Page 32 - North Haven Magazine Issue 24 Summer 2022

Girl Scouts and Gardeners Participate in
Girl Scouts and Gardeners Participate in
Experimental
Experimental

Tree Project
Chestnut
Chestnut Tree Project

by Sally Brockett

he Daytime Gardeners of North Haven and Girl Scout Troop
T#60387, led by Lisa McCann, and Troop #60421, led by Jenni-
fer Morgan, are participating in a two-phase experiment organized
by Walt Brockett, member of the garden club and retired licensed
arborist.

Background history: Walt initiated this project in 2015 to restore
native American Chestnut (Castanea dentata) trees into the 220-
acre Peter’s Rock Park, a town owned wooded property. Until the
first quarter of the 1900s the American chestnut was the dominant Gardeners teach scouts
and most important lumber tree in the forests of the eastern United
States. The trees grew tall and straight (reaching one hundred feet
tall and four feet in diameter), much like the tulip trees today. In
addition to the nuts providing an important food source for both
animals and humans, the wood was valuable for lumber, phone
poles, railroad ties, fencing, and heating fuel. Unfortunately, the
chestnut blight (a fungus) was accidently introduced into the US in
the late 1800s. The fungus spread, killing virtually all of Connecti-
cut’s chestnuts in the first quarter of the 20th century. The project’s
goal was to reintroduce blight resistant chestnuts into their native
habitat for future generations to appreciate.

Phase One
Involvement of club members, and other organizations: The
Daytime Gardeners, in cooperation with Peter’s Rock Association Walt discusses tree development
and with the North Haven Tree Warden, undertook the propa-
gation, planting and care of the trees starting with nuts of timber
chestnuts (there are also smaller orchard strains) obtained from
The Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station, which has
worked continuously since the 1930s to develop blight resistant hy-
brid strains. After two months of refrigeration, the nuts were plant-
ed in containers in February. Nine seedling trees about one foot tall
were transplanted in May into the acidic, sandy-loam soil that the
trees like. Since water is not readily available throughout the park,
planting sites were selected in proximity to a small stream to make
the task of watering easier. Each tree was protected from deer and
squirrels with chicken wire fencing four feet high – although one
tree was lost to girdling by mice during the snowy winter of 2015.
Club members participated in planting, watering of the trees and
some tree pruning to increase sunlight to the young trees. Scouts plant their nuts to care for at home

North Haven Magazine - Summer Issue 2022
32