, where pushcart vendors peddled them, early 2000s, Americans were consuming in more economically and environmentally and Thomas Jefferson popularized “pommes more potatoes than any other vegetable, challenging times. frites” by serving them at the White House. about 125 pounds a year, but much less than Potato chips were an American invention, many European populations. however. During the early 1850s in Saratoga Another effect of the processing of pota- Jean Crum Jones is a registered dietician Springs, New York, George Crum (no toes is that it has concentrated the potato who helps run the Jones Family Farm in known relation) was a famous chef at the industry. Connecticut no longer grows pota- Shelton with her husband, Terry.

Winter 2009 CONNECTICUT WOODLANDS 33 ENVIRONMENTAL UPDATE LETTER

Nuclear Plant Reaches Deal with Oxford Considers Wind Turbines An article on the Connecticut notable Environmental Groups trees project (summer 2008) noted that the Town officials in Oxford have authorized Ashford oak is dead. It is not. I visited it in The Day reports: “A state agency, the two companies to apply for grants for conduct- May, and although it’s in terrible condition, owner of Millstone Power Station and two ing feasibility studies on the installation of wind it’s still alive, and is still Connecticut’s cham- environmental advocacy groups agreed turbines at town-owned properties. pion red oak. Visit http://notabletrees.con- today that the study of possible use of cool- Optiwind in Torrington, and Evergreen ncoll.edu to see a current picture and meas- ing towers or other technologies to protect Energy LLC in Southington will work inde- urements. aquatic life in Long Island Sound would pendently on the studies, which will assess begin immediately. the power generating possibilities of small Frank Kaputa The study is part of a process for renew- wind energy at two schools and a public Glastonbury ing an outdated state permit for the reactor works garage. The companies are eligible for complex to use billions of gallons a day of as much as $50,000 in grants from the Con- sea water from Long Island Sound to cool necticut Clean Energy Fund, which would Mr. Kaputa volunteers for the Connecticut the steam from turbines used to generate finance the studies. Processing of the CCEF notable trees project. electricity at Millstone.” applications could take as long as 6 months, Source: Environmental Headlines, Chris and town officials have not set a timetable for Zurcher, www.ctenvironmentalheadlines.com/. when the completed studies would be due. The Day can be read at www.theday.com Source: VoicesNews.com

ON THE TRAILS

Sixth Annual Winter Trail Maintenance Workshop

This year’s winter workshop will focus on individual volunteer skills. It takes place Sat- urday, January 31 at the Connecticut Forest & Park Association headquarters in Middle- field. Registration starts at 8:45 a.m. This year’s workshop will focus on individual vol- unteer skills. Topics to be covered are trail blazing, bridge building, tool safety and maintenance, trail maintenance, and volun- teer responsibilities. The presentations will be followed by general Q and A period with the presenters. Weather permitting, we will take a short hike at lunch, so dress appropri- ately. Bring your own lunch, and CFPA will provide the drinks and chips. Pre-registration is required. To register, contact CFPA at 860-346-2372 or [email protected].

Carve your own Hiking Stick with the Connecticut Woodcarvers

Saturday April 4, 2009, 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. in anytime, just bring your own knife; wood sticks will Skip Weisenburger Learn a new skill, carve your own stick, and be supplied. The program is geared toward adults and Hikers on the Metacomet Trail enjoy the company of the CT Woodcarvers families with children ages 10 years and older; no charge in November. Association. Watch demonstrations of wood for the program. carving methods and safety techniques. Drop

34 CONNECTICUT WOODLANDS WINTER 2009 DEPARTMENTLimited Edition CFPA Store Reproduction Commemorative Maps Trail Gear Quinnipiac Trail (1931) CFPALogo Hats $3.25 (plus tax and $4.00 shipping) Two-toned low-profile 100% cotton Original Appalachian baseball cap with KHAKI CROWN, $3.75 FOREST GREEN BILL, embroidered Trail (1934) (plus tax and $4.00 shipping) logo. Adjustable strap. (Hat not exactly as pictured here). $15.00 (plus $2.00 shipping) The Connecticut Walk Book, WEST, and the Connecticut Walk Book, EAST, Books, etcetera provide a comprehensive guide to hik- ing throughout the state. Published by the Connecticut Forest & Park Associa- tion, the two volumes are the 19th edi- tion of the guidebook first released more than 75 years ago. Both volumes include the Metacomet and Mattabesett Trails of Central Connecticut. Both vol- umes include detailed two-color topo- graphic maps that are crisp, clear, and easy to read. Complete trail descriptions accompany the maps.

Each volume $19.95 members (plus tax and $5 shipping)

Forest Trees of Each volume $24.95 non-members Southern A Shared Landscape, (plustaxand$5shipping) New England, A Guide & History of Connecti- a 56-page paperback publi- cut’s State Parks and Forests, cation of the Connecticut For- Connecticut Woodlands, by Joseph Leary, published by est & Park Association. This A Century’s Story of the Connecticut Forest & Park Friends of Connecticut State manual is a simple descrip- Association, by George McLean Milne, published by Parks, Inc. in 2004. Richly illus- tion in accurate and nontech- the Connecticut Forest and Park Association in 1995. A trated in four-color with maps nical terms of the forest trees fascinating history, not so much of the Connecticut For- and photographs, this 240-page Energy Independence, common in southern New est and Park Association as it is of the dedicated men guide offers an by Christine Woodside. England. It is intended for the and women who have cared about Connecticut’s intimate look at Connecticut’s Lyons Press, 2008. A book general public to meet a forests and fields, hills, valleys, and parklands. Scat- public lands and tells you for ordinary Americans who pressing demand for a pocket tered through these pages are inspiring accounts of everything you need to know want to move away from manual which is easy to use courageous struggles to protect the rich and varied about where to go if you love to fossil fuels. Learn about the and understand. natural environment of the state. hike, bike, camp, fish, swim, most viable and affordable $2.00 (plus tax and $1.50 shipping) $25.00 (plus tax and $5.00 shipping) hunt, watch birds, learn about alternatives such as solar ecology or cross-country ski. panels, wood, hydroelectric, $25.00 (plus tax and $5.00 shipping) hybrid cars, and more. $16.95 (plus tax and $5.00 shipping) Last Child in the Woods, by Richard Louv. Lyons Press, Saving our children from nature-deficet disorder. $13.95 (plus tax and $5.00 shipping)

Please send me the following: 6% Sales Item Size Color Qty Price Tax Shipping Total ______Trail Gear ______CFPA Logo T-shirts Hanes Beefy Ts – 100% Total amount of check $______Please make cotton, heavy weight, dou- check payable to: ble needle hems, taped Name ______shoulder-to-shoulder, Street ______Connecticut Forest & Park Association Sizes: S-M-L-XL, WHITE City ______State______Zip______16 Meriden Road, ON FOREST GREEN / Phone______email______FOREST GREEN ON KHAKI. Rockfall, CT 06481 $15.00 For credit card orders: Mastercard ______Visa ______(plus $4.00 shipping) # ______860.346.2372 Exp.Date [email protected] Signature ______Two CCC workers use a jackhammer powered by equip - ment in the state conservation vehicle at left to create a roadbed in Shenipsit State For - est near Soapstone Mountain. See page 18.

Connecticut DEP

Non-Profit Org. U.S. POSTAGE PAID Hartford, CT Permit No. 2386

16 Meriden Road, Rockfall Connecticut 06481-2961

Address Service Requested

Conserving Connecticut since 1895