Pearl Goes Seed Collecting

Recently, the MRBA team went to Shelburne Pond to collect Northern White Cedar (Thuja occidentalis) seeds with partners from The Intervale Conservation Nursery, Northwoods Stewardship Center, and other local groups. Although Pearl was not present for this particular adventure, we made sure to tell her all about it when we saw her.

To start the day off, we met at Shelburne Pond and loaded into canoes, kayaks, and a motorized dinghy. In those vessels were buckets, totes, and seed grabbers. With our life jackets on and paddles in hand, we were ready to collect seeds!

Immediately, we noticed that the color of the water was not right. On further investigation, we found that the pond was experiencing a cyanobacteria bloom. A cyanobacteria bloom is a rapid growth of microscopic, blue-green algae ( known as cyanobacteria) in water bodies such as lakes, ponds, and rivers. They are becoming increasingly frequent in Vermont as the effects of climate change continue. In the Missisquoi River, there are not many cyanobacteria blooms found, however, in Missisquoi Bay where the river drains into Lake Champlain, blooms can be found during the summer months. There are on going efforts to reduce these blooms.

Cyanobacteria blooms occur when an influx of nutrients enters a water body, typically after a rainfall and temperatures increase, leading to ideal cyanobacteria bloom conditions. The nutrients include phosphorus and nitrogen and often come from farm lands, lawns, and roadways. Cyanobacteria blooms are toxic to animals (good thing Pearl did not attend) and harmful to humans. It is best to avoid water bodies that are experiencing blooms. Once we all agreed to stay in our boats and give our hands a through washing as soon as the day was over, we set off to get our seeds.

To collect the cedar seeds, we stuck to the edge of the pond and made sure to only collect 20% of the available seeds to ensure the trees were not getting stripped of their seeds. Collected seeds went in the buckets and were put together at the end of the day. In addition to seeds in our buckets, we also managed to collect dozens of spiders each. It seems that cedar trees are a safe space for several local spider species.

The seeds that were collected this day will be going to the Intervale Conservation Nursery where they will be cleaned, dried, and processed. The Intervale Conservation Nursery (ICN) grows native riparian trees and shrubs for conservation and restoration projects across Vermont. Eventually, these seeds will be planted and grow to be trees that will be used in conservation plantings, maybe even some done by MRBA. We work with the ICN and other partners as a part of  Riparian Lands Native Seed Partnership (RLNSP), a network of organizations dedicated to native seed coordination and collection for Vermont.

Thank you to all who made this day possible! It was a fun day on the water. How many seeds do you think we collected this day? P.S. - we missed you Pearl!

Check out some more pictures from seed collecting!