Page 68 - The Hunt - Spring/Summer 2023

About the Races continued from page 30 also provide a barrier against competing
plants. As the trees grow sturdy and large, they burst out of the tubes, which are no longer needed, resulting in the beautiful forests that gave Penn’s Woods its name. The tubes dramatically increase the number of trees that reach maturity.
More than 40 years ago, an unsuccessful tree planting led Bern Sweeney, then executive director of the Stroud Center, to look to colleagues from across the Atlantic for ideas. The first tree tube made its way from England, and the side-by-side method trials that continue to this day began.
The result of that first planting: The trees without tubes didn’t survive that first year due to stressors from water, deer browse and wind. The survival rate among the trees planted with tubes was much higher— closer to 70%. Since those initial trials, planting trees with tubes has been adopted widely as a best practice for afforestation.
As the Stroud Center plants tens of thousands of trees each year in watersheds throughout the tristate area, its research and watershed restoration teams continue
to collect data from side-by-side trials to help landowners successfully plant trees on their properties. Some recent and ongoing studies have looked at the use of stone mulch around the base of tree tubes to eliminate competing plants, newly launched biodegradable tubes, fiberglass stakes in flood-prone areas, and more.
Do you want to get involved in a restoration project? Please reach out to Stroud Water Research Center, which has funding and resources available to help you. By planting trees on your property, you’ll be joining the many people who’ve chosen to protect local streams for your community and downstream neighbors. Remember, as the American poet, teacher and abolitionist Lucy Larcom once said, “He who plants a tree, plants a hope.”
Visit stroudcenter.org/restoration or email buffers@stroudcenter.org.
Productive farms and a healthy environment should not be mutually exclusive ends. Yet sometimes they seem that way. On the one hand, the need for
more food production is unrelenting. The human population is expected to approach 10 billion by 2050, and malnutrition is rampant, particularly in the Global South. “There’s this huge discrepancy around the world when it comes to caloric intake and malnutrition, and studies show that one
of the best ways to reverse those unwanted conditions is providing access to animal protein,” says Dr. Thomas Parsons, Marie A. Moore Professor of Animal Welfare and Ethics at the University of Pennsylvania School of Veterinary Medicine. “That’s the backdrop against which we’re working.”
On the other hand, we know that livestock agriculture is a contributor to greenhouse gas emissions. It’s responsible for 11.2% of U.S. emissions and 10-12% of global emissions, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and
the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, respectively. The emissions arise mainly from fertilizer application, manure management and direct release from
cattle. Meanwhile, land conversions for agriculture promote continued on page 34
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