The Bs have it this fall. The riparian forest buffers at our River Farm are 20 years old. The buffers at Whiskey Creek Regenerative Farming are three years old and have survived two consecutive years of extreme drought. Buteos are a genus of raptors with large bodies and broad wings. Thousands of them fly over Rockfish Gap on their migration south. I was there on a record day for seeing Broad-Winged Hawks fly overhead. Something else was there in record numbers: the Spotted Lanternfly. Finally, at our old home, Meadowview, in Swoope, Virginia, the backcross-bred American Chestnut is old enough and healthy enough to produce burs–the fruiting structure that contains nuts.
River Farm Buffers
River Farm buffer 2004. Photo credit David Coleman
River Farm buffer 2024. Photo credit Jeanne Hoffman
I have written about these buffers many times. Now 20 years old, we planted 110 trees per acre and protected them with four-foot tree shelters and turf mats to suppress weed growth around the shelters. Branches from the trees started touching neighboring tree branches in only nine years. This is called tree canopy closure, meaning the buffer is becoming a forest. This did not happen by accident. Maintenance was the key to vigorous tree growth. Suppressing Tall Fescue with herbicide, mowing, and shelter upkeep were critical steps to achieve canopy closure in this short period.
Whiskey Creek Buffers
I worried a lot about the 3,000 trees we planted in December of 2021 at our Whiskey Creek farm. Especially since we’ve experienced two consecutive years of extreme drought. Most of them have survived. The success of these buffers also did not happen by accident. Planting the right tree, in the right place, the right way, and providing persistent maintenance were essential to their survival.
Riparian forest buffer at Whiskey Creek Regenerative Farming in its third year. Photo credit R. Whitescarver
We planted 300 trees per acre and used five-foot tree shelters. Herbicide was used around each shelter for the first two years to suppress weed growth. We mow between the rows of trees each year (after July 15) and relentlessly fix tree shelters, prune certain trees, and try our best to eliminate invasive plants.
We need to plant a lot more riparian forest buffers to improve the water quality of our streams and the Chesapeake Bay. The best marketing tools for the practice are exemplary buffers with vigorously growing trees, no broken tree shelters, and no invasive weeds.
Buteos
Not far from where I live, there is a special place to observe one of the greatest migrations in the animal kingdom. The Blue Ridge Mountains converge at a single spot: Rockfish Gap in Afton, Virginia. Interstate 64 crosses the mountain here. There’s an abandoned hotel where every fall the Rockfish Gap Hawk Watch takes place. Bird watchers from all over the country come to witness the spectacle of thousands of raptors flying south to their wintering grounds.
Broad-Winged Hawk at Rockfish Gap. Photo credit Marshall Faintich
I was there on September 20 when almost 9,000 Broad-Winged Hawks soared overhead. It took my breath away. Hundreds of these raptors, which include Bald Eagles, Sharp-Shined Hawks, and Peregrine Falcons, use thermals—updrafts of warm air created when the sun’s energy heats the rocks in the mountains—to rise thousands of feet and then glide effortlessly south.
A kettle of Broad-Winged Hawks at Rockfish Gap. Photo credit Victor Laubach
Bugs
Sadly, when I arrived at the old hotel this year, there were hundreds, probably thousands, of the destructive, invasive, Spotted Lanternfly. They were everywhere. Dead ones on the sidewalk, live ones on everyone’s clothing; they hung on the walls of the hotel and flew all around us. I had never witnessed anything like it. Thank goodness they don’t sting.
Spotted Lanternflies. Photo credit Shutterstock
Both nymphs and adults have piercing, sucking mouthparts that extract juices from the vascular system of plants that make them wilt and sometimes die. Scientists have yet to figure out an effective treatment. The wave of destruction appears to be heading south.
Burs
In 2015 we planted several Restoration American Chestnut 1.0 trees. One of these survives at Meadowview. For the second year in a row, it’s bearing nuts. This tree is the result of decades of backcross breeding by scientists at the American Chestnut Foundation.
Restoration American Chestnut at Meadowview in Swoope, VA. with a bur. Photo credit R. Whitescarver
Backcross Breeding
Backcross breeding is a form of genetic selection in which a true American Chestnut is crossed with a true Chinese Chestnut. The resulting offspring is selected for resistance to the Chestnut Blight and then crossed back to a true American Chestnut for several generations resulting in the Restoration American Chestnut 1.0 that is 15/16th American and 1/16th Chinese.
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