June 2010

June 8, 2010 - Post by John Pumilio

Today, I took some photos of the willow plot. Click here to see them.

Here is an overview of what I observed:

• The field was full of weeds/plants including thick growth of wild strawberry, raspberry (in places), wildflowers, some quack grass, and other types of vegetation I did not identify.
• The willow were heavily browsed. It appears the deer are targeting the willow and leaving most of the other plants alone. This creates a double-whammy as the willows are forced to complete with weeds while undergoing selective browsing by the deer.
• The average willow plant appeared to be between 1-2 feet high (a few may have been approaching 2.5 feet.
• The willow were attempting to branch outward (bush-like) but in a few places it appeared single stems were growing. This may be in response to try and out-reach all the competing weeds/plants.
• In some places it was difficult to find willow plants. They may not have taken or they were completely overwhelmed by other growth.

June 8, 2010 - Reply from Dennis Rak to John Pumilio

There was a very good population of willow there this spring when we coppiced. There had been a lot of deer browsing last year but I thought that they could outgrow it this year. I did not expect the plot to be weed free but with the browsing the plants cannot get ahead and shade anything out. Let me ck my schedule, I may have to come up and try to do some mechanical tillage to set the weeds back until the willow gets ahead of it.

June 25, 2010 - Dennis rototilled the plot
Today, Dennis Rak came with his rototiller and uplifted the weeds between the rows that were competing with the willow shoots.
We'll need to apply Stinger in the next week or two to get further deal with the rest of the weeds.
Dennis is concerned about the deer browse (said he has never seen anything like it!) and left us some deer deterrent to spray on the field. Dennis even said deer were eating on one end of the plot while he was rototilling the other.

For more information on the Willow Biomass project and sustainability, go to Colgate's main renewable energy website at: http://www.colgate.edu/about/sustainability/renewableenergysystems