14 acres of park land to be replanted native!

I've been asked to help compile a list of plants (with costs) to replant an 14 acre area in a county park in NJ. There is a month long deer cull going on to reduce the population. In addition this area with be fenced in to protect new plantings. Ironically this exclosure will be in the same area that was originally in the 1950s and 60s an enclosure to keep deer limited to a small area.
I was asked yesterday to help with the list that must be delivered by Feb. 13th. The budget is very limited - $2,000, for plants.
I've done a lot of research overnight and have found a few good local nurseries that can provide native species.
I've also contacted the NJ Native Plant Society and will also contact the local Cooperative Extension Offices of Essex County.
The site is in the Piedmont physiographic region (identified from a map online) in a mountain area. The area has a full range of varied planting areas - open sunny grass
high rocky
wetland
sometimes swampy
runnel stream
dry shade
moist shade
I can pull together a list but would appreciate some input, help, on how best to think of this project. I know there are many DGers that have worked on big projects like this and have invaluable information and experience.
Should we pick one section at a time and plant heavily since funds are limited?
Should we burn the grassy area?
Where do we start to be most effective?
Of course we will be fighting many non native invasive species, Japanese stilt grass, and honeysuckle,etc.

Many counties out my way have a list of indegenous plants known from that county. It's kinda obvious that this NJ one doesn't, but perhaps surrounding counties do. $2000 is extremely limitting.

I'll let someone wiser give advice.

Hey sempervirens, admirable project and it's totally doable but it isn't going to happen overnight.

I'm not wiser but I do have some experience in this area. I'm going to be totally honest with you, they're moving way too fast and they're going to need to tap into professional resources that are probably available for free. In looking at what little you've been able to share above, I'd opt to use 100% of the 2k to begin going for the removal of any exotic species that can be properly identified and then I'd sit on the property and wait to see what came back from any existing seedbank. Local genotype is going to be what you'd want for this type of a project and you may be sitting on it and you won't even know it until you remove the ickies and nasties. In other words, please hold off on purchasing any plant material. Aquamaster and Rodeo are expensive products and those are the brands you'll probably be using on a property that has wetlands.

You might not want to opt for a prescribed burn until at such time as you have a complete inventory of all plants present on the land both native and introduced. You're going to need help creating an inventory. Fire is one of those deals where it can come back to bite you in the butt.

Also too, with the wetlands present on the property you really need to find out who has jurisdiction over the land before you do anything. You might want to start by contacting the Army Corps of Engineers. Find out what district you are in then call. You may also want to contact your state biologists and ecologists to see if they have any information they may be able to share with you. You'd be surprised what information they can sometimes pull up from research stations as well as other sources.

Thanks for the input and reservations on going too fast with too little money. I will ask about the Army Corps of Engineers and find out if this information is already available. I will also ask if they have planned to allow the plants to reappear after the competition is removed.
I had a meeting with my lists, got more information and walked the perimeter of the exclosure.
I am joining late in this project. It is Reforestation Project run by the County Park System and Conservancy Group. There are 2 ecologists and a biologist on the project so they have the pesticide application under control.
What is planned is an Arbor Day planting with a group of volunteers.
There is a master list of what was growing in the forest in 1995, native and invasive.
We need a list with costs for what to plant.
I believe the approach mentioned in this planting is plant along side some of the invasives and have the natives reestablish.
My question is what is the formula for choosing how many of each plant?
There is a general map of the land and we can measure each different type of planting area. But how do we know how many of each plant to suggest?

Is it possible to share the 1995 list of what was growing in the forest right here in this thread? It's rather dated but it's an exceptional start. The fact that you have an inventory of plants for at least one area of the property is awesome regardless of how old it is. That inventory is what you will want to follow when selecting plants for that particular area. I know you from your posts here at DG and you are well qualified to sort out which plants on the list are natives and which plants are the exotics.

Which conservancy group is working on the property?

It isn't common practice to plant alongside an invasive. Actually, I can't think of any project where this has been done. The invasive has always been removed first based on my experiences. The invasives are far too successful at outcompeting the natives for available resources and to put it in simple terms... they suck the nutrients out of the soil that the newly planted species need to survive and thrive. Available water and light will also become issues if the invasives are left in place particularly insomuch as they generally leaf out earlier in spring and retain their leaves longer in fall which effectively blocks light to the understory which seriously impairs the ability of the natives to regenerate. The invasives, as a rule of thumb, have longer growing seasons than the natives so any native seed that hits the ground may not germinate or if it does it may struggle to photosynthesize in the presence of the invasives. Honeysuckle is a beast unto itself given it is allelopathic. The chemicals from the roots of that plant can do in anything native planted near them. They really should be removed before anyone attempts to plant anything. I do know of people, myself included, who are planting alongside species they believe to be at risk. An example would be planting alongside an Ash. We all know about the EAB.

I don't believe there to exist a formula for choosing how many of each plant for a project such as this at this time. There simply isn't enough information to begin re-creating the plant communities that once existed there. Are you able to scan the map of the general area to post here? If you are able to scan the map and share it here, maybe those who have worked projects such as this before can take a look at the map along with the inventory and suggest a general direction to take regarding how many of each plant but it's not going to be much more than putting the cart before the horse. I guess the answer to your question, "But how do we know how many of each plant to suggest?" is you don't know because there isn't enough information at this time.

Has anyone begun attempting to propagate any of the existing indigenous species for use later?

Clarification on the Army Corps, there is a wetlands present. Anytime a wetlands is present it is in everyone's best interests to involve them. Better safe than sorry. This is not an entity anyone wants to screw with. On a positive note, all of my experiences with the Corps have been positive. I have found their site visits to have been invaluable.

Forgot to mention you would want to specifically ask the Army Corps if they have a wetlands delineation study for your site that could be shared with you.

Another thought came to mind. Are there any reference sites in the local area that you might be able to visit? If anyone else is out there who has tackled or currently is tacking something like this already, they may become an invaluable resource. Improving ecological function isn't an easy task and pooling of resources becomes increasingly important.

Still racking my brain to try to figure out how to come up with some sort of a formula for you based on the information you've been able to share.

Couple questions-
What soils are present on the property? Don't need the actual unit.
What else do you know about the historic plants present on other areas of the property?
What is the history of land use?
Were the wetlands historic or have they been improved?

There are so many variables to factor in to the type of management plan for this property. Constraints are going to need to be indentified.

Regarding lack of money, how about initiating contact here-
http://www.nrcs.usda.gov/
Perhaps they have a program that might help you out or be able to put you in contact with an organization that does. 2k isn't going to go very far at all for 14 acres.
Don't overlook Ducks Unlimited. They have some kick rear opportunities for people attempting restoration and with the wetlands you mentioned they might just be in a position to offer assistance-
http://www.ducks.org/states/53/index.html
I've just begun working with Ducks Unlimited for a property and am finding them to be extremely responsive.
Pheasants Forever is out there doing some major work restoring ecological function so please do consider contacting them also-
http://www.pheasantsforever.org/
Yes, I realize pheasants aren't a native species but they are currently filling an ecological niche.

Hi Equil,
I'll try to answer as many of your questions as I can.
I just want to make it clearer that I am helping a friend compile the list. I have more knowledge of Latin names of plants and what would be native, my friend has a excellent knowledge of the site through the seasons and contact with the organizers of the project.

The conservancy group is The South Mountain Conservancy.
The county park is the South Orange Reservation in NJ.
The forest was logged starting in 1616 and was eventually stripped of hemlock and pine.
In the 1700s local paper mills savaged the second growth forest.
In 1895 land was acquired to set aside to preserve and the firm of Frederick Law Olmstead designed the 2048 acre park.
Hemlock and pine were replanted. Currently blight has destroyed many hemlocks.
In 1910, 3000 rhododendron and mountain laurel groves were replanted.
In the 1930s red and white pine were planted.
In 1934 the CCC built trails, foot bridges and shelters.
The park is located between the first and second Watchung Mountains.
The Rahway River runs through the valley into several ponds.
Hemlock Falls is a rather spectacular geological formation.
There is also a zoo,skating rinks,picnic areas, 27 miles of trials,etc -so it is heavily used by people and deer.
The exclosure has a fenced dog park inside the area.

I have a much better understanding of this project now. Good that they are humanely destroying the deer in the area because this will help get their numbers down to that which would be manageable. This area is but one portion of a large park system. It is enclosed to keep the deer out and to keep dogs in. It's a high traffic recreational area. I don't have any experience with high traffic recreational areas. I guess if it were me I'd start thinking of this area as having great potential even though it's high traffic recreational and would focus on invasive species removal and the re-planting of species that would have been an integral component of the native plant community that once existed on the property. Determining what that native plant community was is going to take some time but there are some obvious species coming to light now that I know the county.

Skip my suggestions to contact the organizations above other than the Army Corps. Dogs being present tosses a monkey wrench into the deal.

If it were me; I'd begin researching native plant communities once present on the property and I'd start by going back to the 1995 inventory of plants you have and begin eliminating all of the invasives and all of the introduced species. Although the rhododendrons and kalmias may be indigenous to the area (depends on which ones they planted in 1910 so you'll need the scientific names to figure that out), I don't believe the white and red pines you mentioned are native to the area. Me personally, I'd focus on re-planting Eastern Hemlock and appropriate Pine species right in the areas of the enclosure around the dog run area. Eastern Hemlock was once a dominant species of that area and I'd think it would be highly desirable to plant it back in an attempt to "go native". I wouldn't worry about the blight right now because insecticidal soaps and horticulture oils should be able to be applied to kill any adelgid infestations that may crop up and additionally I strongly suspect introductions of a type of Japanese Ladybug (a natural Asian predator of the Asian adelgid) will prove to be capable of successfully controlling the blight in the years to come. They've already got quite a few successful introductions out there so you gotta love biological controls and this one in particular stands out as so far this particular Japanese Ladybug preys solely on the adelgid just as it does in Japan and it is able to not only survive the cold winters of the east but is also beginning to thrive. That being said, begin putting back what was once there. If your friend would like to look up more information on this particular Japanese Ladybug, the scientific name is Pseudoscymnus tsugae. Once she learns more about ongoing research, she should feel relatively comfortable planting back Eastern Hemlock.

You mentioned Red and White Pine being planted in the '30s. Both Pinus resinosa and P. strobus would have been introduductions to Essex County NJ so I personally wouldn't plant any more of those but you might want to consider P. echinata and P. rigida. Both P. echinata and P. rigida are indigenous to the area in which you are volunteering and may very well have once occurred on the property. What about Beech or Birch? Any of those around?

When attempting to determine whether or not a plant is native to Essex County or not, check out the USDA's site. Let's take Juniperus communis. You can go to the USDA's site and plug the scientific name into their search engine and you will come up with this-
http://plants.usda.gov/java/profile?symbol=JUCO6
Now scroll down to an area for related taxa and click where it says there are 28-
http://plants.usda.gov/java/profile?symbol=JUNIP

Equilibrium,

They don't make it obvious enough, but the county distribution includes plants that aren't native. All the way at the bottom is the phrase "Remember that only native and naturalized populations are mapped!"

sempervirens,

I'm not sure if the Great Swamp Refuge refuge is close enough to act as a model, but I know it has pamphlet's about trees and wildflowers, and believe they identify which were introduced. Unfortunately I checked online, and the information they have is more limited and doesn't distinguish the two. I'm guessing you posed the question to the New Jersey Native Plant Society. If not it might be worth a try. There are certain plants like Lindera Benzoin (spicebush), Clethra, Juniper and hemlock that are so common through this part of New Jersey that I'd think they'd be safe bets. Of course it'd be better to find out for sure.

On a more selfish note, if you came across local nurseries that have natives from not too far away, I'd love to know. I've been doing okay lately with the Audubon sale, and Bowman's Wildflower Preserve sale, but would be interested to have a source that's always there.

Lori

Another big problem with the USDA is that when they show the range of a native plant, they don't differentiate between the native range and the naturalized range into which a plant has been introduced. One thing that is good is that if the county is "whited out", the plant isn't present. The USDA site is still a great tool but it really should be used in combination with other resources mentioned above.

You know what I just noticed? A portion of my post was truncated. That sucks because I showed her that Juniperus communis was not indigenous to Essex county but J. virginiana was.
http://plants.usda.gov/java/county?state_name=New%20Jersey&statefips=34&symbol=JUVI
Lindera Benzoin is also indigenous to her County. Great suggestion. As was the suggestion to contact the NJ Native Plant Society.

Your suggestions of possibly procurring plant material from Audubon and Bowman's Wildflower Preserve are excellent.

Thanks Equilibrium. The timing for those sales may be off for this project though unless sempervirens can work out something special. For both the Audubon closest to me, and Bowman's the sales aren't until May. There may be some other special sales near her I'm not aware of yet. I've found more natives at arboretum and Master Gardener's sales than many other places.

-- Lori

See, this is why I love DG. She gets to tap into what you know about availability which is way cool.

Native trees and shrubs for their project should be available bare root but she'll have to do some poking around to locate a nursery that will ship to her when she wants. Sort of one of the reasons why I didn't touch on herbaceous perennials. Those don't seem to be available without pre-orders or until spring.

Lori,
Bowman's is one of the recommended places to buy plants. Can you tell me where and when the Audubon sales are?
Do you know about the Rutgers spring plant sale? I was trying to look up a date for it with no luck.
For my own garden I have bought "native" plants (some are cultivars) from Atlock Farms in the shade garden section (iffy) , Well-Sweep Herb Farm (go there early in the season), and Rarefind Nursey. I tried the Frelinghuysen Arboretum sale a few times without finding anything-maybe I was too late.

We are buying wholesale -PInelands Nursery is one source,
Arrowwood Nursery, North Creek nurseries, New Jersey State Forest Nursery.

Very interesting! I am doing something similar on my 4 acres. What was most helpful to me was to learn what was here in pre-colonial times. From what I could learn, we had oak forest mainly. (Probably red oak and hickory with chestnut.) When you establish that it was this kind of ecosystem, you can more easily add the understory of associated plants.

If you have the time, this may be a good article to find: “Vegetation of Northern New Jersey Before European Settlement.” If you Google the title you will find the abstract (the link wouldn't work). This was published in 1981. I think you would have to access it through Jstor which is a service providing such articles and is available at many libraries.


You probably already have this, but, here’s a list of native plants for your area:
http://www.plantnative.org/rpl-nypanj.htm

I have used Musser Forests for orders of some natives and they are very good to deal with and the plants are very healthy. You can order large quantities and they are relatively inexpensive this way. Plus you can get the prices on their online catelog.

You have quite a project on your hands!

sempervirens,

Thanks for the info on nurseries. I’d heard the retail places mentioned as good nurseries, but except for Rarefind, I don’t think I’d heard them mentioned for native plants before.

The sale for the Audubon center in Bernardsville requires you order by April 19th, and pick the plants up on May 3rd. You’ll need to request an order form. Here’s their event page which includes a phone # for this:
http://www.njaudubon.org/Calendar/CalScher.html

Here’s a page with the various N.J. Audubon centers in case a different one is closer to you or has better dates. I don’t know if all of them have sales, but I know many do:
http://www.njaudubon.org/Centers/

This is a 2007 plant list for the Audubon center in Bernardsville, which might not all apply, but will give you some idea of what’s available and the prices:
http://www.njaudubon.org/Calendar/2007PLANTSALEcatlog.pdf

The Bowman’s Plant Sale for non-members starts on May 10th, and for members the Friday before. If you do go, what I hadn’t realized at first was that I could have plants I wanted put to the side for me to make looking for additional plants easier.
http://www.bhwp.org/pdf/calendaryear08.pdf

Here’s a 2007 plant list from them. I’ve only been to one sale there which was in the fall and most but not all of the plants listed here were available:
http://www.bhwp.org/pdf/2007_Plant_Sale_Catalog.pdf

When I was looking for the Rutgers’ information, I came across this. I don’t know about the sale at Leonard J. Buck gardens, but it or some other sales listed here might prove interesting:
http://www.gardenernews.com/Pages/newjersey-gardening-events.html

Here’s a page about the Rutger’s sale:
http://rutgersgardens.rutgers.edu/spring.html

I see they’re offering some really interesting plants. Anyplace offering Carpinus caroliana (American hornbeam) gets characterized that way by me. It took me ages to find a fairly local source, which I finally did at Bowman’s.

Good luck with it all.

-- Lori

I'm listening carefully to everyones suggestions and information and downloading everything.
Thanks Equil, Lori, and CompostR.
I'll post a list of what we suggested after we complete the herbaceous plant list today.
I do know that skunk cabbage comes back each year and small patches of trillium. (Good suggestion Equil to ask if someone is propagating from existing plants). There are lots of Spicebush present.
There are a few groups of Birch and I think I heard there was a lot of Beech, but I'll have to check that.

The final list of plant choices are still being adjusted, so I have nothing new to report.

I did find very exciting news online that was confirmed -there will be a Bioblitz of the South Mountain Reservation on June 20-21 this year, 2008. The Bioblitz will be a count of flora and fauna to access the level of biodiversity. We'll have a good working list!

I have been asked to expand my research and add further information on animals,birds, insects, basically what wildlife the plants we are suggesting will support. Since we have a forum already devoted to that subject I will continue this thread on the Wildlife Gardening forum.

Thanks for sharing all this information. The city of Fredericksburg, VA has donated an acre of land in the downtown area to our Master Gardener Group. It will become a Botanical Training area for future Master Gardeners. I know our head extension agent is very interested in sticking with native plants and trees. I'm waiting for his list of trees and shrubs they want to start out with. Evidently the city has a program we may be able to utilize that allows folks who would like to donate money toward the purchase of trees,shrubs and other items in this area to get a tax deduction. It would be a great help in raising money to do the project. Not all that much ground, but the area is just slightly outside the main area of town and hopefully it can become something of a little tourist spot. It's bordered by a fishing pond which is nice sized and has been stocked with trout and catfish. There are some nice looking houses on one side and it ends in a cul de sac. It's going to be lovely when it's done. Most of the maintenance will be done by MGs, so we can get volunteer hours and learn at the same time. I'm really excited about being included in the beginning of this project. :)

doccat5,

That sounds like another wonderful project. It's good to hear about governments getting involved with these things.

Lori