The Nature Conservancy - Restoration Advances in the Champlain Valley

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Volunteer to join this crew! Staff and contractors pause for a photograph in the middle of restoration plantings at the Hubbardton River Clayplain Preserve.

More than 8, 748 trees were planted this spring

Many thanks to the volunteers who joined us this spring finish restoration planting at Otter Creek, and who added another 8, 724 trees to the Hubbardton River Clayplain Preserve.

More than 27,000 planted, and just under 60,000 to go!

Since 2004, in the last five planting seasons, staff volunteers and contractors have planted more than 27,000 trees at the Helen W. Buckner Preserve at Bald Mountain and at the Hubbardton River Clayplain Preserve.

Restoring the Forests of the Champlain Valley is no small task.

Focusing on two forest types, clayplain and floodplain forests - planting efforts advanced this spring season with an army of volunteers, staff and contractors.

A shadow of their former glory

Clayplain forests once carpeted the Champlain Valley, and floodplain forests ran along the banks of the valley's rivers unbroken for miles. Mature forest stands at Williams Woods in Charlotte, and LaPlatte Rivermarsh in Shelburne give the visitor a sense of what the valley used to look like.

The Hubbardton and Lower Poultney River watersheds are home to rare stands of clayplain forest that once dominated the Champlain Valley landscape. Clayplain forests are now estimated to exist on only 10 percent of their historic range in Vermont, and only in small, fragmented stands. The small size and isolation of these stands make them vulnerable to a variety of threats, from storm damage to invasions of exotic plant species. With a rich variety of nut-producing trees such as oak and hickory, these forests are a vital food source for game and non-game wildlife.

Efforts to increase the size of remaining patches at two Conservancy preserves reached milestones this planting season. At Otter Creek the final planting of 630 reached the conservation goal of 6,000 trees at this site.

Don't worry you have not missed your chance to help us grow seedlings and plant trees to restore these amazing forests. Conservation plans call for another 60,000 trees from fall 2008 to 2014.

Take time this summer to visit floodplain forests in Shelburne and Richmond, and clayplain forests in Charlotte and in West Haven. And join us in the Fall for the next planting round.