REFORESTING TARRYTOWN
TEAMING UP TO PLANT A FOREST
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By Suzy Allman, TEAC member
A lakeside patch of land, once covered with invasive plants, offered the perfect opportunity to re-plant with native species.
A weedy patch of invasive ailanthus, bittersweet, poison ivy and more is now bristling with native trees and shrubs in protective sleeves (foreground), safe from the Tarrytown deer herd.
In spring 2022, a quarter-acre patch of lakeshore invasives was cleared by the village, making way for a promising new project. Tarrytown Environmental Advisory Council (TEAC) recommended a reforesting of the shoreline, and the Village applied for assistance from Trees for Tribs, a program of New York State's Department of Environmental Conservation's Hudson River Estuary Program.
With trees and plant design secured, volunteers recruited and hole-digging muscle and mulch provided by the Village DPW, TEAC volunteers and Trees for Tribs leaders "installed" a living forest at the edge of this once-forgotten patch of pretty Upper Lake shoreline.
Shoreline trees and shrubs are vital to the health of a lake, as their roots filter out chemical run-off from nearby roads and lawns and stabilize sediment that might otherwise fall into the lake. For the Tarrytown Lakes -- products of unnatural damming that affects a balanced hydrology -- this is all the more important.
An aerial view of the lake at planting time reveals the extent to which green algae grows just below the lake's surface. The new plantings will help filter and contain sediment and chemical run-off from surrounding roads and lawns in the watershed.
Digging, planting, staking and mulching all 200 plants was the work of a weekend (here's a little video). The shrubs and trees will take a few years to grow to the point where the plastic tubes -- protection from hungry deer -- can come off. TEAC will monitor the plants and make periodic adjustments to the tubes, while the village DPW will make sure the plants are watered through the summer growing season.
Volunteers plant, stake and mulch the new forest.
The new forest is an interesting community of oak, dogwood, serviceberry, spicebush, highbush cranberry and more. But I am most enthusiastic about the beach plum plantings. I first tasted beach plum along the Riverwalk in Croton, where they've been planted in abundance and consistently bear fruit in the late summer. These plums are small and very flavorful, tasting exactly like their larger supermarket counterparts.
Beach plums thrive in sandy, nutrient-poor soil, perfect for the little patch we've planted by the lake.
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