Hello from the Dietz family!
We’re happy to report that we just wrapped up another successful planting season. We planted more than 11,000 seedlings across four of our properties.
In addition to that good news, the seedlings have received a fair amount of rain to get them off to a great start.
The tree species that were planted include white pine, red pine, jack pine, bur oak, and white spruce. Nine thousand six hundred trees were planted by machine; the remaining 1,400+ were hand-planted by two crews. One crew was comprised of our annual professional planters while the other was a group of fun and engaged high school students and their parents. The students were looking for an environmental capstone project and thought TerraTrees fit the bill!
In the forest on the day of the planting, the kids were all-in, having fun and working hard for several hours. When we went out for supper afterwards, they shared that they learned a lot and felt the experience was extremely satisfying. They’d love to return in 10 years to see the growth of their tree groves.
The next step in this spring’s planting plan was installing protective tree tubes which were manually placed on the oak trees to not only act as tiny greenhouses, but also to guard against deer, rabbit, and mouse browse on the delicate seedlings. These tree tubes are held in place with stakes.
UPDATE ON LAST YEAR’S PLANTING
Last fall, we placed tree netting on the terminal (uppermost) buds of all the red and white pines to protect them from winter deer browse. These nets have now been removed for the summer season as the deer have other available food sources. It’s a very labor-intensive process as it all must be done by hand, but it’s worth the effort.
Thankfully, we had very little tree loss with an approximate survival rate of 97%. This amazing survival rate is due to both the tree nets and abundant rain last year. As for the trees that were lost, most of them have already been replanted with new red pine seedlings in their place.
All the plantings look fantastic! Now, we just pray for a nice summer with regular rain showers! See the pictures below for more information.
Thank you to all our forest partners – your support truly helps us continue doing conservation work like this. 🌱
D rows
David walking the rows with Anthony in the tractor.
row
These baby white pines could live 400 years. Think of how the world will change as they stand as silent protectors of our air, water, and nature’s creatures.
tractor2
The first few rows are looking great!
inside tractor 2
Jackson’s view inside the planting trailer.
inside tractor
Red pine and white spruce seedlings ready to be planted.
D Crew 5
All of the areas that were hand-planted with white pine were protected by 8-foot fencing to keep the deer out.
tractor
No one can make straighter rows than Anthony!
DCrew4
The students loved the sights and sounds of the spring forest after a long winter.
DCrew3
The high school crew worked in teams of two.
DCrew2
Break time!
DCrew1
Davies High School crew planting white pine
Davies crew
Most of the Davies high school crew – they were amazing!
GPS
A view of part of our military-grade GPS equipment. We mark every single tree in the field to ~12 inch accuracy. It took Misty 2 days to mark 9,601 trees.
jack pine 2
Another freshly planted jack pine. These jacks are big!
2024 white spruce
Last year’s white spruce seedlings are looking fantastic!
white spruce
Freshly planted white spruce
white pine seedling 2
Another perfect white pine seedling
net success
The deer scat on the ground to the left of the seedling demonstrates why netting is critical to protecting these baby trees until their top buds are tall enough to avoid being eaten.
red pine 2024
An example of one of last year’s red pine seedlings. The terminal (top) bud had been covered with the white netting (on the ground to the right) to protect it from deer browse. It has a little injury (the rust color on the needles) due to winter burn, but it should be just fine.
replant
We had an excellent survival rate of last year’s seedlings (around 97%). But for those seedlings that didn’t make it, we marked with a flag and most of these losses have already been replanted.
oak tubes
Oak tubes in place from last year’s planting
field
A section of the 2025 planting
bur oak seedling
Freshly planted bur oak seedling
jack pine seedling
Freshly planted jack pine seedling
white pine seedling
Freshly planted white pine seedling
red pine seedling
New red pine seedling
