In mid-January, the Maritime Forest Restoration research team from New Mexico State University (NMSU) and Purdue University (PU) came back to Cannon’s Point Preserve to continue important work at Phases 1, 2, and 5 inside the Preserve. The full crew included Dr. Owen Burney (NMSU), Tammy Parsons (NMSU), Dr. Andrei Toca (NMSU), Braden Dedric (NMSU), Dr. Douglass Jacobs (PU), Tawn Speetjens (PU), Elizabeth Siminitus (PU), Dylan Tridle (PU), and Brianne Innusa (PU).
The team removed fencing and T-posts from previous reforestation phases (Phases 1-2) and followed up on the Phase 5 density experiment. Phases 1-2 were originally established in February of 2017 and looked at the effect of loblolly pine overstory density and vegetation control treatments on southern live oak seedling performance. The four levels of overstory density were: clear-cut, heavy thin, light thin, and non-thinned, followed by two levels of vegetation control (no vegetation removal and 2 years of vegetation removal). A total of 800 seedlings were originally planted in all treatment combinations. This work was part of Dr. Emily Thyroff’s masters thesis at Purdue University and is now published in Frontier in Plant Science.
The Phase 5 density study on the far north end of Cannon’s Point Preserve was part of Brianne Innusa’s master thesis at Purdue University. It was established in March 2020 with seedlings sourced from St. Simons Island and grown at John T Harrington Forestry Research Center in Mora, NM. This experiment looked at the effect of southern live oak planting density (3-meters, 2-meters, 1 meter) combined with two levels of fertilizer and mulch applications at planting. The 4-year results are currently published in Forest MDPI.
The researchers re-visited Phase 5 to manage the vegetation within the fence, re-measure the 720 5-year old live oak seedlings, and conduct a competing vegetation survey within each plot. A new Purdue University graduate student, Elizabeth Siminitus will be continuing the work on this experiment as part of her masters thesis.
FREE LIVE OAK SEEDLINGS
Before leaving the island, the research team dropped off nearly 100 live oak seedlings to our office—each one grown from acorns collected right here across the island. Now, these young live oaks are back home, and we’re excited to share them with our community. Stop by the St. Simons Land Trust office (1810 Frederica Road) during open hours to take home one (or several) seedlings and help grow the future of our island’s forests.