Here's Something Interesting!

18/80

(I'm going to run out of these eventually and need new gifs lol)

~*UPDATE*~

• Within the past few days I have emailed a Mr Enrico Nardone from the American Chestnut Foundation and am awaiting a response from him.  I asked him for some advice regarding tree purchases, planting, SUNY ESF membership, etc.
• I have also contacted the Saratoga Tree Nursery with similar questions.

Okay, hello!

  The other day my mom linked me to some interesting articles via Facebook, and I thought I could possibly present them to you all here on my blog because they are somewhat related to my project, haha; so I figured that I would dedicate the next few blog posts to discussing them.

  Alright, the first one had to do with the Dutch Elm Disease, which is very similar to the chestnut blight.  The Tanners Pond Environmental Center actually has a Dutch Elm tree that I saw the last time I was there back in December.  My advisor showed it to me, and the tree itself had holes all over it, not from the disease but from this bird he referred to as a "sap-sucker" because it ate the tree's sap. Think of it like a woodpecker, almost:

This is the Yellow-Bellied Sapsucker

  Anyways, the Dutch Elm Disease is spread by a bug called the elm bark beetle (eww) which comes from Europe and not from Asia. The chestnut blight originated in Asia.  

The Dutch Elms, like the American Chestnut trees, have suffered major destruction in recent history due to this disease.     

SO, the article was one from the New York State Department of Conservation, and it essentially spoke about how moving firewood promoted the spreading of the disease and the bugs that cause them.  Why you may ask? 

Well, since most are spread by bugs, which are capable of moving from tree to tree, it wouldn't be smart to be moving infected logs around susceptible trees.  That's actually really important, if you think about it, considering that it's extremely valuable to the protection of certain trees from disease. 

This even applies to fungus diseases, like the chestnut blight. 

Article: http://www.dec.ny.gov/animals/28722.html

I don't know, I just thought this was related and wanted to share it.  

Actually, thinking about it again, this also was interesting because it reminds me of those signs you'll see all over town with the people on them that say things like: KEEP OFF THE GRASS FOR 24 HOURS.

THESE THINGS 

  I was told that these were being used to treat for pesticides in the soil.  That, I suppose, is helpful in the protection of the grass as well as the trees.  

  For some reason, this also reminded of the Asian Longhorn Beetle... Which I will do another post about eventually since they just, kinda, came out of nowhere and are killing a lot of trees. 

I thought this was relevant

...

But then people just leave the signs there so you never know when you can actually step on the grass. I think they just do that to keep people away. Oh well.  They always bothered me, but now that I understand I actually think it's smart haha

Okie dokie.  Well, I guess I'll leave this entry off here since I don't have anything else to add. 

See you guys soon. c;

- Elena 

Let's Get Things Started

12/80

Okay, hello!
My name is Elena Fernández, and this blog will cover my journey to completing my Girl Scout Gold Award project! (woooo)
The project is titled Return of a Giving Tree-- The American Chestnut, and my main goal/idea with this is to bring back the American Chestnut Trees to my area and educate my community about the tree itself.
Look at how pretty they are:

I plan to obtain saplings from a grower (some resistant to the chestnut blight and others not) plant them and/or tend for them, and develop a curriculum to educate my community about the tree.  My community would include local schools, my own high school, fellow troops (whether they be Girl Scouts or Boy Scouts), and through events at the Arboretum.
I'm REALLY excited to get this going!

So far this is what I've done:

1. My project got approved last week with a total of 12 hours completed out of 80.
(yay :3  still have a ways to go)
2. I've recently emailed the Saratoga Tree Nursery because one of their members, Mr Dave Lee, is closely affiliated with the American Chestnut Foundation; so I asked him for some advice on where I should plant the trees, where I should get the trees from, and how to tend for them.
http://www.dec.ny.gov/animals/61320.html
3. I've done research for my powerpoint/curriculum and developed it slightly.  I'm planning to make worksheets later this week.
4. I'm thinking of ways to fundraise the purchase of the trees because they are going to be relatively... Costly. (I found a package of SEEDS that was around $300, but the seedlings probably won't be more than that.)

ALSO, I found these really interesting pages on the trees:
http://www.americanforests.org/magazine/article/revival-of-the-american-chestnut/
http://www.esf.edu/chestnut/background.htm <-- I'm going to contact them about blight-resistant trees!
(I'll leave them here for your/my own reference)

I still have plenty to do and people to contact!

- Elena

P.S. I'll update as much as I can!