There are something like 35,000 green but mature shortleaf pine cones from the Alabama Cumberlands drying in burlap bags hanging in our barn.
Don’t believe me? We are happy for you to do the recount, so we don’t have to.
Thanks to a National Fish and Wildlife Foundation grant we are negotiating, this is the first time in — I’d say — 80 years or more that this many Alabama shortleaf pine cones have been assembled in one place.
And that’s really important. Because these shortleaf cones can kick-start the restoration of shortleaf pine savannas, perhaps the most important missing ingredient in the Southern Cumberlands landscape. If we’re lucky, we may have enough seeds to restore a couple of thousand acres of shortleaf pine from this year’s collection alone, much of which was centered in or near state parks and wildlife areas south of the Tennessee River. Next year, if the weather and shortleaf cooperate, we’ll increase the diversity of our cache, and collect enough seed to restore 10,000 or more acres of shortleaf.
One collects 35,000 cones only with lots of help. Our important collection partners included Alabama A&M’s forestry club, along with A&M projects forester and Fire Dawgs coordinator Jeremy Whigham and wildlife specialist Patience Knight. The Student Conservation Association research interns – who’ve been tirelessly working on the census all summer – worked just as tirelessly on the shortleaf project. And we had big help from the aerial acrobatics chief at Arrow North Tree Service, Bob Mitcham.
In case you’re underestimating what a spectacular feat it is to collect this many seed-filled cones, let me tell you how it’s done.
We didn’t run around picking up fallen cones. Cones on the ground have long since lost their seeds, and are only useful for holiday decoration. And shortleaf pines, more than most pines, are reluctant to shed even old cones, so trees that from a distance look like they’re loaded with cones are simply hanging on to old, dried, seedless cones from years past.
Just so you understand, we collected each cone from its branch, and most cones were collected from high up in the trees, where cone set is most abundant. Yes, it might have been nice if we had a trained squirrel, or a drone with a laser saw. We at least half seriously considered both.
But we have to remove those cones by hand, sometimes 75 feet above our heads. Wouldn’t be any use to climb, since the cones are at the very ends of very long and very flimsy branches. Instead, we purchased specially designed poles that can be extended 30 feet up in the air, and orchard ladders that gave us a little extra elevation. Bucket trucks can obviously be a big bonus when they’re available and can maneuver, and we were fortunate to have the services of a couple of local companies — which is where Bob Mitcham’s aerial bucket dancing came in real handy.
Getting the cones off the tree was a major enterprise, but getting them off the twigs and into 5-gallon buckets (which filled painfully slow with about 1000 cones per bucket) took far longer than anyone anticipated.
And then we had to do it all within the three week period when the cones are fully ripe but still partially green and unopened. Once they open, the seeds fly far, far away.
But amazingly, we did it. And we’re in an even better position to do it next year.
I must add that a few other folks were instrumental in making this happen. Robert Gandy, Alabama’s wisest and most wise-cracking tree seed collector, pulled us out of the ditch on this one, and set us on the road to success. And my old comrades, Chris Blakenship, Director of Conservation with the state of Alabama, Greg Lein, director of State Parks, and Jo Lewis with the Forever Wild program, put me in touch with all the right folks. I am so thankful for their help, and for the special efforts of Parks Natural Resource Supervisor Tasha Simon and Park Naturalist Indya Guthrie, who were as excited as we are to kick off this groundbreaking shortleaf pine restoration project!