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all,<br>
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.<br><br>
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.<br><br>
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?<br><br>
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. <br>
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. <br><br>
<br>
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.<br>
DanasChineseChestnut: remains of what was a big, beautifully shaped
Chinese Chestnut tree in my brothers yard.<br>
OrchardDriveway: what the 1500 ft. driveway up to the orchard looks
like. The power line is on the ground under all this.<br>
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.<br><br>
<font size=2><i>Brian Clark<br>
42 B Clark Rd.<br>
Ashfield, MA 01330<br>
413-625-2791, cell 507-269-4249<br>
brianeclark@hughes.net</i></font> <br><br>
At 03:29 PM 12/15/2008, you wrote:<br>
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Hi MA-TACF –<br>
<br>
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.<br>
<br>
Thanks and hope all’s well!<br>
<br>
Kendra<br>
<br>
Kendra Gurney<br>
The American Chestnut Foundation <br>
New England Regional Science Coordinator<br>
USFS Northern Research Station<br>
705 Spear Street<br>
South Burlington, VT 05403<br>
Tel: 802.951.6771 x1290 Fax: 802.951.6368<br>
Cell: 802.999.8706<br>
<a href="mailto:Kendra@acf.org">Kendra@acf.org</a> or
<a href="kgurney@uvm.htm">kgurney@uvm.edu</a><br>
<br>
<br>
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