[MassChestnutOrchards] Ice Storm Damage - Updates?

Tue Dec 16 09:34:37 EST 2008

all,
as Mike described in his earlier note, the storm 
has been quite devastating to the trees above 
about 1200 ft. elevation (primarily on east 
facing slopes) around here.  Most of the farm got 
power back Sunday night, but only because we are 
on the "main" part of Apple Valley 
road.  Branches off of it and higher elevations 
are still without.  Had been busy helping 
managing generators to keep our apple storage and 
related farm buildings going - we still have 
about 15,000 bushel in cold storage and 
controlled atmosphere rooms which require power 
to maintain, and a busy time of year for us 
packing and shipping, due to high holiday demand 
for the produce.  Strains a 100 KW generator just 
to run the minimal set of storage and packing equipment.

I'm sorry to report that the Hawley chestnut 
orchard (at about 1800 ft. and facing SE) was hit 
pretty hard, as you can see in one of the 
attached pictures.  The oldest block (2003) 
sustained most of the damage.  The picture is of 
one of the worst areas, not all of it looks this bad.

It's quite depressing to see, but I know from 
experience that the trees will bounce back very 
quickly.  We had a similar storm in Minnesota 
about 15 years ago that did similar damage to my 
100% American chestnut trees (about the same age 
at the time) which really upset me at the time, 
but the re-growth from their well established 
root system was quite dramatic and within a 
couple years it was hard to tell.  However, I am 
wondering what effect this will have on spread of 
blight in the orchard, as over 20 trees already 
have it.  Will all the injuries dramatically speed up the infestation?

I attached small versions of only a few of the 
pictures I took in consideration of those with 
slow internet connections.  I will try to get 
more of them organized and uploaded to a web site 
soon and will send out a link then.
The devastation starkly contrasts with the breath 
taking beauty of all the ice in the bright 
sunshine, which you can get only the smallest hint of from the pictures.

PumpkinHill:  this is an east facing slope 
directly across the valley from my house this 
morning.  Damage much more visible now that all 
the ice is gone.  This was a dense, full canopy woods.
DanasChineseChestnut: remains of what was a big, 
beautifully shaped Chinese Chestnut tree in my brothers yard.
OrchardDriveway: what the 1500 ft. driveway up to 
the orchard looks like.  The power line is on the ground under all this.
HawleyAppleTrees: In answer to the common 
question about apple trees after an ice storm - 
heavy as the ice is, it is light compared to the 
load they carry when the apples are grown, so 
they seldom suffer any significant damage from storms.

Brian Clark
42 B Clark Rd.
Ashfield, MA 01330
413-625-2791, cell 507-269-4249
brianeclark at hughes.net

At 03:29 PM 12/15/2008, you wrote:
>Content-Type: multipart/alternative;
>         boundary="----=_NextPart_000_00E4_01C95EC9.F8D81D00"
>Content-Language: en-us
>
>Hi MA-TACF –
>
>I know much of MA got hit hard by the ice storm 
>last Friday and wanted to check in on how you 
>all made out.  I’ve heard much of the state is 
>still without power and I hope you are all at 
>least warm and dry!  Please drop me a line when 
>you can to let me know how you, and your 
>orchard, are doing.  It seems some areas were 
>hit much harder than others, and would 
>appreciate hearing from you when you have a chance.
>
>Thanks and hope all’s well!
>
>Kendra
>
>Kendra Gurney
>The American Chestnut Foundation
>New England Regional Science Coordinator
>USFS Northern Research Station
>705 Spear Street
>South Burlington, VT 05403
>Tel: 802.951.6771 x1290 Fax: 802.951.6368
>Cell: 802.999.8706
><mailto:Kendra at acf.org>Kendra at acf.org or <kgurney at uvm.htm>kgurney at uvm.edu
>
>
>_______________________________________________
>MassChestnutOrchards mailing list
>MassChestnutOrchards at masschestnut.org
>http://mrsgale.fates.org/mailman/listinfo/masschestnutorchards
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