Tag Archives: forest management

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SAFF Invasive Tree Removal

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We trimmed the driveway up to 13.5 feet to accommodate the new tiny house being delivered.

We spent the weekend taking down and processing the large paulownia trees up top in the main clearing. They loomed over the driveway and pad where we decided we’d place the tiny house. It felt like we were dismantling a giant whale carcass. These trees were messy, seedy and dropped limbs off during any storm. They take over native forests and choke out beneficial plants and trees for our Virginia wildlife. They were very fast growing as well which is why we put off cutting them down. They were a big bunch of hard work!

The truck parked in the spot we cleared for the tiny house this Wednesday. It looks so much better without the paulownias. We are pleased with our decision.
The first paulownia tree we cut down earlier in the week and then came over Saturday to cut it into smaller pieces. This was the largest. It took all of our Saturday farm day.
Hole in the middle of the paulownia is not a sign of disease but an inherent characteristic of the Paulowniacea family of trees. It is called pith and creates a water highway for the tree to support its rapid growth. This hollow bamboo structure runs the length of the trunk. This is one way this tree can take over quickly. Similar to ailanthus, Callery Pear, Mimosa and White Mulberry in its destruction of forests in the eastern US. Kudzu in tree form.
The second and smaller of the two paulownia trees we took down and cleared it yesterday (Sunday).
We are going to need a wood chipper!
Paulownia tree debris around the pad. We will find a use for these logs. It is lightweight and fire and rot resistant. We picked a lot of great walking sticks and fishing poles out of the rubble and sorted into useful and non useful piles. We brought the long dead pieces home to use as fire starter. They burn for a long time and are as light as paper. It’s really very interesting wood. Too bad the tree isn’t adapted to playing nice in our environment with its native cohorts.

We stayed focused on creating our space for the tiny house for the most part, but ran down to the old colony pawpaw patch last night just before leaving SAFF for the weekend. The buds are still tightly closed. We are happy with the slow moving progress of the buds as we have only found female flowers out in the wild so far. We continue to look for the older male flowers with pollen. We will use this to pollinate our female flowers when they open. We are watching the pawpaws develop along the Rockfish River on our drive to the farm and we see them covered in buds. They are all still female with green flowers instead of more purple male flowers that face downward.

Female flowers at Edible Landscaping on Saturday in Afton Virginia.

View of the clearing and pad without the paulownias.

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July 23, 2024 Building our first fish scale terrace and a few edible mushrooms at SAFF

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Golden gilled bolete, Phylloporus rhodoxanthus, found along Hawk Trail. Mycorrhizal with hardwoods usually oaks or Beech (both are near where we found these beauties).

Yesterday we went over to do some planting in the rain. It has been raining every day or so for the past week and the ground is wonderfully moist and much greener. All along the trails, we could see white mycelium spider webbing on the forest floor. We created a new garden bed at the bottom of North Trail by laying our tree trunks perpendicular to the slope.

Tulip Poplar trees we took down and placed to help slow water run off and build our first fish scale terrace for planting and water and soil conservation.

It may not seem like much but this is a huge paradigm shift for us as we have imagined fish scale terracing our slopes for the past year and it came together just as we’d hoped. We are eventually making a space for pawpaws. For now, we will have smaller plants. The ground was soft and pliable in the rain. We practice minimal disturbance gardening to improve our soil quality, increase yields and drought resilience as well as increase fertility. So this means we dig as little as possible to keep our soil and mycelium undisturbed.

Chris busy felling tulip poplar trees which have grown up too close and tall in the forest that was disturbed 20 years ago. Many are diseased from not having enough space and light. We plan to use their trunks to construct our fish scale terraces.
King bolete found on South Trail about 2/3 of the way down. The bugs love it!
Blue-Green cracking Brittlegill, Russula parvovirescens, found along South Trail. Mycorrhizal with oak, hardwoods and conifers. Over the past year, we’ve observed these when the weather is rainy and the temperature is in the 80s.

Our new sign gifted to us from Chris’ parents who visited the farm last weekend. We love it!
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July 10, 2024 Heat Wave while battling an invasive at SAFF

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Downy rattlesnake orchid blooming.

It’s been in the nineties, and even though the air feels plenty humid, the ground is baked, cracked and dry. It hasn’t rained enough in far too long with these high temperatures. There have been heat advisories every day this week. It’s crunchy walking underfoot everywhere but the bottom by the waterway. The clearings are mostly brown. The bottom of the slope has a slight bit of water trickling through the stream. We were glad to see that.

Cranefly orchid emerges with reddish brown stems just springing up from the ground. A flower will appear next.

We’ve been battling an invasive tree called Ailanthus or tree of Heaven. We found them last summer in three different spots all up top near the main clearing and by our neighbors to the north. Another name for Ailanthus is Chinese sumac. Differentiation between Ailanthus and our native shining sumac, Rhus copallinum, was a challenge initially with the smaller specimen. However, now we can see the difference between them easily with our practice watching over our forest floor.

Because it is so tenacious by producing an overly abundant amount of seeds, crowding out native species with dense thickets and secreting a chemical into the soil that is toxic to other plants, there are best practices to ridding these trees from your land. It involves a hack and squirt method in the fall when the tree is sending the most nutrients to the root. We did this to all 4 of the larger trees we couldn’t pull out by hand. This year the trees sent up hundreds of root suckers so we are waiting for a good soaking rain to soften the ground and then we can pull them out. We will continue to do this as they grow. Whatever is still alive in the fall, we will hack and squirt again.

Smaller Ailanthus trees root suckering in a circle from the larger tree. These in particular would easily overtake the native trees and blueberries while creating a dense thicket if we don’t stop them. We pulled these out after a brief rain last week.
The roots are shallow spreading and aggressive.

https://extension.umd.edu/resource/invasives-your-woodland-tree-heaven-ailanthus/

Eastern black walnut trees, Juglans nigra, found by the waterway at the bottom of North Trail. We always get excited when we find a new native species.
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June 2,2024 Another Work Day at SAFF

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We culled more black cherry trees from the clearing and broke them down into burnable chunks. These were infected with black knot fungus and burning them is the only way to get rid of them.

Amanita found at Northern side of the waterway. Because this has a cup shaped volva during this stage, it points to section Caesaraea, Vaginatae or Phalloideae.

After finishing our job, we walked down Fern to Ridge Trail and looked for more Black trumpets along the southern set back line. We found a few but left them hoping for rain tonight so they can grow.

We walked through the Pawpaw orchard and were satisfied with how it looked. We are making plans to get more light to these trees. There are hundreds of them as they make root suckers that are clones of the original tree.

We found a baby deer laying by the waterway at the base of a tree waiting for its mother. It was so sweet. Didn’t even lift its head as we walked by. Following directions well and staying safe. We hope mom comes back soon.

A baby deer sleeping in the forest near the waterway and pawpaw grove.
We found these ghost pipes on the northern side of the waterway at the bottom of North Trail. They are pink instead of white and have black flecks. Monotropa uniflora does not contain chlorophyll. It is parasitic to its host fungus, Russulaceae, and it saps food through the web of mycorrhizae.

We are hoping for more rain tonight so the mushrooms will grow.

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May 31,2024 More Eastern Black Trumpets and Ripe Blueberries at St Andrew’s Forest Farm

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Finally we have a few ripe blueberries. They were a tasty snack after we got some work done.

We went out to the farm to clean up a few spaces, look for more black trumpets and cut a trail through the south side. We were able to clear out some tiny tulip poplars and maples, paying close attention to keep any understory oaks as we learned the old oak forests throughout the world have a problem with understory oaks regenerating the forests. We decided we would only thin out diseased or failing oaks. https://youtu.be/NRWHHOAf39U?si=akypzxLUNo_7tOfn

Oaks have strong mycorrhizal https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/agricultural-and-biological-sciences/mycorrhiza connections as well, so we truly appreciate them for a number of reasons. SAFF has older, medium, saplings and seedling oaks all throughout so we aren’t seeing this problem. https://dcist.com/story/23/12/20/dc-local-forests-failing-tree-regeneration/

We were pleased to eat a few blueberries. We found them abundant and ripening first along the southern set back line, where they get plenty of sun.
Eastern Black trumpets
We ate yesterday’s black trumpets for breakfast this morning. We cooked them for 10 minutes on medium high heat in a dry pan, then lowered heat and added olive oil and garlic with a bit of salt and pepper. They were nutty, fruity and smoky. We enjoyed them as much as the golden chanterelles we found last summer. There are no known toxic lookalikes, so these are a great mushroom to forage . Some of our favorite mushrooms we have tasted. We performed some trail maintenance on ridge trail, made our way along the waterway, back over to the set back line and found more today. We harvested the largest and we can’t wait to eat these too. We made a trail up from the waterway to the Black Trumpet patches and beyond until we exhausted ourselves. We will call this Black Trumpet Way, it leads to the set back line.
For now, this is unknown Amanita that we will watch this weekend. Notice the volva underneath the mushroom that it emerged from.
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May 30, 2024 Porcini and black trumpets at Saint Andrews Forest Farm

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One of our first Bolete edulis mushrooms, common names the Cep, porcini, king bolete or penny bun, a most sought after edible. We’d been searching for a year and finally found it yesterday as well as black trumpets.
Craterellus fallax, Eastern black trumpet, found along the southern set back line along the forest edge. Near oaks and nestled into moss growing directly from the forest litter. These are particularly difficult to spot as they look like leaf litter. We are so lucky.
They looked like round tubes. These are a choice edible and are highly valued.
Shoehorn oyster found along Blackrock trail growing on a stick.
Amanita parcivolvata, False Caesar’s Mushroom, we are seeing these all over up top right now. The cutest mushrooms to spot pushing up through the leaves or pine needles with the bright red to orange cap dotted with white.
Ailanthus, tree of Heaven, root suckers we’ve been pulling out from wherever we find it on the farm. This is a wonderful example of why to pull out the roots underneath and not mow or cut them since the root will keep growing and sending up more of this invasive tree that chokes out native species.
Mowing the south end where we found the first of 5 porcini mushrooms yesterday. 👏🏽

We were out to mow and have a work day. It was lovely cooler weather so we got lucky in multiple ways. We mowed the clearing up top, the front along the road and the southern border. Then we went for a little walk and found the mushrooms we’d almost given up hope finding at SAFF. What a wonderful day. We feel like anything is possible if you stay focused and keep going. 😀

We saw plenty of lone star ticks as well. Since we’ve been mowing regularly we don’t see them in the clearings but along our trails we find them on the tippy top of Galium, bedstraw. They hang out with their legs open waiting for an animal to walk by to attach to. We saw plenty of them yesterday. It’s a bad year for ticks here in Virginia. The mild winter weather didn’t kill them off so they are even more abundant than usual. We are staying mindful.

Top of the Bolete edulis.
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May 27, 2024 Memorial Day at St Andrew’s Forest Farm

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So far we have seen plenty of deer ticks, dog ticks and lone star ticks at the farm this year. The clearing seems free of them right now since we keep it mowed down well. In the forest, the wetter and greener areas where deer and dogs are known to move through have been hotspots. Our tick mitigation measures have kept us from getting any bites but we have found them crawling on our socks, shoes and clothes. It’s definitely tick season unfortunately.

Monotropa uniflora, Indian pipe or ghost pipe, found along southern set back line in the forest. These plants get their energy from their host fungus, Russula or Lactarius, so they can exist in darkest parts of the woods. We were delighted to find it at SAFF.
The water was moving gently in the waterway at the bottom.
Great spangled fritillary, Argynnis cybele, were fluttering all around the Southern set back line. Fritillaries are a smaller group within the butterfly family Nymphalidae. All butterflies in this family have tiny front legs that lack claws (in most other butterfly families, the front legs have claws). My daughter laughs at the Seussian names (fritillary, pawpaw, peduncle) of plants and insects from the farm.
Amanita vaginata, grissette, an edible Amanita that lacks a ring in the stem. A large mushroom with furrows around the edge duplicating the gills underneath.
American Amber jelly fungus, Exidia crenata, is edible but we’ve not tasted it yet. Used in pho or noodle dishes.
Black and gold flat millipede, Apheloria virginiensis, found all along the south side. It is reported to secrete cyanide compounds as a defense. It is recommended that one wash hands after handling this organism as the toxic compounds it secretes are poisonous and can cause extreme irritation if rubbed in the eyes. (Source: Wikipedia)
Chris looking for our boundary marker in pawpaw orchard.
Fairy fingers, Clavaria fragilis,
 It produces tubular, unbranched, white basidiocarps (fruit bodies) that typically grow in clusters. 
Maple leaf viburnum
Pawpaws
Flowering lowbush blueberry

We were going to mow but left our keys to the tractor at the house in Staunton so instead we had a lovely walk around. The ground and forest litter was wet from the storms that have passed through. With the heat, it felt very muggy.

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May 24, 2024 Summer Mushrooms are back at SAFF

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Weeping widow, Lacrymaria lacrymabunda, they are not poisonous but they are bitter. They were a lovely find on the driveway up top.
Fly agaric, Amanita muscaria, found along the edges of the clearing up top. They arose from a volva, an egg at the base of the stem. We saw them last year and were waiting for them to come back.
Similar to the Lactarius indigo, this is Calendine milk cap. Found at the top of North trail. It had a blue yellow sheen on the cap with yellow gills. The gills did not lactate when cut. We have so many Russulas. It’s delightful.
Lespedeza procumbens, trailing lespedeza, a native perennial which is a legume, so nitrogen fixing. Found throughout the farm.
Hygrocybe conica along North Trail. These were brilliantly colored on the forest floor.
Hygrocybe flavescens, Golden waxy cap, at the bottom of North Trail as it reaches the waterway, we found this beauty.
Entoloma strictius, were tall, straight and golden, arising directly out of the forest litter along North trail. They appear to have a pink spore print, and the ridge-like gills turn pink as they age.
The Pawpaw Orchard has become a favorite location for us as we clear out small competitors and limb up larger trees. We’ve been learning about how to successfully transplant papaws and we’re working on a long term strategy to produce fruit and trees in abundance.

We have been working on the shed which will house a compost toilet and shower for us to camp luxuriously. We plan to camp in the next month and hope to report back about the wonderful night time adventures at Saint Andrews Forest Farm.

The compost toilet has indoor cladding now.
Freshly cut! We’ve been diligently maintaining our setback line along the Southern boundary of SAFF, grateful for the power of the Husqvarna.
Straight down our south property line. (The electric wire.)
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May 7, 2024 Pawpaws are fruiting at Saint Andrew’s Forest Farm

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After going out on April 27 (a little over 2 weeks ago) and hand pollinating the pawpaws, we were delighted yesterday to see them beginning to grow the tiniest fruit. About 10 trees have fruit forming so far. These were the trees we found flowering and used Q-tips to pollinate. There are at least 100 pawpaw trees down there. We have plans to bring more sunlight into the pawpaw patch and move some of the pawpaws to spread them out. We are beyond excited for these fruits and can’t wait until fall to harvest them. We hope to grow our population of pawpaws and increase their productivity.

Young pawpaw fruit.

The blueberries continue to develop and we find more and more plants flowering and growing small green blueberries. We hope to taste a few before the animals get to them.

We expected to find many mushrooms at the farm since it’s been raining a lot this past week, but we only found these Gloeophyllum along the sunny southern border.

We found this colorful pair of six spotted tiger beetles down by the waterway at the south side. They feed on a wide variety of arthropods and over winter in larval burrows.

Cicindela sexguttata, a common North American beetle.

We continue to pull up and clear out invasive trees as we find them. So far, tree of Heaven, mimosa and paulownia are the invasive species and we find them mainly along the road. We also continue to take down black Cherry trees that are diseased and dying.

We’re taking back our southern border and clearing out overgrown brush. It is so satisfying to cut the tangled overgrown weeds back. We are thrilled with our old Husqvarna.

Brush we are cutting back along southern border.
Pollinating the pawpaws.
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April 10, 2024 Saint Andrew’s Forest Farm

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We had a big day of mowing and cutting back several overgrown areas along the southern set back line. We used our new roads through the forest we’d cut a few weeks ago to drive the tractor over to the southern border. It was a success. Our old Husqvarna tractor is a workhorse.

Viola hirsutula, Southern wood violet found along the south wet weather gully.
Viburnum prunifolium, Blackhaw, found in the wet weather gully on the south side.
Genus Galium, bedstraws.
Terrapene carolina carolina, Eastern box turtle. South side near mayapple colony.
Carya ovata, shagbark hickory. South end of SAFF.
Our first red Russula of the year. We saw many of these last year. There are over 500 species. This was found on the north side of the clearing up top.

We found a few other plants and are looking into identifying them.

We were happy to cut down a few more black cherry trees which had black knot fungus and bag worms. We are slowly taking diseased trees from the farm and burning them.

It was dry out today with rain expected tomorrow and Friday. We hope after a rain with warmer weather into the 70s, the morels may finally pop up. We are on the lookout and can’t wait to get back out there.

Salvia lyrata, lyreleaf sage. Found along the road while mowing. There was a patch of it.