The Land Connection
May/June 2021
The Georgia Piedmont Land Trust (GPLT) protects land where you live, work and play.
We protect land that supports healthy habitats where wildlife thrives and people can connect with nature.
Progress Report:
Building Bluebird Boxes

In the last Land Connections newsletter (Mar/Apr), we reported that GPLT successfully applied for a grant from the Gwinnett County Master Gardener Association to build a number of bluebird boxes, provide information about how best to construct them and identify their place in bluebird conservation. Since then, GPLT board members Terry Dempsey and Carol Hassell have been researching and comparing various box designs (plenty abound online), assembling materials and cutting wood to length. 

We decided upon cedar for the exterior since it’s safe for the birds, attractive, easy to work with and long-lasting without any applied coatings or toxic chemicals. Terry has years of experience building bluebird boxes from cedar fence panels, so we settled upon that form as the best option. 

We are using Terry’s cut list to cut the wood to proper size. The important considerations are overall internal space; an entrance hole size that accommodates bluebirds but excludes introduced bird species that prey on bluebirds; predator protection; and appropriate protection from water and weather conditions. A late July workshop with several interested Gwinnett County Master Gardeners will finish the assembly process. 

Most of the boxes will be given to the Gwinnett County Master Gardener Association for distribution to various Master Gardener projects and project sites throughout the county, including schoolyard gardens. Two boxes will stay at GPLT’s Mary Kistner Nature Center, mounted on pipes fitted with effective DIY predator guards as part of a demonstration project. A key element of the project is to call attention to the best ways to assist in bluebird conservation.
Progress Report:
American Chestnut Restoration Project

For the past 30 years there has been an effort to bring back the American chestnut from the devasting blight that began killing chestnuts in the early 1900s and almost totally wiped out all American chestnuts in the native range of the Appalachian mountains. In Georgia, the chestnut restoration project started in the early 2000s with research being conducted at Berry College in Rome.

 In 2013 an initial planting of 22 hybrid chestnuts was done on land owned by the Georgia Piedmont Land Trust. These hybrids are basically 95% American and 5% Chinese which is essential for preventing the blight. There were 3 additional plantings over the next 4 years, the end result: of about 50 plantings, 8 have survived. While this seems to be a high rate of mortality, the seedlings that survived have a chance of eventually producing chestnuts. Also, the plant location has a high occurrence of the phytophthora root fungus which causes high mortality in the Piedmont area of the state.

A planting was done on another land trust property, the Kistner Center in February, 2018. 20 hybrid chestnuts were planted and 12 are currently surviving.

GPLT board member Dale Higdon, a retired Georgia Forestry Commission forester has been overseeing these projects plus two other planting sites, one in Gwinnett and one in Dekalb County. He has just been appointed as the demonstration chestnut forest project manager for the Georgia chapter of the American Chestnut Foundation.

There are many similar plantings across the native range of the American chestnut and more seedlings are being grown in Georgia to plant across the northern section of the state. It is hoped that eventually some of these will grow to a size where they will produce chestnuts and outlive the chestnut blight.
4 year old hybrid chestnut.
8 year old chestnut.
Thomas Heywood, an Englishman who died in 1650, observed that “The world's a theatre, the earth a stage, which God and nature do with actors fill.” It is the purpose of our organization to help preserve the beauty of that stage and encourage others to do likewise for the benefit of ourselves and future generations. 
Junk – What a Waste!!!

Thoughtless – or deliberate – dumping of trash on conservation lands is one of the most difficult challenges any land trust or other protector of these special and irreplaceable lands contends with.

In addition to being unsightly, it’s unsafe. Wildlife suffers or can be injured or killed. The land itself may be polluted. Water can be polluted. Native plants can be damaged. Not only does it detract from the scenic value of forested areas or stream corridors, diminishing their enjoyment for viewers or passersby, but it means that resources, financial or physical, must be committed by the land trust to cleaning up the site. That’s less available for the mission of protecting these lands.

The amount of trash resulting from human activities is growing. We need everyone’s help to stem that tide and take responsibility for properly disposing of junk. It’s everyone’s job. We need your help.
Our land conservation benefits you and future generations of Georgians. Help us continue this important work by donating today.
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Photos Courtesy of Hank Ohme, Carol Hassell & Dale Higdon