ghostsofevolution's video: Florida Torreya Experiments in New Hampshire 2019

Four years of Florida Torreya assisted migration experiments on forested property in southern New Hampshire at the home of Daein Ballard. Video recorded onsite by Connie Barlow, founder of Torreya Guardians, on 18 May 2019. Ballard has a variety of woodland habitats on his property, running from Hemlock Tree Swamp to groves of White Pine, mixed hardwoods on the lower reaches of a slope, dry oak mini ridge top, and open landscapes of lawn and roadway edges. A key part of his onsite experimentation was outplanting potted seedlings near a variety of distinct canopy species. These species included hemlock, red maple, striped maple, white birch, yellow birch, white pine, red pine, red oak, white ash, black cherry, white oak, chestnut oak, American Beech, and American Elm. As is generally known, genus Torreya needs a well-drained landscape — so hemlock swamp (with moss and ericoid shrubs dominant) offered no signs of ability to thrive. The seedlings that perished in New Hampshire's driest summer on record were in the driest habitats. And the seedlings severely pruned back or killed by icing during the winter of 2018/19 were in open areas highly exposed to what Ballard regards was the warmest winter in his experience, but a crazy mix of unusually warm and rainy episodes suddenly followed by a crashing into freezing cold. Might that mix owe to jet stream swings beyond the norm — itself caused by Arctic heating and loss of summer sea ice? At the conclusion of this video, Ballard reflects on the suitability of Florida Torreya for assisted migration as far north as southern New Hampshire. He surmises, "Torreya is probably not going to do well here for now, unless you put it in very particular areas." The webpage on the Torreya Guardians website that provides details and a running report on Daein Ballard's experimentations in southern New Hampshire is: http://www.torreyaguardians.org/new-hampshire.html Future year updates will continue to be added to that webpage. For an annotated list of all the videos pertaining to assisted migration of Florida Torreya: http://www.torreyaguardians.org/video.html The homepage of Torreya Guardians links to information on the natural history of this rare tree, the history of conservation efforts, the controversy over assisted migration of an endangered glacial relict plant, the history of Torreya Guardians actions and experiments, a state-by-state documentation of many of these experiments, as well as a photo-rich tally of what can be learned by onsite examination of horticultural plantings nearly a century old. http://www.torreyaguardians.org/