(Photo collage – Our Riparian Lands crew teamed up with Brooke, fell into a bog, and collected from the Victory Basin Wildlife Management Area during the first week of August.)
Between invasive species removal and building beaver dam analogs, the Riparian Lands Crew has been hard at work staying on top of seed collection efforts by collecting chokecherry (Prunus virginiana). With the help of State Seed Coordinator Brooke Fleischman, and ECO AmeriCorps Member Dana Welch, the crew has collected more than 28 lbs of seeds from seven different sites across the Northeast Kingdom. Chokecherry can be found in many different environments, such as bogs, forest edges, and very prolifically along roadsides.
Once collected, the berries were stored in 5-gallon containers for up to a week before being cleaned and processed. The team used a seed cleaner called a Dybvig, which uses a spinning plate to macerate the berries and wash away the unwanted flesh. Clean seeds were then removed and placed on a mesh screen to surface dry, before being transported to our seed storage area in St. Johnsbury.
We’re wrapping up our chokecherry collections and are looking forward to focusing on finding good collection areas for our cone bearing fall species, such as northern white cedar (Thuja occidentalis), red spruce (Picea rubens), speckled alder (Alnus incana), tamarack (Larix laricina), and the birches (Betula spp.).
Reach out to Jess Colby at jess@northwoodscenter.org if you’re interested in more information or would like to help!
Looking down into our Dybvig machine while chokecherry seeds are being cleaned.
Jake, Alex, and Dana run the Dybvig Seed Cleaner to process chokecherry.
