Office of Planning, Environment, & Realty (HEP)
Planning • Environment • Real Estate
On seasonally inundated wetlands, planted oak seedlings are often washed away by back-water flooding before they can establish a root system. To prevent this from happening on the Spring Creek Wetland Mitigation Site in Carroll County, Tennessee, biologists from the Tennessee Department of Transportation test-planted seedlings by planting the young trees in mounds 2 feet across by 6 inches high. After letting the water in the mound drain, they used a hand-held "dibble bar" to make a hole for the seedling. In some cases, when water didn't drain from the mound, they made the mound higher by adding dry soil. Most of the seedlings survived, and in a few years the site's deer, turkey, squirrels, possums, mallards, and other animals will have plenty of acorns from the planted oaks.
--Apr 25, 2003
