I live in Northern Virginia (DC Area) and am looking to plant nearly 500 Butternut seedlings over the next 2 years to the west of Wash DC in protected areas. Looking for contributors of nuts at this time. All trees will be GPS located on protected lands / parks. Looking for diversified stock of nuts. Any referral links are welcome Let us save this great tree! 703-286-5067 Please email for address.
Butternuts do not appear to be that common here as it is near the lower end of their range. I am just beginning to track the blight situation and can report back after some meetings / calls to the USDA folks as they are not far from me. Having grown up with Butternut trees in Upstate NY (Penfield, NY outside of Rochester) I appreciate them greatly. My objective is to be proactive with the placement of seedlings west of DC and up the Potamac into MD where the elevation is better for them and the forests will not be raised. Do you know of any sources for a diversified mix of nuts? Ohio trees would make sense given the same latitude as here. Regards, Bob
Hey Bob, I wrote a weblog entry on efforts to find healthy butternut trees for propagation. There were many replies to that weblog entry. Here is a link to it: http://www.botanicalgarden.ubc.ca/weblog/000943.php
Not to dampen your enthusiasm, but perhaps to shift your thinking... Planting from local genetic stock is far, far better than diluting the genes of the resident population with genes from plants in other areas. Spend some time reading back issues of Native Plants Journal to learn more. Secondly, I'd certainly seek out permission from the administrative bodies of the protected areas you've targetted before planting.