AMHERST — On the outskirts of the town of Amherst near Sunset Drive, hundreds of trees planted in 2015 recently received individual care from a group of volunteers as part of an Amherst tree buffer program project aimed at protecting county streams.
The 575 trees native to Amherst County eventually will become a mature riparian buffer, a vegetated area next to a water resource, and protect 1,800 linear feet along two tributaries of Williams Creek. Such projects seek to protect water resources from pollution, provide shade for aquatic life, promote erosion control, create a habitat for wildlife and promote growth of native trees and plants.
Arming volunteers with wooden stakes and buckets filled with a hammer, spray paint, tally sheets and other supplies, Anne Marie Roberts, Amherst County’s watershed coordinator of the Robert E. Lee Soil & Water Conservation District, recently led several volunteers to farmland owned by Olan Mills and Norma Patteson-Mills, dotted with small trees supported by stakes and perforated plastic tubes.
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Roberts directed each volunteer to be on the lookout for dead trees, loose stakes and weeds around the bases of trees, using tally sheets to mark what they found. Roberts said after the initial planting in 2015, she and a group of volunteers visited the site in the fall of that year for maintenance, making the Nov. 2visit the second time the trees received additional care.
“This is really critical to these riparian buffer projects,” Roberts said. “A lot of these projects will get installed and they don’t get maintained, and the maintenance is really the key to these because you do have wildlife coming in here, breaking stakes, bending tubes, trees die and need to be replaced …”
Roberts said only 48 trees were dead this fall, giving the project a 92 percent survival rate. In March a group will go back to the site to replace the dead trees, Roberts said. Trees planted at the site include black walnut, white oak, black alder and river birch.
James Mills, son of the site’s owners, said in a phone interview the project is important because it keeps the livestock out of the creeks, aids in the retention of water and creek banks and helps regulate the temperature of the water.
James Mills said he helped initially plant the trees in 2015 and has since been back to check on them.
“They’re growing,” he said. “At the start, they were about a foot tall. Now they’re coming out the top of the tubes.”
The plastic tubes protecting the trees are 3-feet to 5-feet tall.
Williams Creek runs through Sweet Briar College’s property and down past Amherst County High School, James Mills said. The buffer project helps with cleaner water and less silt throughout the creek.
James Mills said the mature trees eventually will enhance the value of the land, as whoever owns it can harvest the trees for generations.
Volunteer Denny Patteson said she was part of the group that planted the trees.
“I enjoy environmental projects and that’s part of the reason I’m out here,” Patteson said. “I enjoy agriculture, I grew up on a farm [and] I’m all about preserving land, natural beauty and agriculture.”
Megan Johnston, a conservation education specialist with the Robert E. Lee Soil & Water Conservation District, said she was part of the group that started the project when she was a student at Sweet Briar. Johnston said she can definitely see a difference from the original planting to now.
“I was here when it was first put in place, so it’s very exciting to see the trees thriving and doing well,” Johnston said.
Roberts began the tree buffer program in Amherst County in 2008 and already has seen some of her projects reach the point where the trees are bursting through the tubes. Once the trees reach that maturity level, she said, they remove the plastic and recycle the tubes.
“I established [the program] because I wanted … a program that, even if you’re just a residential landowner [and] you had some land and you wanted to put a riparian buffer in, you could still do that. You didn’t have to be an agricultural producer to do this program,” Roberts said.
The program is a grant-funded, Roberts said. Forestry grants are used for the seedling and the kits and volunteers are assembled to install the trees. While the initial planting is funded through grants, Roberts said if trees need replacing the local Department of Forestry will donate the replacement trees for free. Roberts said the trees used through the program come from the Augusta Forestry Center in Crimora.
When sites are selected for the program Roberts said an initial visit is conducted to understand the landowners’ objectives and to measure the land. She then orders the needed trees throughout the winter, Roberts said, and the planting begins the following March.
“The process happens pretty quickly,” Roberts said.
Roberts said about 55 tree buffer projects are in place in Amherst County, 33 of which are similar in scope to the site near Sunset Drive.
Roberts said the project revolves around the landowners’ objective and can be tailored for aesthetic value. The deadline to sign up for the program this year is Dec. 15.
For more information, go online at releeconservation.com or contact Roberts at (434) 851-7043 or am.roberts@releeconservation.com.